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Hey everyone, Im new here and not really sure how to go about posting, but Im having trouble with my car. Its getting fuel and spark and cranking as well but just does not want to start. It was over heating due to a worn out thermostat and cooling fan switch so I changed out both. After the cooling fan switch it ran fine and the night I changed the thermostat, it started up. The next morning however, I went to start it and all it did was crank. Sounded like it wanted to fire but didnt get all the way there. My thinking as of now is the ignition coil due to the fact that the spark I am getting is yellow/oarnge. Can anyone help me out and tell me if my conclusion is the most likely one? Thank you. ~Collin

 
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Can you check compression or see what the spark looks like? My moms 98 did the same thing after it overheated and I gave up after 3 weeks of non stop checks and bought a engine off a wrecked car.

 
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Ill have to see about getting the tool to check the compression. The sparks that are there are an oarngeish yellow.

 
Rep Power: 518

Spark color is not important.
How far the spark can jump an air gap is important.
If it can jump a 1/2 inch gap or greater, that should be enough to run.
If spark can't jump more than 1/8 inch gap, that's not good.


Are the spark plugs wet or dry?

 
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Whenever I pulled the plugs they were soaked with fuel. It cant be that I flooded it though because its been about a week and it still wont start.

 
Rep Power: 518

Why are the plugs wet then?

Is this the last time it ran?
How long did you have it running at that time?

 
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That was the last time it ran, I let it sit and idle for about 15 minutes to make sure everything was alright. As for the plugs it dosnt make sense to me because I have spark and fuel. Could it be my starter isnt spinning it fast enough to start it?

 
Rep Power: 518

You really should drive a car through warmup, it needs run hard enough to get the plugs cleaned off. Just idling can let it load up.

Once a spark plug is wet, the spark does not jump across the gap, it goes around so it cannot fire anything in the cylinder. You need to dry the plugs. If they are carboned up, the carbon needs removed to it can't soak up gasoline (or replace plugs).

Liquid gas cannot burn either, only gasoline vapor will burn. What is still sitting in the cylinder (on top of a piston)cannot burn, you have to dry it out.

Liquid gasoline washes the oil film off of the cylinder walls and rings, thereby allowing compressed air to escape past the rings, resulting in loss of compression. You should be able to hear the difference in how it cranks now, a flooded engine spinning over sounds unusually fast and weak.
Gotta restore the oil film to restore compression.

If it really does have spark and fuel, is the amount of fuel getting injected actually correct? Is the ECT reading temperature correctly, or is it lying to the computer? Anything else electronic failed or skewed can result in too much or too little fuel injected too.

Is there another reason for compression loss, such as timing belt jumped time?

Did you reconnect the ground wires to the thermostat housing? Wires not broken or damaged? Bolt cleaned, eyelet cleaned with a wire brush or sandpaper, and housing clean where the eyelet bolts on?


Pull plugs, clean and dry or replace
Disable the distributor so you don't start a fire and unplug injectors or pull connector off main relay
Put a towel over the spark plug holes
Spin engine with the starter for several seconds to hopefully get the excess fuel to blow out
dump a tablespoonful of engine oil down each spark plug tube
put towel over holes and crank the engine over again
install plugs, reconnect the distributor
Gas pedal to the floor, crank it and hope it will fire and run on the remaining fuel in the cylinders
reconnect injectors or main relay, try it again

 
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Everything's reconnected although I didnt try cleaning the ground up a bit. I will try drying everything out and restoring the oil film tomorrow as its late here. I will let you know if it works.