19 1992 19 16v Not Starting After Rebuild

[CRAIGUSF1]

Hi,
Okay, so.. I've been restoring my car over then past 3-4 years, its been stripped and rebuilt using about 90% of new parts. The engine has been out, stripped, head skim, repainted, cleaned and assembled with new bolt on parts such as starter, alternator, belts, water pump etc... All the internals are the same. Injectors had been sent away to be refurbed too.
Now its all back together it won't start. It turns over but I don't think I'm getting a spark and I can't hear the fuel pump kicking in. I can bridge the fuel pump relay so its on, so I know the actual fuel pump is working.
When I match the two marks on the cam cover with the marks on the cams, piston 1 is TDC. Is there a mark on the crank that needs lining up with these? I'm not sure.
I really am clutching at straws, I don't know if I've left a plug off or whether I've not put the engine together properly. I don't know.
Hopefully when I find what I'm missing, its something obvious and stupid.
Please help!
Cheers

 

[CRAIGUSF1]

Yeah the yellow wire is live. I have used a new earth strap on the side of the gearbox to chassis and there is an earth wire from engine to bulkhead.
I tried snipping the thin brown wire at the relay but it didn't work.
Are there any checks I can do with the ecu to see if it's faulty?
Thanks for your help so far

 

[SPRYBOY]

Going back to the fuel pump relay find the wire that is the earth control side via the ecu. Put a continuity tester on this and to earth. Turn the ignition on and then see if you have continuity to earth for a few seconds and also when cranking.
If not you may have a missing +12v feed to the ecu or a fault with the ecu itself!?

 

[Haz]

Did the relay click when the thin brown is earthed? If not, it's faulty or wrong as all the wiring to/from it are then doing as it should.

 

[CRAIGUSF1]

SUCCESS!!!!!
It was the ecu. I bought a second hand one off eBay for £20. Just fitted it and after one attempt, it fired into life.
It's a it chuggy, but at least it's running now. My thoughts are timing and a new knock sensor to get it running smoothly. Any other ideas?
Once again, thanks to everyone for your help and advise

 

[Neal R19]

Define 'chuggy'!

 

[CRAIGUSF1]

Sounds like a tractor
Maybe misfiring...
Engine is rocking a bit with the sound

 

[CRAIGUSF1]

Just tried uploading a video of it on youtube

 

[Neal R19]

Very tappy, you had the engine apart yeah? A good number of the tappets need to refill by the sounds of it.

 

[DaveL485]

Thats r

Just tried uploading a video of it on youtube

Thats running on three, and its a constant miss so one cylinder, specifically. Unplug one injector at a time until it makes no difference to find which cylinder.

Is it dizzy or wasted spark?

Edit, i see a dizzy cap there, unplug the HT leads one at a time and see if it makes a difference to find the bad cylinder.

DO NOT DO THAT WHILE ITS RUNNING. If you take a zap, well, you'll know why I warned you

 

[Neal R19]

It has a distributor

 

[DaveL485]

It has a distributor

I saw it on second watch of the vid.

Fuel
Compression
Correctly timed spark

^^Find whats missing. It can only be a one cylinder item so compression, dead plug, dead lead, dead injector, injector harness, bad dizzy cap point... things like that that only affect one cylinder.

 

[CRAIGUSF1]

Very tappy, you had the engine apart yeah? A good number of the tappets need to refill by the sounds of it.

Yeah had the engine apart, is there a guide to do this and is it easy to do?

 

[Neal R19]

Just run it for a while, as everything heats up and the oil thins they will purge themselves.

Get it running right first.

 

[CRAIGUSF1]

I saw it on second watch of the vid.

Fuel
Compression
Correctly timed spark

^^Find whats missing. It can only be a one cylinder item so compression, dead plug, dead lead, dead injector, injector harness, bad dizzy cap point... things like that that only affect one cylinder.

All these parts are brand new apart from the injector harness. Injectors were refurbished.
So it would just be a case of working through all of these to find the culprit....

 

[DaveL485]

So it would just be a case of working through all of these to find the culprit....

Thats what I would do. Ive even seen a mystery misfire caused by an injector plug with the pin pushed back into the connector.

Just cos they're new it doesn't mean they were fitted right (no offence, ive done it myself!)

Step 1 find which cylinder.
Step 2 find whats missing.
Step 3 cure the problem.

>>I dont have much experience with hydraulic tappets, as Neal suggested but thats entirely a possibility too if its not opening a valve properly.

 

[CRAIGUSF1]

Excellent, thank you. Will investigate tomorrow. Have a day off so will be able to spend a bit of time on it. I have a compression tester I bought a while ago so I may try that too if everything seems fine

 

[CRAIGUSF1]

Now running much better.
I did all of the checks, but everything checked out. I ran it upto temperature for about ten minutes and sorted itself out. Think it was just a case of getting the oil circulating round.
So pleased, haven't stopped smiling since ☺

 

[DaveL485]

Excellent stuff, thats defo back on 4

Ten points to Neal for correctly diagnosing that there was sweet FA wrong with it!

 

[CRAIGUSF1]

Cheers lads, need to buy you all a beer! :az:

 

[Neal R19]

Loads better! Can just hear the injectors ticking away!

Might just be the sound being funny from your camera/phone but it does sound a bit whiney now?