GEN 3: No Compression?

[2to4wheels]

Hoping to have an update soon. I've gotten it pretty much torn down all the way to the crank pulley. That's coming off today but belt tension still looks great and everything is in tact. The more I've researched, I'm am also thinking it could have been the starter disengaging. I know it's a different sound but it all happened so fast that I just stopped turning the key out of paranoia. It was sitting in cold weather for a week so who knows. Again out of paranoia, I'm starting with verifying timing...

 

[2to4wheels]

OK...good news, I guess. I actually took it (translation...cheap two via shop) to a local shop where I have a friend working and we did it off hours so it was very cost effective. Tore it all down and checked timing which was fine so at least it's encouraging to know my work has held up. Put it all back together and it started up but as with the other two times it let me sit, it smoked like a mother like it was flooded and then it cleared up. Running through this scenario where it was running fine, then sat for a week and this last instance happened when I tried to start it. If the started did disengage and was just spinning for only a few seconds, would that have dumped enough fuel into the cylinders that it would smoke like this? Maybe, I guess but am looking for opinions. How did all that fuel get into the cylinder? Could it be leaking into the cylinder while parked causing the no-start? I feel like every time this has done it (3 now), each scenario has been quite a bit different but I am really committed to chasing this down now. I think the the first two times I was hoping it was an isolated situation but I can keep living like this.

Did I mention how relieved I am that the motor is still in tact!

 

[Rontopia]

I had a similar problem on my 97. it turned out to me the cam sensor. which is just a molded piece of plastic with a magnet. this engine has 2 of these. one is on the drivers side cam and the other is on the crank. you can see the lower sensor in the picture above posted by normal dave. anyway, check to see that the sensor or the plastic holding the magnets isn't cracked and that the wires are in good order and connected properly.

 

[2to4wheels]

I'm starting to piece together the facts and as a few of you mentioned, I'm going to take look at the FPR tomorrow. Could it be that a leaky diaphragm has created a flooding situations, specifically when it sat in the cold for a week without driving? The more I evaluated my third and most recent no start, it obviously wasn't a lack of compression I was hearing, but a flooded engine as confirmed by the video below. Which makes sense that it could have been that flooded if it was sitting for that long. Keep in mind it hadn't run at all for almost 2 weeks. And then when we got it back together, it did start right up and smoked us out.

I'm hoping to just pull the vacuum line tomorrow and see if we got any fuel in there. Heck, this may not be it, but time to stop throwing darts and methodically figuring this out.

P.S. Have I mentioned how glad I am that the timing is fine!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2dy7V743D8

 

[offthepath]

That's good. Hopefully you can track it down. I have no idea, but could a faulty injector be leaking down once shut down?

 

[RyanY]

A stuck or leaking injector could be the problem - that would allow fuel to leak into the cylinder until there was no more residual fuel pressure in the system. Running some Techron or Seafoam in your gas tank might not be a bad idea.

 

[RyanY]

Could it be that a leaky diaphragm has created a flooding situations, specifically when it sat in the cold for a week without driving?

A leaking FPR wouldn't be able to cause fuel to leak into the engine when it wasn't running, as the injectors are closed when the engine isn't running (or they should be). A bad FPR could cause all sorts of drivability issues though, as the injectors need a specific and consistent fuel pressure in order to meter the proper amount of fuel.