Head Gasket done - no start (1 Viewer)

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musthave

Doc says I'm 1 in 120K. Lucky?
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The dreaded no start after head gasket is done. 1 dot lined up in center on install. Here is a picture of the distributor alignment.

After no start, inserted a dowel and verified that at TDC (0) that cylinder is up fully. So, I don't think it's a distributor this time.

What I do notice is that everyone says the rotor points to 1, but it really looks like it points to 5 to me.

Fusible links are good grounds are good, starter is good, alternator is good, has a new Fuel Pump Relay, and new EFI relay. I get a good solid crank, but no start.

It's raining so I can't do much more today.



distri.jpg
 
I'm no expert on this but it looks to me as if the tip of the rotor is off (if you are at the fully seated position).

Did you watch Otraam's video?

 
It's got to be off. Easy enough to change, hopefully that's it.
 
You are off one tooth.

You need to rotate the rotor as you are installing it. It is a helical cut gear. It need to point to the edge of the plug on the dist.

Also you said you put a dowel down the spark plug hole and the piston was at the top. You could also be on the exhaust stroke.

It should still burp and fart if you were off one tooth, I think you are out 180.

Have you got spark?
 
The harmonic balancer will tell you when the piston is at TDC.

What it doesn't tell you is if it is on the COMPRESSION stroke.

That needs to be determined by placing a paper towel in the spark plug hole when you rotate the engine (in the correct direction) it will poof out the towel when the piston is coming up on the compression stroke. That means both intake and exhaust valves are closed and it is time to fire the plug.

Odds are that you are 180 out. Being off a tooth , it usually tries to catch but it splutters and never quite runs.

You can not rotate the engine and just pull the dizzy, rotate the rotor 180 and reinsert to try.

Or, take it back to TDC, confirm it's on the compression stroke, the pull the dizzy and reset 180.
 
Just did this last week, takes a couple minutes to rotate 180 and try again. Like everyone else said, it's easy to get the dizzy off a tooth or two. When you put the cap on, it should line up exactly with #1.
 
You just swap plug wires on opposite sides of the cap. Takes one minute.
But then your firing order will be wrong. No? Only takes a couple minutes to rotate the crank 180 and try again.
 
So, took off the valve cover, validated, I am TDC on Compression, no question. I did move the rotor 2 notches. Put it back together. No go.

Checked fuel at the rear fitting, have fuel.

Next up spark. Made a black bottle with 7/8" hole in the bottom. Wrapped ground wire around the threads to be CERTAIN had good ground. Inserted it, cranked, no spark. Why no spark?!?

Replaced the center distributor wire even though it's new, no spark.

Back to the FSM I guess. Not sure why I'm getting no spark.
 
Sounds to me like you forgot to plug in an electrical connector somewhere, or maybe a wire to a connector broke while you were unplugging it. I would check all the relevant connectors and the visually check the wires that go into them.
 
Even even if you set the distributor wrong, you should still get spark, just at the wrong time. Check if you have power to Black and Red wire at the ignition coil and the Igniter
 
Should still get spark, yes. Don't. I checked the coil, it's good. Swapped in a new one, just to be sure. Still notta.

Looked for power to the black and red wire that plugs in to the coil. Nothing. I wasn't sure if it gets power at the acc or on position, but tested both, no power to those two wires.
 
before you put in a new fusible link, check if you have a short somewhere in the injector wire, especially #6. Otherwise, you continue to burn out it out.
Brand new wires. Checked wire to each plug, no shorts that I can see or feel.

Checking continuity on the two wires that go to the coil. I get 0.0 resistance from red wire back to red at battery. The black-white wire I'm not sure what it goes to. It looks like it goes into the loom and there it looks like it goes into the fuse box as there is a thick black-white wire there that it looks like it goes to the 60A fuse. Which is good.

Would it be a fusible link that powers the 2 wires for the coil?
 
The distributor has 2 coils/pickups that sense position and those signals go back to the ECU (there are 4 wires).

The ECU then decides when to fire spark and does that by sending a signal to the igniter module (note, the igniter gets its ground via the body/screw etc, it does NOT get it via any of the wiring that goes to it). The igniter is what provides the black-white wire to the coil to generate the HV that then goes to the distributor that the rotor then distributes to the appropriate spark plug. The red-black wire goes to the battery via the ignition switch, it will only have 12V when the ignition switch is at run/start. The black-white wire from the igniter pulses to ground potential momentarily to push current pulses through the primary of the coil.'

There's also the crank position sensor (at bottom/front of engine) that goes to the ECU.

If you have no spark then the above items are in charge of creating that spark. I suggest you look at the EWD since that has the wiring info to show what connects to what.

cheers,
george.
 
The distributor has 2 coils/pickups that sense position and those signals go back to the ECU (there are 4 wires).

The ECU then decides when to fire spark and does that by sending a signal to the igniter module (note, the igniter gets its ground via the body/screw etc, it does NOT get it via any of the wiring that goes to it). The igniter is what provides the black-white wire to the coil to generate the HV that then goes to the distributor that the rotor then distributes to the appropriate spark plug. The red-black wire goes to the battery via the ignition switch, it will only have 12V when the ignition switch is at run/start. The black-white wire from the igniter pulses to ground potential momentarily to push current pulses through the primary of the coil.'

There's also the crank position sensor (at bottom/front of engine) that goes to the ECU.

If you have no spark then the above items are in charge of creating that spark. I suggest you look at the EWD since that has the wiring info to show what connects to what.

cheers,
george.
I've got the EWD, it shows the black-white going back to the igniter. When I have power to on and test for voltage on the red wire #3, I get 12.24 volts. Before I started the head gasket (not blown), everything worked properly. Not sure what to check next.

1587849738294.png
 
^ as others have mentioned, I would be checking each and every connector you unplugged and making sure the pins of the male/female are good. I'd verify that each wire going to each connector is well connected and no broken wires.

You would have disconnected/unplugged a whole bunch of stuff and most likely (ignoring murphy...) something you unplugged is the culprit to your no-spark situation. I'd also double check that you really don't have spark - otherwise we're heading down a rabbit hole :)

cheers,
george.
 
^ as others have mentioned, I would be checking each and every connector you unplugged and making sure the pins of the male/female are good. I'd verify that each wire going to each connector is well connected and no broken wires.

You would have disconnected/unplugged a whole bunch of stuff and most likely (ignoring murphy...) something you unplugged is the culprit to your no-spark situation. I'd also double check that you really don't have spark - otherwise we're heading down a rabbit hole :)

cheers,
george.
Thanks George, I appreciate it. I put in a new harness so yes, most things got disconnected. I've verified that the 2 plugs that go back to towards the bell housing are good, tight. No issues. The new cable to the O2 sensors I verified no nicks, etc. and it's brand new. I took out the battery, verified all the connections to the block,, and all sensors. Verified all grounds. Verified good solid connections to each of the injectors. I must be missing something but I can't figure it out. :deadhorse:
 

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