engine starting issues.

[blitzbuggy]

1991 festiva. i did do a search and didnt find my problem.

so i forgot to plug my car in the other night. i thought no biggie. next morning fired up with some hesitation, but fired, ran for about 5 seconds, then died. tryed to restart but to no avail. put a booster on it for a long time, and fixed the block heater. by this time i have had fuel in my oil, so I changed my oil.

few hours pass by,

I try to restart with ether, the lil festiva just scoffs at me.

This is the part of the story that get interesting. after sitting for a few hours with the booster on it snorts at me and fires, but will not sstay running. slowly dies out.

get it started again. and fluctuate the gas. it runs and clears it throat, great i thought!, then continues to make a smell. I look at the front of the car and the collector of the exhaust manifold, is bright orange, ( now this got me thinking one of 2 things,

1. to much fuel
2. restriction some where

so by this time i have been outside for a little over 9 hours at -37*c
i am a tad pissed.

So i decide to take the intake hose routing off, and when i do, the main line by the air filter has a fair bit of oil on it. i take the vaf out and give it a good cleaning,. after that take out the plugs and turn the engine over to expel any lollygaging fuel molecules out, ok on to the restriction,

• air filter ok
• pcv valve ok
• throttle body clean
• air intake passages clean
• all connectors connected.

and finally the grande finale, the cat. ran it open exhaust and still the same issue, run then stall, but with a bright orange collector still.

so to this date i have replaced

• spark plugs
• plug wires
• rotor
• dizzy cap

still does every thing and runs the same,

I am getting fuel, my plugs are fouled, (replaced)
also i replaced the "main" wire (small guage wire on drivers side by the battary) also i am trying to locate a fuse that may have been recalled, 20 amp i believe, also while the charger is on my interior light is still dim. but some time it go bright. i am getting spark for it to run. then sputters out, inside of dizzy cap is fine, and no damage.

i am smashing my head agenced the wall until the red water come out, any suggestions guys??

[1988festivazoom]

i had a yota with a 22r that had the red exhaust problem and it ran like crap and kept dying.... i wound up selling it bc i didint want to fix it. i think the guy i sold it to said something about the ignition control box but thats a different case than a festy.

[FestYboy]

double check your cam timing... seriously, i bet you skipped 2 or more teeth (one tooth would still start and run)

[mechanicaldj]

burnt or stuck open exhaust valve

[FestYboy]

^ i rather doubt that one...

[sandspringsfestiva]

Too much fuel will make it run cooler not hotter. I would bet you did damage to some sensors when you used the ether. The collector glowing orange? That engine is getting very hot for that to happen.

[boydg1]

…. I had this happen to me. It was very cold that morning. The engine started up and then quit that fast. Replace the large cam-shaft wheel; it has MOVED on the shaft (The one that the timing belt rides on, at the very top of the engine on the left side under the timing belt cover).

1991 festiva. i did do a search and didnt find my problem.

so i forgot to plug my car in the other night. i thought no biggie. next morning fired up with some hesitation, but fired, ran for about 5 seconds, then died. tryed to restart but to no avail. put a booster on it for a long time, and fixed the block heater. by this time i have had fuel in my oil, so I changed my oil.

few hours pass by,

I try to restart with ether, the lil festiva just scoffs at me.

This is the part of the story that get interesting. after sitting for a few hours with the booster on it snorts at me and fires, but will not sstay running. slowly dies out.

get it started again. and fluctuate the gas. it runs and clears it throat, great i thought!, then continues to make a smell. I look at the front of the car and the collector of the exhaust manifold, is bright orange, ( now this got me thinking one of 2 things,

1. to much fuel
2. restriction some where

so by this time i have been outside for a little over 9 hours at -37*c
i am a tad pissed.

So i decide to take the intake hose routing off, and when i do, the main line by the air filter has a fair bit of oil on it. i take the vaf out and give it a good cleaning,. after that take out the plugs and turn the engine over to expel any lollygaging fuel molecules out, ok on to the restriction,

• air filter ok
• pcv valve ok
• throttle body clean
• air intake passages clean
• all connectors connected.

and finally the grande finale, the cat. ran it open exhaust and still the same issue, run then stall, but with a bright orange collector still.

so to this date i have replaced

• spark plugs
• plug wires
• rotor
• dizzy cap

still does every thing and runs the same,

I am getting fuel, my plugs are fouled, (replaced)
also i replaced the "main" wire (small guage wire on drivers side by the battary) also i am trying to locate a fuse that may have been recalled, 20 amp i believe, also while the charger is on my interior light is still dim. but some time it go bright. i am getting spark for it to run. then sputters out, inside of dizzy cap is fine, and no damage.

i am smashing my head agenced the wall until the red water come out, any suggestions guys??

[FestYboy]

…. I had this happen to me. It was very cold that morning. The engine started up and then quit that fast. Replace the large cam-shaft wheel; it has MOVED on the shaft (The one that the timing belt rides on, at the very top of the engine on the left side under the timing belt cover).

and Scrappy did it to me at 40mph while on the way to meet some friends durring the summer. i'm not saying it couldn't happen as you mentioned, but the likelyhood is very low. mine went bad at well over 300k and attached to HD valvesprings. just saying.

[blitzbuggy]

ok so the story is my belt slipped, a bit, and i have 2 cylinders with only 25 psi of compression, and 125 in the other 2, the rings are toast in this car so its down untill spring, gives me ample time to strip out the old engine and put in the new!!

for now i am rolling the turbo diesel, and to my suprise it starts very well in this cold weather