All the pullies look fine.

Took the manifold off today and unbolted the fuel rail. Placed the ends of the injectors in some bottles and turned the pump on. Injectors are not leaking, but that doesn't mean they are not sticking during operation and staying open longer than they should.

Pressure regulator has been fixed. The screw in the middle of it was backed almost all the way out. I tightened down until I could feel pressure on the spring and turned the pump on again and Voila! 70 psi.

The pump has no clue what kind of regulator its hooked to and it doesn't care what it is as long as it does its job. The factory regulator will work just fine with a walbro. All an aftermarket regulator will do is allow adjustment and take another chunk out of my wallet I don't have.

 

Well I believe I stuck my foot in my mouth with my last post about the regulator. In my head it didn't make since why the OE regulator couldn't regulate the pump, it just wouldn't get full use out of it. Little did I think that the Walbro could actually over power the OE regulator and keep it open preventing proper fuel pressure. Took me sticking my foot in my mouth, replacing the regulator with another OE used one AND another OE new one, all with the same results.

I have a couple people looking to see if they can get a deal on an aftermarket regulator, if not I will suck it up and get one at full price. I do believe once I get the proper pressure on this it should run again.

 

Back to square 1. I have gotten a new adjustable pressure regulator and have fuel pressure, had it running for a second before it died and now not even trying to start, just flooding it out.

Anyone want to buy a SE? I really need this thing going as my other car needs to be parked asap.

 

Tried using some ATF to see if that would help out and wasn't able to get it to actually fire up unless I unplugged the fuel pump. Once I did that it fired and ran for a few seconds smoking like crazy as expected, but once I plug the fuel relay back it, it dies and will not attempt to fire.

I need some ideas here guys. I would think if it could fire up and run, it should have good compression, but everyone is telling me if its flooding straight away the apex seals are stuck and you have no compression. If this was a standard combustion engine, I would have had this thing running long ago. Currently I'm just torturing myself trying to get it running. I really am so mixed on whether to keep fighting it and get it going, or sell it and get parts for my current car. I think I would really enjoy this car, but the question is "Is it worth it?"

 

Your car looks great, absolutely it is worth it. Sorry to hear of all your troubles. Sounds like you are close. Try the un-flooding procedure for the SE. Pull the plugs, blow out the crap, etc. If it ran until it was out of gas before, then it may be flooded.

 

I've been through the unflooding procedure several times and everytime it floods right back out.

 

Low compression. Pulled the schrader out of my compression gauge and 75 psi was max on both rotors. Yay me!

 

Sell it to me lol. I have a perfectly good SE motor here just waiting for a straight body.

 

If I don't get it running this weekend, I most likely will sell it. I've been soaking the seals in ATF this week and calling a friend over to see if you can pull it and get it started.

 

the car should start on 75 psi...I have turned on engines running on one rotor and low compression in the other....fuel injectors might be bad.......I bet if worst things worst you put a carb and low pressure fuel pump, the car will run if you want to ditch the system....

 

<------Also selling a (118/118/118)(121/117/117) compression 12A with a stock port and new rb 465+fuel pump....

 

Part of me wanting to sell it if it doesn't run this weekend is I don't want to throw any more money at it. We will see this weekend.

 

Pull starting did not work. I did however hear it run the longest its has ever ran since I got it...because I was sitting in the passenger seat connecting and disconnecting the fuel relay to keep it going and someone else was flooring the throttle.

I have one last thing I want to try if I can find someone to loan me an ECU and possible a set of known good injectors. I've replaced the injectors already, but they were unknown from a box of "good" race parts. These are the last 2 pieces I have not replaced with new parts and its still flooding out right when you hook up the fuel pump at 50psi. I would like to try to at least swap out the ECU for a known good one to see if thats it and if it is, I'll drop the money to get a new one.

After taking the car out of the garage, I do really want to get this car going because it has grown on me and a great looking car, but at some point you have to draw the line and its approaching very quickly.

 

did you check your exhaust by any chance to see if it was clogged up???????? also I haven't seen anybody talk about the variable resistor which is the lean/rich screw next to where you hook up your TPS connector.... People will mess with that at get it out of adjustment and next thing you know, your car is running too rich.....Also on another note, is your throttle-body clean??? Not gunk up?

 

Haven't checked the resistor, intake is completely clean, exhaust is clear as best I can tell.

 

if you can disconnect the cat, you can see if you have raw gas going through or if the cat is clogged up...disconnecting it and turn the car on to see if it stays idling, it will be loud but you would know....

 

I will try disconnecting the cat this weekend, hard for me to do stuff during the week.

I did take my stethoscope out and listened to the injectors while cranking over with the plugs out and they are getting pulsed, doesn't seem like its a fast pulse, about a second or a little less, but they are getting pulsed. The rear one was a little harder to hear than the front one, which neither was easy to hear, I think do to location.

After I try disconnecting the cat, I think my next step is to get the injectors cleaned. After that, find someone local with an ECM I could borrow real quick.

Couple other questions I need some help on:

1. Timing: How can you check the ignition timing on this without it running? I also can only assume it has a "crank position sensor", know a way to test it and where is it?

2 Headlights: I've known about this for awhile, but have been focused on getting the car running first. I can turn the park lights on, but can't seem to get the head lights on. I have not checked the tail lights yet. I can however pop the hood and turn the adjusters until they bottom out and they will open and close the headlight real quick. This tells me there is power getting to the motor and the motor is good, but as with the engine, I'm confused why they are not working. Any common things to check on this?

 

Nice project

 

The compression is too low. Its always going to flood, and if you ever do drive it that engine wont last long. Theres no point in trying to get that engine to run good because its only gonna run for so long anyway. I speak from experience..I wasted a ton of time on a car before I figured it out the hard way.

 

Mike: Thats the first time I have heard this, so I will keep at it. Currently don't have much of a choice as my other car has now started knocking.

Went to Pull-A-Part today and picked up some GM Ignition modules and some Ford coils to upgrade the ignition system. I know the current system does have spark, but I do not know how strong it really is. Since I have already tried everything on the fuel side, lets see if a direct fire setup will help.

 

Getting ready for the direct fire setup, got templates for the brackets I will make at work. Mounting the 2 TFI coils off the shock tower right where the factory coils are at. Trailing coil is staying in the same place, but the bracket will be trimmed to allow room for the other 2 coils. HEI modules will be mounted on the right(engine) side of the shock tower. If I can get a dead ignitor to gut, I should be able to pull this off without any wiring running to the distributor and the only factory part of the harness I will have to modify is the coil side connectors on the factory leading coil.

I did also learn that the leading coil that was in it was an Accel Super Stock Coil that was measuring out of spec, only reading 6.5k ohms on the secondary where it should be 9.2k ohms. So its possible I have been chasing the wrong problem all along. Anyway the injectors were sent out late last week to get cleaned and that will knock out everything on the fuel side minus the ECM.

 

TFIDLIFS Ignition Setup installed....and it runs!!!

Still got some things to tie up before I can get it on the road, still trying to get someone over with a 7 to look at to see how some things are ran.

 

Well...now back to not making any sense. It still fires up right off...but if you disconnect the leading coils, no change. I'm getting no spark to my leading plugs and yet now the thing runs.

 

Oh my, just read your entire adventure. Wow, way to hang in there. Is you paint code VG? The pic looks the same as mine. All the way across the country, two identical SEs. Just love mine, your going to be an SE expert.

 

It has been an adventure. If it came down to rebuilding or replacing the engine, I would have tossed in the towel on it.

I do have it firing on all 4 now, but timing is off so I have to get that straight.