Festiva cranks but not starting

[chadzeilenga]

The short block did not come apart. I inspected the cyl walls and the bearings before putting the engine back together. I don't think itnos related to the rods.

[JoDan]

Well if you checked your timing that many times I would look for a vacuum leak and check fuel pressure.

[Occhty]

If your getting fuel to the chamber, and good spark, it has to be timing.

Put the crank on TDC then pull the plug and check that the number one cylinder is up, use a pice of vacume hose, then check the cam gear marks. If that's all good pull the distribution cap and make sure the rotor bug is pointing to the number one spot on the cap, then double check the firing order

After that if don't start:

Pour a little gas down the intake.

Side note:
I've ran these with as little as 20/30 pounds per cylinder.

[neanderpaul]

Is your airbox hooked up?

[chadzeilenga]

I'll go through the timing again tonight. I'm not too worried about the compression since this motor sat for a year before I put it in age the rings are likely dry.

I do have the airbox hooked up, but not to the intake. Jury have the sensor plugged in.

[neanderpaul]

If the pipe is not hooked up to the airbox it will not run.

[chadzeilenga]

I'll go through the timing again tonight. I'm not too worried about the compression since this motor sat for a year before I put it in age the rings are likely dry.

I do have the airbox hooked up, but not to the intake. Jury have the sensor plugged in.

[chadzeilenga]

Seriously???

[Occhty]

Yeah seriously! The air vane tells the comp to open the injectors. Facepalm!

[89newb]

just a question out of curiousity but are you showing any traces of oil perhaps in your air intake tubing. That is what kept my festy from starting for the longest time. that one curly cue tube that comes off the valve cover into the air intake tubing was sucking oil bast the baffle and strait down the throttle body choking it out. This is why I now have a half melted dasani water bottle stuck to the drivers side shock tower. lol. its worth a look anyway.

[chadzeilenga]

Ha ha! I'm an idiot.

Before I took the motor out, I noticed a bit of oil in the tube to the throttle body.

[chadzeilenga]

Ha ha! I'm an idiot.

Before I took the motor out, I noticed a bit of oil in the tube to the throttle body.

[chadzeilenga]

Officially stumped

I thought I had something with the sir box, but no luck. Tonight I did the following:

Checked that timing was on the compression stroke.
Checked distributor rotor position.
Added a squirt of oil to the dry rings.
Installed all intake tubing
Looked for any unplugged wires

No luck. I know that the car is getting both fuel and spark because there is a little bit of smoke when I'm done cranking the engine and I can smell the gas. I feel that it was firing better before because the CEL would go off when iwas done turnng the engine.

[chadzeilenga]

Quick update
I double checked for fuel by unplugging the line to fuel rail while the engine was being cranked. Surprisingly the engine started to fire up until the fuel ran out in the rail. I hooked the fuel line back to the rail and the engine was back to not starting.

[chadzeilenga]

Does anyone have any idea what the issue might be? I'm wondering if fuel might be an issue since removing the pressure allowed it to rev higher.