TheOdditie

I got this car about a year ago from someone who has had it for about 3 years in the same condition. The inspection sticker on it is from back in 2001, so good possibility its been sitting for awhile. Straight body, only like 65k miles on it.

Any way, at first I wasn't working too hard on it, just fiddling here and there. Well now its coming time I need to park my current beater so I need to get this thing going. Currently if I'm lucky it will fire up for a few seconds after you disconnect the fuel relay and then starve, plug up the relay and it floods.

This is the list of stuff I have already done or tried:
1. Dropped tank and clean, replaced fuel strainer.
2. Replaced Fuel filter and Fuel pump with Walbro 255
3. Replaced all the rubber fuel lines.
4. Flowed and tossed the original injectors, replaced with used "good" injectors.
5. Replaced Fuel regulator with an adjustable regulator, currently set at 50psi due to flooding issue.
6. Replaced spark plugs.
7. Changed oil, twice so far.
8. Replaced AFM
9. Soak apex seals in ATF.
10. Prior to soak ran a compression test and at around 75 psi, a little low I know, but should be enough to get it going.
11. Attempt to pull start, which only worked with another person pulsing the fuel relay.
12. Listened to the injectors to check if they are getting pulsed, which they are, seems a bit slow though but don't have a baseline to go off of.

This weekend and next week I plan to remove the cat converter just to make sure a clogged exhaust isn't the cause. Don't think thats the case because when it does run the little it has, plenty of smoke coming out the back. After that, I'm taking the injectors back out and sending them out to get cleaned. I'm thinking possible ECM problem, which I hope to find someone local I can still their's for a few minutes to check.

I have not checked the ignition timing on it, because all I can find are instructions to set it while its running. Missing a key step in that. Anyone know how to check this?

I have also thought possibly the crank angle sensor, but currently do now know where that is located, nor how to test it. I can talk to some guys at work and see if anyone has a scope I can borrow.

Any other suggestions on this? I bought the car cheap expecting 1 of 2 outcomes: either I get it going without dropping a ton of cash in it and have a nice car, or I fail to do so and turn around and sell it and try to make my money back on it. The line is drawing close to how much money I can drop into it without having a chance to make my money back. I would prefer to get it going and on the road myself as I do really like the car, but I don't have the money to drop on either rebuilding the engine or replacing it.

I know for a first post, this is a long post. I have a build thread over on another forum, which is currently 3 pages long trying to get this thing going.

And one last thing: Do the headlights only work with the engine running? I'm new to pop up headlights, tried to turn them on and couldn't get anything, but could turn the motor over until it popped them up and then back down so I know power is getting there, I just don't know if they are vacuum operated or I'm just not getting signal there.

TheOdditie

I will state that all spark plugs are the same on the engine. I actually wasn't aware until tonight that I guess the leading and trailing plugs are supposed to differ? If this is true, anyone know the part numbers for the plugs required?

And if anyone is in the Charlotte, NC area and willing to come brain storm with me on it, I will gladly take the help and can provide the beverages(there is a limit lol)

FBturbo2

I'd check the fuel pulsation dampener and the screw ! It sounds like you've checked just about everything else with the exception of the ECU and dampener....

TheOdditie

Thanks for the reply.

I ended up replacing the pulsation damper with a banjo bolt since my regulator serves as a damper. It ended up being the ignition system that was at fault. I replaced the leading coil, which tested low on ohms, with a TFIDLDFIS setup and got it running. Been driving it for a few months now, almost inspection ready once I fix the horn issue.