I think I got hosed

[e30Troop]

Any other ideas as to why it doesn't start?

I have fuel pressure, fuel injection, but no spark.

The car has the ews system transferred over from the engines donor car. I have a replacement red label dme with stock chip.

It appears I have voltage TO the ignition coils. The 3 wires, when key on engine off I have 12.5 volts. When cranking I have about 10.6 volts. I ohmed the brown ground wire from the coil connector to the ground at the harness end by the vanos solenoid and I have about .6 ohms.

I removed all the spark plugs and cleaned them.

I got in contact with the p/o and the only difference with the dme is he had a chip from TMS for the larger euro hfm, when I looked at the part number for the chip, it was indeed only that, no ews delete. TMS part number 4131-3001.

Only reason I have not put that chip in was that it was wet and showed some nastiness. I cleaned it up but fear if I install the chip in my new dme it may do harm.
Anyone in the warwick ny area that may want to help is more than welcome!

[e30Troop]

Yeah the braided ground strap is in place and good and the ground that comes out of the harness to the front of the engine is also secure

[Ryann]

Is your valve cover ground strap intact/valve cover grounded well? If no your coils won't fire.

[e30Troop]

No spark, removed coil an plug, grounded plug and cranked-no spark. Plugs appear to be ok, but wet from fuel. I removed coil plug and cranked, I had battery voltage present. I ohmed the coil and approx .8 ohms. Do I she'll out $100 bones on a hunch it could be spark plugs??? Why the f would spark plugs be my culprit at this point?

[e30Troop]

Well I purchased another red label 413 from a member and to my knowledge, ews wouldn't be a concern right? There is a leak and the p/o had the dme just sitting in the glovebox so that's how it got wet. I just don't get why it will crank, I have fuel pressure again finally, the injectors are pulsing because I had the rail out an visually watched them....but it will not spark. The dme directly controls spark right? If ews were enabled would I have fuel injection and no spark?

[nando]

could EWS be enabled?

where's the DME installed? I can't imagine how you'd get water in the glovebox.

[e30Troop]

Please help.... 45 psi fuel pressure, injectors firing..car still not starting.

[e30Troop]

Alright, for those who haven't read my previous threads, I had a working, driving lovely e30 s50 swap. One day, crank no start, no fuel. Dme had water ingress. Replaced dme with a new red label 413 stock chip, I now have fuel, pulled rail, when engine is cranking, injectors are firing but still no start. I am so fed up with this car I am blanking out and don't know what to check. It seems obvious it's a no spark condition but I didn't have my spark plug socket on me. Wtf can I check an how can I check for spark? Thanks

[e30Troop]

Ahh, I thought it should prime. Ok. Well I will check for that as well as fuel pressure. If I'm not mistaken it should be about 35-45 psi cranking and running. During cranking I pulled the feed line from the pump to the rail and fuel is coming out of the outlet side of the pump, I just don't know what the pressure is until I borrow my friends fuel gauge. Thanks for everyone's input. I'll update after I figure out pressure.

[Ryann]

Just wanted to clarify in case it'll help.. what Luke said about the fuel pump not priming until the engine is cranking and sees a good CPS signal is true for the original e30 Motronic systems but is not true for 3.1 and 3.3 systems that are original to the 24 valve engines. Because you're running the 24v system the fuel pump should in fact prime as soon as the key is turned to the 'run' position. If it doesn't you need to figure out why.

[e30Troop]

That is a good write up, but check my thread of the fuel system in my car, it's just a fuel sending unit in tank and the high pressure pump under the car.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=312633

Can I do the walbro pump to the pump under the car?

[omarquez510]

Take a quick look at this thread

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=134915

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[omarquez510]

I would verify that you don't have a pump inside the tank. pop the rear seat off and take a look under the cover. Throwing a pump at it may not fix it.

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[e30Troop]

My car is weird, it's a euro 1986 318, only one pump under the car. So I can use a walbro 255 as a good replacement?

[omarquez510]

Your vehicle has two fuel pumps. 1 inside the tank and one mounted underneath the vehicle. The one in the tank is a "transfer pump". The sending unit sock or transfer pump may be causing low fuel pressure. Walbro 255 is always a decent aftermarket upgrade.

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