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Car happily cranks, but will not fire?!

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Old 01-14-08, 11:39 PM
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Car happily cranks, but will not fire?!

I just finished swapping the engine out of my old 86 base into my 86 GXL.


Chapter 1: What I've tried
The engine ran great before I pulled it. Car cranks over with good speed, but doesn't even fire once. It smells like gas afterwards and the plugs are wet. If I pull the plugs out of the engine and ground them on the frame, they spark.

I tried spraying some ether into the throttle body. It fires once or twice, and then nothing. The pops are intermittent, not consecutive...it's just the ether.

The battery was kind of dead, so I used jumper cables and hooked it up with a known good battery. Engine then cranked nice and fast, but still did not fire. Battery is on the slow charger now.

I tried de-flooding twice. The first time I used ATF, the second time I did not. Both times I hit the plugs with a propane torch to dry them, cranked the engine with the gas on the floor and the EGI fuse pulled and then tried starting it again.

Using a timing light and by pulling the plugs, I can tell that at least one plug on each rotor is firing. Assuming the plugs fire half as many times as the pulses I hear out the exhaust, I know at least one plug is firing at the correct intervals....either way, it should be enough to ignite at least one face!


Chapter two: Possible causes?!

-There is a few gallons of old gas left in it. I drained some out and it appears to be good. (smells great, goes POOF when you toss a match in it...haha). I added probably a little too much premix and about 3 gallons of good gasoline and ran the fuel pump for awhile to mix it all up.

-Warning beeps:

After I turn the key to ON, I get two beeps repeating. If I leave the key on for awhile, the car flatlines...beeper comes on and does not turn off.
2-beeps, pause, repeat - in case abnormality of engine speed signal:
The buzzer sounds twice and repeats when the vehicle speed signal is missing input and/or no engine speed signal is found (short circuit, broken wire, etc.)
I haven't touched the CAS at all since the engine ran last. It is plugged into the new harness. The tachometer works fine. The power steering computer is still plugged in, I think.

-I just realized that when Ichecked the spark, I grounded it on the coil pack...but I don't see why the block should have grounding issues? Spark plugs wires are connected as follows:

T1 T2
L1 L2


Chapter 3: Other helpful information
Here's what I am re-using since the car ran last:

Engine block
Wiring harness (attached to engine)
Spark plugs and spark plug wires.
Stock CAS with stock timing that ran great on the other engine.


Here's what I have changed:
S5 Intake manifold
Emissions delete
Different coils
different ECU
new chassis/fuel pump/fuel lines/fuel filter
Blocked off OMP
New ignition switch
Swapped from power rack to manual rack

Chapter 4
Your turn! What stupidly obvious thing am I overlooking? Why do I get two beeps before I even start cranking?

Last edited by The Shaolin; 01-14-08 at 11:54 PM.
Old 01-15-08, 12:20 AM
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Something else I forgot to mention: Plugs are in questionable shape, but they are sparking when I have them out of the housing. Previous dumbass owner was running 4x BUR7EQ's...all leading plugs. It ran fine all summer with these plugs and I have new ones to install once the engine starts.

Can someone explain the timing signal a little better? I don't know why it's beeping, the tach bounces.
Old 01-15-08, 03:17 PM
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Seriously? Nobody?

Why don't I get responses to my threads? Is it because I use the search engine? Or because I can type properly? Or maybe because I give all the necessary information?
Old 01-15-08, 03:59 PM
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Unfortunatly I don't have much to add other than that the same thing is going on with the S5 NA I just picked up, same symptoms and I've tried the same things you have... I'll be watching this thread, hopefully someone will chime in!
Old 01-15-08, 04:48 PM
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Two beeps explained here by ICEMARK: https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...ight=TWO+BEEPS

The no start. Try this for unflooding etc. Remove the elect plug from the fuel pump. Do NOT remove any fuses. Now with a fully charged battery, spray starter fluid in the snorkel for only about two seconds. No more needed. Try starting the thing.

Still no start? Try putting common motor oil in the the rotors via the lower sparkplug holes. Rememeber, you need to rotate the crank one full turn after putting the oil in. Do that three rotations so all the rotor chambers get oil. Then try the above once again.

I suggest this method because your not disabling the spark this way. Only the fuel. No fuel pump pumping means it can't flood any more than it is already but you have spark to help clear the engine.

Still no start? Shoulda. Got spark. The cas has not been moved. Gotta be low compression for one reason or the other, hence the oil in the chambers.
Old 01-15-08, 05:05 PM
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so it's assumed that everything is okay, but the engine is just flooded badly?
Old 01-15-08, 06:08 PM
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Tried starting fluid 4 or 5 times to dry it all out and then plugged the fuel pump in. I kept trying to fire and eventually I got it running for about 5 seconds!! I had to keep the gas down about halfway and it died right after that and I couldn't get it started again.

I'll try starting it again after supper and then I'll start looking for a vacuum leak...lol
Old 01-15-08, 07:10 PM
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Hurray for talking to myself.

I found some open vaccum nipples on the dynamic chamber that I didn't cap for some reason but the car still dies immediately after starting.
Old 01-15-08, 08:11 PM
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Exclamation

i had that same problem for a while it could be as easy as remove your connector for your fuel injector which is located underneath the steering column and then putting the gas to the floor to clear out the cylinder or i have a problem which i never figured out but i sprayed a lot of starter fluid into the air intake and after a while of turning it over it finally fired and it hasn't given me a problem since
Old 01-15-08, 09:15 PM
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Deflood the **** out of it.Shaolin..if you have been trying to get the Car to fire up on the SAME plugs,Change them out..I Did a Swap out,Turned out to be a CAS so far out of whack,it could have ran a Rotary in ALASKA!..the plugs were Fouled up from this.I changed them.along with aligning the cas and She Started up..AT 6 GRAND!!!..ZOOM!,friggin ZOOM!,but she started!..anyhow.Plugs,my friend..try that.STYX.
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