99 Miata, no start, rebuilt engine, about to drive me nuts...
It's a bit of a long story, so bear with me. :) Any suggestions, help, advice, or anything is GREATLY appreciated!!
A few months ago, my wife tried to start her 99, and according to her the car ran VERY rough and it sounded like there was some metal on metal contact (she described it as a banging sound). So she shut it off, and tried to restart. It wouldn't start. When I got home, I checked a few of the obvious items with no success. That weekend, I did a compression test and leak down test. The compression test was not good. Two cylinders were less than 100 PSI with 10%+ leak. I figured this was the problem. I removed the head, and other than a ton of carbon build up and a really oily intake manifold, everything appeared to be in order.
I had planned to rebuild the engine myself, but due to time constraints, I had John Day at Day Custom Engines do the rebuild for me. During the teardown, he said everything looked fairly normal for an engine with 145k miles on it. So far so good.
When I attempted to install the crank angle sensor, the mounting tab for the sensor was not machined completely. I consulted John, and he suggested just grinding the offending area a bit. I did so and was able to mount the sensor without any further issues. Once the engine was installed, I noticed there was no tab for the alternator mount. :confused: After discussing this with John a bit, it seems the wrong water pump was used (perhaps a 1.6?). I ordered a replacement pump from Finishline and did the swap myself. No big deal, I've done plenty of timing belt jobs.
So here I am today with a non-running Miata. It'll act like it's trying to start and sputter, but it'll never run on its own.
Here's a list of the new parts, what I've done, and what I've checked. Maybe I've missed something!
Rebuilt engine
new cam sensor
new crank sensor
new coils
new plugs
new plug wires
new fuel pump
cleaned injectors (verified operation via bench testing)
Fuel pressure appears good, as the plugs are wet when removed after attempting to start the car. I tried my old set of coils along with the brand new ones with the same results.
At first, the engine was giving me a code for the crank angle sensor and cam angle sensor. I adjusted the crank angle sensor some and that code went away, but I'm still getting the code for the cam angle sensor.
Yesterday a friend with a 99 came over. I swapped my ECU and cam angle sensor into his car. It started right up, so I know those are good.
I've checked for power and ground at both coils, cam angle sensor and crank angle sensor. All are good. Each injector has +12V. Fuel pump is getting power with a good ground. I checked the wiring from the ECU to both coils, cam angle sensor, crank angle sensor, and all four injectors. All the wiring appears to be good (continuity with impedance less than 0.2 ohms). All grounds on the engine appear good.
Now for the weird part. Since my friend was over, we put a timing gun on the car. Plugs 2 and 3 are getting spark. Plugs 1 and 4 never fired. I tried this with the new coils and with the "old" coils. Same result.
So I'm seriously frustrated at this point, but it appears to be an issue with wiring or the timing is so fubar that the ECU is confused and only fires two cylinders??
I emailed John yesterday, so I'm hoping to hear from him today. I'm beginning to think that I need to replace the oil pump, which will be no fun at all...
Any other ideas? Anyone willing to take a look at it? At this point, I'm willing to pay someone. I've just about lost patience. Fortunately, we have 3 street vehicles, so my wife has been driving the tow vehicle to/from work, which is suboptimal, and she wants her car back. :)
Feel free to ask questions. I'll answer them as best I can. Thanks guys! :burnrubr:
