Another e30 at my house...

#1

I found this close to home and went and purchased it yesterday but have
not been successful in getting it running yet:

It’s an '87 with 202,000 miles and is extremely clean and dent and rust free.

It trys to start but refuses to run. With the starter engaged it’ll occasionally sputter like it’s trying to start. I’ve got fire at the plugs. I’ve plugged a
noid light into injector #1 and that looks good. I unhooked the fuel line off
of the injector rail and turned the engine over for a second or so and it pumped about an ounce of fuel into a bowl so it looks like I’m getting fuel (although I don’t have a way to check fuel pressure). Interestingly, when I spray starting fluid into the intake boot, it does seem to make any difference when trying to start the car. I’ve tried the following known good parts off of my race car:

  1. coil
  2. crank position sensor
  3. main relay
  4. fuel pump relay
  5. MAF

The previous owner said about a month ago it started running bad - it would idle but refused to take any throttle at all and eventually got to this point. He replaced the fuel pump and fuel pressure regulator and got tired of throwing money at it so now it’s sitting in my driveway

Any ideas of other things that I could try?

Steven

#2

Did you try swapping for a known good ECU?

#3

Have not tried the ECU yet. The ECU in my '89 is labeled 0 261 200 173
and the ECU in the '87 is number 0 261 200 153. I’m guessing that they
do not swap…

Update on the ECU: looking at the Roadly E30 board, it looks like the two ECU’s
are interchangable. I tried the ECU from my '89 with no luck.

#4

MAF? I think this is a typo as E30s have AFM (it has a flap door not hot wire)

Try this:

  • Test TPS (throttle position sensor) - it’s located under throttle body
  • Coolant temp sensor/switch (maybe)

Be careful swapping in new ECU – it might damage it.
HTH,
Igor

#5

as stupid as it sounds… you might wanna check fuses #9 and #21… that was my prob on the track car… they should be two brown fuses which control the fuel pump…

good luck

Mike

#6

Idle control valve? Can be removed and cleaned with WD-40. Vacuum leak? Check for cracks in boot from AFM to intake - vent tube from valve cover.
Ed

#7

One from left field - bad gas, or water/contaminant in the tank?
I had this on a 240Z I bought a few years ago - it would sputter and die and smoke like a vegas casino. I swapped the gas and fuel filter and it fired up.

#8

I’m suspecting something with the ignition (even though I’m getting fire
at the spark plugs). The reason is that I can squirt ether straight in
the throttle body with no response whatsoever. I’m going to remove the
dist cap this evening and check under there.

I jumpered the fuel pump relay last night and I can hear the pump running,
so I believe the pump is good (the previous owner had the fuel pump replaced a few weeks ago in an effort to fix the car)

With the oil cap off I can see the camshaft turning so I know the timing
belt is not broken. The timing belt was replaced 10,000 mile ago.

Another interesting thing is that when trying to start it, it takes 15-25 seconds of turning over before it somewhat feebly acts like it wants to start.

I’m going to check the compression tonight to make sure everything is good there.

Would things like the idle control value, TPS, and the coolant temp sensor
cause a no start condition like I have (especially considering that spraying
ether into the throttle body gets no response)?

It’ll be interesting to see what this turns out to be…

Steven

#9

Steven540i wrote:

[quote]I’m suspecting something with the ignition (even though I’m getting fire
at the spark plugs). The reason is that I can squirt ether straight in
the throttle body with no response whatsoever. I’m going to remove the
dist cap this evening and check under there.

I jumpered the fuel pump relay last night and I can hear the pump running,
so I believe the pump is good (the previous owner had the fuel pump replaced a few weeks ago in an effort to fix the car)

With the oil cap off I can see the camshaft turning so I know the timing
belt is not broken. The timing belt was replaced 10,000 mile ago.

Another interesting thing is that when trying to start it, it takes 15-25 seconds of turning over before it somewhat feebly acts like it wants to start.

I’m going to check the compression tonight to make sure everything is good there.

Would things like the idle control value, TPS, and the coolant temp sensor
cause a no start condition like I have (especially considering that spraying
ether into the throttle body gets no response)?

It’ll be interesting to see what this turns out to be…

Steven[/quote]
Are the plugs wet?
crap could have clogged the injectors

#10

[/quote]Are the plugs wet?[/quote]

The plugs are wet. The plugs also are a normal color with
no abnormal buildup or deposits on them.

#11

If fuel and spark are present and timing is even close the engine should fire. It might have idle problems or poor throttle response if there were problems with the TPS, AFM, or ICV, but it isn’t gettin that far. Therefore I’d say that the first thing to do would be to ensure that the plugs are in fact firing (i.e., not wet with coolant) and that the spark timing is correct. You’ll also want to verify that the fuel pressure is correct. And you need to make sure that there’s not a major intake leak.

#12

If fuel and spark are present and timing is even close the engine should fire. It might have idle problems or poor throttle response if there were problems with the TPS, AFM, or ICV, but it isn’t gettin that far. Therefore I’d say that the first thing to do would be to ensure that the plugs are in fact firing (i.e., not wet with coolant) and that the spark timing is correct. You’ll also want to verify that the fuel pressure is correct. And you need to make sure that there’s not a major intake leak.

#13

Unfortunately (for me) it did not turn out to be anything easy. I found a couple of disturbing things last night related to the engine. First I found that
the compression was down and varied between 90 - 120 psi across the 6 cylinders. Next I found that the timing belt had jumped a single tooth. I
tried adding a tsb of oil to one cylinder and it did not seem to make a difference in the compression so I believe that the engine has head problems.

I know these are interference engines, but is one tooth off enough to allow piston/valve contact?

Steven

#14

Steven540i wrote:

[quote]Unfortunately (for me) it did not turn out to be anything easy. I found a couple of disturbing things last night related to the engine. First I found that
the compression was down and varied between 90 - 120 psi across the 6 cylinders. Next I found that the timing belt had jumped a single tooth. I
tried adding a tsb of oil to one cylinder and it did not seem to make a difference in the compression so I believe that the engine has head problems.

I know these are interference engines, but is one tooth off enough to allow piston/valve contact?

Steven[/quote] One tooth off should not cause interference but that is it…more than that then I think there will be a problem.

#15

I don’t think one tooth off would bring valves in contact with pistons, but it would affect compression and spark/fuel timing. Fix that and see what happens…

#16

Me three :slight_smile: - I don’t think that one tooth will cause valves to hit the top of the piston. Actually, IMO, if that is the only problem, the car should be able to run (poorly…). Can you do leak down test?
Regards,
Igor

#17

I’ve basically given up on it. If anyone is looking for a good car to convert
into a race car, this would be a good one. $500 for an engine and one
Saturday and you’re rolling. I just don’t have the time or desire to do it.
Contact me via e-mail if interested.

Steven

#18

Steven,
Where are you located? I’m sure one of us can help!
-Vic

#19

The idea of contaminated product might be dead on.

#20

I’m in Wilmington, NC.

I’m going to try the dist/rotor and plug wires off of my racecar tonight and see if that makes a difference. I’m also going to pull the valve cover and make
sure all the rocker arms are intact. Final check is pull the injector rail and
make sure they are spraying fuel and check the intake plenum to make sure
it is not in come way "clogged".

I’ve not totally given up but it seems like I’m running out of things to try. It seems that the engine should still run with the compression numbers I’m getting. That fact that engine does not respond to ether, yet it pops and sputters at times when trying to start makes me think that I have a fire problem.

We’ll see. Regardless of the outcome, thanks to everyone for all their input and ideas.

Steven