HELP

[matthew]

I have had a lot of bad luck lately, and my only really good car was crushed by a tree in a tornado, but it was all good because I had the wagon. Anyway, a week before my second daughter was born the tranny went out in it and it only had 1 and 2. So I pulled the good motor out of my crushed sedan and the good tranny with it and swapped it into the wagon, but beforehand I swapped in the ho cam and 19 lb injectors, and an 88 mark 7 computer. I already had done the heads, intakes, and headers prior to my sedan getting smashed, so basically i just finished up the ho conversion, because I already had the parts lying around. Problem is when i got it all together again, it will not start.

I changed to the ho firing order, i even tried switching it 180 degrees just in case. I have fuel pressure of 40 psi on the rail or greater. I have spark. the engine had no running problems before or after the car being smashed. The cam timing marks were definitely lined up correctly when i installed it. It doesn't even act like it is trying to start but it lopes every couple times around like maybe 1 or 2 cyls are hitting. no backfires, or anything.

the cam was from a 94 mustang, the only markings were ZE 23:21 4-24-94. Is this maybe a cam with a different firing order?

I have no idea what to do next, I need any suggestions that anyone has to offer, I work 24 hour shifts 60 miles from home and I go to work on saturday, I don't want to leave my wife and kids home alone in the middle of nowhere with no car so i hope to have this thing running before saturday.

[88MercWagon]

Got spark? Are you sure the injectors are wired correctly?

[Mercmarquis]

94 mustang cam should have the HO firing order. If its hitting on maybe one or 2 cylinders thats a good sign. Try having someone crank the car while you rotate the distributor around and back a little bit till it starts to sputter and run. If you get it running make sure to set the timing properly before driving so you dont have detonation.

[LtMercDaddy]

id swap my old computer in and see if it fires. that or probe for injector pulse, if u get no pulse while crankin u got no fuel.... id start with the cpu first, since its the only part that has been swaped that would control fuel like that... if u still dont have a pulse, then your TFI took a shitty, that or u have wiring issues.... hope this helps.

[OVERKILL]

How long have those injectors been sitting?

[Blaze86Vic]

The original computer will not work with the HO cam. Double check to make sure that you wired the spark plugs in the correct order, and that the first one in the order is top dead center of the distributor.

[matthew]

The injectors have been sitting for a couple years, but were clean and dry. The old computer won't work with the HO cam optimally, but I could still use it just to see if it fires the injectors right?

[88MercWagon]

Old computer as in the standard Lo-Po computer? No, I'm pretty sure you need an HO computer regardless when using the HO cam.

[nitroracer]

An HO computer can run an lo-po cam, but not well.

A lo-po computer cannot run an HO cam.

[OVERKILL]

The injectors have been sitting for a couple years, but were clean and dry. The old computer won't work with the HO cam optimally, but I could still use it just to see if it fires the injectors right?

The injectors I used in the HO conversion on my F-250 were sticking, they had been sitting for a few years, clean and dry, but half of them didn't fire. Soaked them in some injector cleaner and tested their action with a computer power supply and got them all working. The truck was doing the same thing your car is doing, kind of half "catching" every once and a while, but never firing. Turned out to be that 6 stuck injectors can do that

[matthew]

wow that injector sticking problem never occurred to me.

I tried spraying some ether in the intake to see if it was a fuel delivery problem and it backfired through the intake manifold. seems like that would be a timing problem but I'll be damned if i can figure it out. with the indicator on the balancer at zero, I set the distributor to point roughly right at no 1, then after the ether test backfire I tried to switch it 180 degrees and tried again and got an identical ether test backfire.

[OVERKILL]

Are you confirming TDC with a piston stop? IE, make sure #1 is on the compression stroke (pull the plug) and use a screwdriver to confirm that TDC on the balancer is right. When you confirm TDC using a piston stop, then you can re-stab the distributor.

Oh, and remember, the firing order is COUNTER clockwise, 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8

[matthew]

Oh my god, the firing order is counter clockwise? I guess that may be my problem since i have that order in a clockwise direction around the distributor, jesus I have only worked on these cars for five years. I am under so much pressure right now that I botched what is probably the most simple damn thing of the whole job.

I haven't even checked yet because i'm watching my girls right now but I am sure I wired up the cap wrong. I am so damned embarrassed, thank you all for taking pity on a fool.

[OVERKILL]

Oh my god, the firing order is counter clockwise? I guess that may be my problem since i have that order in a clockwise direction around the distributor, jesus I have only worked on these cars for five years. I am under so much pressure right now that I botched what is probably the most simple damn thing of the whole job.

I haven't even checked yet because i'm watching my girls right now but I am sure I wired up the cap wrong. I am so damned embarrassed, thank you all for taking pity on a fool.

Hey no problem, we all have our "moments"

[grandpaslincoln]

Shit happens mang, I've done stuff like that before too, wanted to kick myself in the head a few times lol