I think I got hosed

[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?

[Ryann]

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

[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

[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!

[Ryann]

Verify that your vibration damper is in the correct position at TDCC 1.

[e30Troop]

Yes, everything is correct, I have approximately 500 ohms resistance thru the CPS. I have voltage at the coils but I am obviously not receiving the signal to send the voltage to the spark plug. The fuel pump primes for 3 sec with key on engine off and pressure immediately rises in the rail to like 50PSI. The injectors are spraying away when cranking. I have no spark. Why would I have NO spark? I'm seriously about the sell this car to the junkyard. I have been trying to get it to start for over a month. PLEASE somebody help.

[nando]

do the coils have power?

[e30Troop]

I have power to the coils. I do not know how to test the signal line that tells the coils to fire. Remember, this car ran well just before the water in the dme. I don't wAnt to overthink it that it is something mechanical like timing, etc... It has to be related to this "new" used dme that is in there now or something related that the corroded dme may have fried

[e30Troop]

Time to try another DME? Any other suggestions?

[jrockbk]

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

What do you mean by this, what was transferred over? From what I understand with ews the DME goes with the ignition key and other things, so I would assume that if ews is still intact that no DME will run car except the one it had

[e30Troop]

When the p/o did the swap it must have been a harness from a car with ews. The ews module and key with antenna ring are under the dash onthe driver side. Many people have told me though that by running a red 413 that if there was any ews, that dme doesn't look for it.

[jrockbk]

When the p/o did the swap it must have been a harness from a car with ews. The ews module and key with antenna ring are under the dash onthe driver side. Many people have told me though that by running a red 413 that if there was any ews, that dme doesn't look for it.

So what did you get from mrslacker? If it was a red then that's what I have your still welcome to try though

[e30Troop]

I got a red from mrslacker. I got the car running today. I don't know if maybe it was warmer weather or what. I replaced all the spark plugs with cheap $2 autozone ones and cranked for about 20-30 sec with gas pedal to the floor and she caught and ran. When it started, it ran and idled so damn nice. Car drove real strong. After about 10 miles though it started breaking up at higher rpms like it was starving for fuel.

[catalyst.]

running lean?

[e30Troop]

That's what I'm thinking. It has a euro 3.5 HFM. Original dme had a TMS chip for it. This replacement is running a stock chip. Once I correct the 20-30 sec crank I'll worry about getting a new chip. I'm just glad she ran at this point.