m42's are new to me. Questions about no start

[rede30]

I bought a non-op 318i, now I am spending a little time with it to get it started. I have spark and fuel. I am not sure if I have enough fuel pressure yet but I will know soon, I have spent about 30min on this car. Here are some questions:

If I have spark and fuel can this rule out CPS, DME?

If the chain slipped would the car crank normally but not start?

*edit: cams line up but crank is not lined up with cams. chain must have slipped.

[grantlacey11]

well does it sound like the engine is cranking? is it trying to start or what??

[DPIN]

You can test the CPS. Put a multimeter on the connectors pin 1 and 2. It should read between 1150 and 1410 ohms.

Do a stomp test also.

Like Grantlacey11 said, is it trying to start? Does it start and then rought idle?

[rede30]

The beast is putting no effort into starting. No rough idle no nothing, just cranking. I will check things when I have some time but before that I was going to gather up some insight here.

[White325is]

You try starting fluid to get it going? I have a 94 e36 with m50 that won't start with out a spray of starting fluid.

[EN318isPDX]

Check your fuel pressure, id guess either fuel pump or filter is clogged.

[DPIN]

You said on the first post you had spark and fuel. How did you test the fuel pump?
En318isPDX is right. That's where I would start.

Disconnect the plug for the fuel pump. Put the multimeter to the connector tips, try to start the car, and check if you get 12V's.

[DPIN]

Just in case...Fuel pump is located under the rear seat. You have to take off the plate on the right hand side.

[KenC]

You're going to wash the cyl walls down if you crank too much. Let them dry and do a compression test. Pull the valve cover and verify timing as well.

[Falcone]

I just bought a non running e30 as well.Mine is running now, had the exact symptoms you're having. Would crank for days. I put my spare volvo 850 fuel pump in, and now it works.

Try pulling your pump relay, middle orange one on the firewall in the engine compartment. Pull it. Shove a thick ass strand of wire into pins 87 and 34. Try and start. If it doesn't, its the pump.Pull it, hook it upto a power source, I gotmine to pump, but it wouldn't keep running. Pull one from the jy, put into e30 housing, golden. Good luck

[rede30]

Spark to each cylinder. Fuel pump is good. Injectors are good. We pulled the rail and hooked up the lines and watched the injectors fire. They all shot strong to the naked eye. They also all shot simultaneously, I would guess they are supposed to not shoot at the same time, right? Compression is still a slight mystery because we cranked the car a lot before we checked it but after we added some oil to the cylinder we got 200+. Supposedly this car was running fine and died when it came to a stop sign. (sounds so fuel pump)

Tried to check timing but it is a little hard. The two sprockets have those little arrows and they seem to be pointing up at the same. Also, the teeth on the sprockets look great, not worn. Can I really tell if the chain is bad or if it slipped?

We poured oil onto the pistons and this boosted the compression enough to were the car would slightly start; never hold an idle but at least come to life in some way.

So now I know it has to come down to spark timing, fuel timing, general engine fail/valve train timing.

[rede30]

This motor is out of time. When I put the crank at tdc the two sprockets are both at 9o'clcok. The cams seem to line up the same. So does this mean the chain slipped on the crank sprocket? What would teh status of my valves be?

[rede30]

thoughts?

[DPIN]

Sounds you will need to rebuild some of your timing components. Not sure about valves. You'll have to pull the head out and inspect. Find a good machine shop... Don't go cheap if you are going to have the head rebuilt!

Take off the oil pan. See what you find in there...

[rede30]

When I went to rotate the motor the 22mm crank bolt rotated a few full rotations. lol.