Driving home the other day on low boost (3-4lbs), I managed to somehow blow out my spark plug valve cover seals. Yes, to clear things up, my crankcase is vented. One happened a few miles from home and the other about a half mile, so I limped her home on 4 cylinders. My gaskets were almost brand new, so when I had the time, I took off the valve cover, re-seated everything, and put some RTV in the trouble spots along with the spark plug seals. Upon reassembly, the car would not start.
The car will start for about a second and die out. I would have liked to believe it was an easy fix, but apparently not. If I keep my foot on the throttle at least 50% pedal travel while starting, the revs shoot up but the car dies immediately after. So I borrowed a TPS from another local to test if that was the problem, same symptoms. I also plugged in his ECU for the hell of it, still the same symptoms.
After surfing the web, I suspected that the coil pack ground was not sufficient since I had cleaned up and painted my valve cover when I had it off. Even after cleaning the grounding surfaces, no start.
My battery did spark a bit when I reinstalled it after the valve cover job (vert batteries are in the front, much easier to completely remove it) so I thought I may have blown a fuse or possibly the main relay or fuel pump relay since they didn't look in the best condition. No fuses were blown, and I cleaned up the relay terminals and even bought a new main relay, still no start.
At this point I began to think I may have messed up something internally on the way home, so I ran a compression test and got beautiful results.
192-187-188-186-190-188
So I ruled out any internal issues.
After this I thought I should test the coil packs for kicks and found all to be 1.0-1.1ohm, even though the Bently suggests .8, my assumption was that my multi meter was just a tad off. I even pulled the coil packs and plugs out to test them and of course, all were firing.
These results still lead me to believe I have a fueling issue, ironic since my original problem was ignition. While testing the coil packs I noticed that I had a decent size fuel leak at the fuel rail feed side, so i fixed it believing that low fuel pressure could've caused my issue, still no start.
I am led to believe that I still have a fueling issue. My fuel pump DOES prime occasionally, so I'm thinking maybe it's dying? However when I jump the main relay and fuel pump relays, the pump doesn't prime.
My final thoughts are that I have a dying fuel pump or fuel pump relay, and I'm totally unsure of how this could've happened from a valve cover job. Normally I try to avoid asking for forum help, but it's been almost two weeks and I'm starting to get frustrated after at least 10 hours of trial and error. If there's anything you guys think I may have overlooked, I'd love to hear it because I'm all ears for anything at this point. Hopefully we can get her back on the road soon and crank up the boost!
Thanks much,
Neo
The car will start for about a second and die out. I would have liked to believe it was an easy fix, but apparently not. If I keep my foot on the throttle at least 50% pedal travel while starting, the revs shoot up but the car dies immediately after. So I borrowed a TPS from another local to test if that was the problem, same symptoms. I also plugged in his ECU for the hell of it, still the same symptoms.
After surfing the web, I suspected that the coil pack ground was not sufficient since I had cleaned up and painted my valve cover when I had it off. Even after cleaning the grounding surfaces, no start.
My battery did spark a bit when I reinstalled it after the valve cover job (vert batteries are in the front, much easier to completely remove it) so I thought I may have blown a fuse or possibly the main relay or fuel pump relay since they didn't look in the best condition. No fuses were blown, and I cleaned up the relay terminals and even bought a new main relay, still no start.
At this point I began to think I may have messed up something internally on the way home, so I ran a compression test and got beautiful results.
192-187-188-186-190-188
So I ruled out any internal issues.
After this I thought I should test the coil packs for kicks and found all to be 1.0-1.1ohm, even though the Bently suggests .8, my assumption was that my multi meter was just a tad off. I even pulled the coil packs and plugs out to test them and of course, all were firing.
These results still lead me to believe I have a fueling issue, ironic since my original problem was ignition. While testing the coil packs I noticed that I had a decent size fuel leak at the fuel rail feed side, so i fixed it believing that low fuel pressure could've caused my issue, still no start.
I am led to believe that I still have a fueling issue. My fuel pump DOES prime occasionally, so I'm thinking maybe it's dying? However when I jump the main relay and fuel pump relays, the pump doesn't prime.
My final thoughts are that I have a dying fuel pump or fuel pump relay, and I'm totally unsure of how this could've happened from a valve cover job. Normally I try to avoid asking for forum help, but it's been almost two weeks and I'm starting to get frustrated after at least 10 hours of trial and error. If there's anything you guys think I may have overlooked, I'd love to hear it because I'm all ears for anything at this point. Hopefully we can get her back on the road soon and crank up the boost!
Thanks much,
Neo
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