No Start With Spark and Tach Bounce
10-12-2020, 01:18 AM
#1
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Thread Starter
No Start With Spark and Tach Bounce
Last week my engine randomly stalled on me. Nothing dramatic, just totally stalled while driving and refused to turn back on. No smoke, smell, overheating, electrical issue.
-I checked for fuel, I have tach bounce, tried a spare DME, measured sensor resistance, all good. Additionally, after cranking for a while with having the engine only fire once or twice, I can smell gas at the back, so I'm guessing its not a fuel issue.
-For spark, I have checked the coil, +12v in while IGN is on and while cranking. Good spark from the coil directly to a plug. Good spark plug wire resistance. I initially believed I had a bad distributor since it looked worn and there were a couple small plastic shards in the cap.
I ordered a distributor but 3 day shipping ended up being a week, so I saw an AutoZone had a cap and rotor made by Duralast. Picked them up to at least get my car on the road for now, but still no start. It feels like its firing more frequently and almost wants to idle, but it is very rough and feels like not all 4 cylinders are firing. I'm now thinking of three possibilities. Either the duralast cap and rotor are so poorly made It won't run, I blew a head gasket and only lost compression with no other symptoms or my timing belt jumped a couple teeth which was enough to knock the spark out of time without bending valves. I have a compression tester, which I will likely try out tomorrow. Is there a way to set the engine to TDC and verify the timing at the cam gear without pulling the timing covers off? Is it possible duralast sucks that bad and I need to just wait for my cap and rotor that I ordered? Any additional ideas would also be a huge help!
-I checked for fuel, I have tach bounce, tried a spare DME, measured sensor resistance, all good. Additionally, after cranking for a while with having the engine only fire once or twice, I can smell gas at the back, so I'm guessing its not a fuel issue.
-For spark, I have checked the coil, +12v in while IGN is on and while cranking. Good spark from the coil directly to a plug. Good spark plug wire resistance. I initially believed I had a bad distributor since it looked worn and there were a couple small plastic shards in the cap.
I ordered a distributor but 3 day shipping ended up being a week, so I saw an AutoZone had a cap and rotor made by Duralast. Picked them up to at least get my car on the road for now, but still no start. It feels like its firing more frequently and almost wants to idle, but it is very rough and feels like not all 4 cylinders are firing. I'm now thinking of three possibilities. Either the duralast cap and rotor are so poorly made It won't run, I blew a head gasket and only lost compression with no other symptoms or my timing belt jumped a couple teeth which was enough to knock the spark out of time without bending valves. I have a compression tester, which I will likely try out tomorrow. Is there a way to set the engine to TDC and verify the timing at the cam gear without pulling the timing covers off? Is it possible duralast sucks that bad and I need to just wait for my cap and rotor that I ordered? Any additional ideas would also be a huge help!
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Noahjh (10-12-2020)
10-13-2020, 01:46 AM
#4
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Thread Starter
Update
Checked timing, looked good. Put everything back together and the car just fired right up like normal... ? It ran just a little rough, although the troubling thing is lots of white smoke out of the exhaust increasing with throttle.
. Even if this is a head gasket, why the hell would my engine randomly stall while accelerating, and not start for five days, only to start back up and then start smoking? This whole thing just makes no sense to me...
