Festiva cranks but not starting

[FestYboy]

your injectors are frozen open causing a rich miss. you state that the car ran with the injectors unpluged for a short while, and before that, the plugs were getting wet.

you're fuel fowled.

[GenevaDirt]

your injectors are frozen open causing a rich miss. you state that the car ran with the injectors unpluged for a short while, and before that, the plugs were getting wet.

you're fuel fowled.

are you calling him chicken.....man....thats low. Kick a guy when he's down.

[chadzeilenga]

ha ha! I rotated the distributor rotor and heard all of the injectors click. The car has not started yet as I'm still diagnosing it. The car turned over and almost started as it leaned out with the fuel line unplugged.

[FestYboy]

^ just because they click doesn't mean they're actually operating. the solenoids in them can make noise and they can still be stuck in an open position.

[chadzeilenga]

How do I fix the injectors? The car ran before I took the motor out and rebuilt due to a bad head gasket. Is there a way to test them?

[Occhty]

I hate to bring this up again:
But I just had to change a water pump. I've done it many times. For some reason this one gave me some timing issues. I checked and checked and checked again. This motors timing marks don't line up with TDC. So I used the crank key instead of the #1 piston trick and it's fixed
When you set your timing did you use the crank keyway?
Or did you use the pistons at the top of the cylinder method?

[htchbck]

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.

This makes me wonder if maybe the fuel inlet and return lines got switched when reinstalling the engine. I'm not 100% sure how the fuel pressure regulator operates internally on a Festiva (never had trouble with one) but if its trying to send fuel through the rail the wrong way, I doubt the regulator would function properly. Which would mean either too much fuel or too little fuel, depending on what the regulator was doing wrong, even if the injectors are working properly.

[nitrofarm]

This makes me wonder if maybe the fuel inlet and return lines got switched when reinstalling the engine. I'm not 100% sure how the fuel pressure regulator operates internally on a Festiva (never had trouble with one) but if its trying to send fuel through the rail the wrong way, I doubt the regulator would function properly. Which would mean either too much fuel or too little fuel, depending on what the regulator was doing wrong, even if the injectors are working properly.

Good call ! If thats the case he's got full pressure all the time. Cuz the fuel is going directly to the injectors. Right?

[FestYboy]

nope, the regulator is on the back side of the rail (as the fuel flows). if the hoses were backward, the fuel pressure should force the regulator shut causing no fuel flow. And 32 psi is not full pressure, if he was deadheading the pump, he should see upwards of 45psi. Also, if he doesn't have the vac hose attached to the regulator, that will also cause the pump to deadhead because the regulator will be fully closed, but since he's seeing 32psi, i doubt this is the case.