Last november I blew the clutch and car went into storage without any winterizing of any sort. blew clutch and parked it all winter. 2 weeks ago I got my clutch from rock auto and had it installed from my mechanic. Brought the car home did oil,tranny, coolant and powesteering fluids, started her up and she ran like complete crap. I remebered I tore off the previous owners ghetto repair job on fittng a foam sleeve and hella duct tape over the intercooler piping and refitting everything nice and snug with some used couplers I had laying around. Started her back up and noticed a considerable difference. At idle you could barley tell anything is wrong but under load it misfires and runs really rough.
I took off the coilpack cover and started pulling the harness plugs from each coilpack. cylinder #1 is not working. When i pulled the plug nothing changed. When I pulled the harness plug from the other 5 the car would change exhaust note and start acting erratically. So clearly my problem is with cylinder #1. Like the dumbasss I am I pull the coilpack and immediatley assume thats the problem. Bought a used set off my friend swap coilpacks and nothing changed(should have just tried swaping coilpack form cylinder #2). So I pull the spark plug and it is soaked in gas but the plug itself looked in decent shape. I swap spark plugs with cylinder#2 and still no change in cylinder #1. So now I have determined that its not the coilpack or the spark plug.
At this point I grab my 12v test light. I hook up the positive to the battery and the ground into the coilpack harness plug for cylinder#1 and the light started flickering. I know this doesn’t tell me much except that there is power getting to the coilpack threw harness from the ignitor but it’s something. I’m going to get the numbers tonight i just dont have a mulitmeter so the test light was my only option.
My questions are:
Is it possible for too much fuel/not enough air to be in the combustion chamber to render the spark useless ? (such as leaky/stuck open injector)
Can a faulty ignitor still amplify the other 5 ground signals to the coil packs?
I would think # 1 is your problem. its probably flooding out. or the compression is low. I would check the injector by listening for a click by putting a screwdriver on the injector and your ear on the handle.
I had a similar problem with my rb20 back when I still had one. It was my ignitor.
After doing some research on it I found that its a common problem for the 20 ignitor to go.
You can either get a new rb20 ignitor or have an rb25 ignitor (better solution) wired in.
The 25 one is smaller and overheats less.
Got the ignitor in the mail yesterday from a reputable source and still no change. I havent even bothered trying anything else in the last 2 weeks because I was seriously hoping this was going to solve my problem.
My oil has a gas smell wasn’t crazy but definitley there. Obviously it’s from excessive flooding. Once the ignitor didn’t work I decided to take a screw driver and see if I could here a click from the fuel injector . Once I put the screwdriver down on the injector and brought my face near it the injector spun. I didn’t apply much force and it just spun. I’m able to spin it clockwise and counter-clockwise without much effort. Would this be a clear indication that the oring is cracked or broken? Or is it normal for it to spin? I have never done work in respect to the fuel system. So any insight would be greatley appreciated.
IF your oil smells like gas then your injector is flooding. Im currently in the same situation with my rb25 except #5 is flooding. The car runs fine idling but runs like shit if you drive it. My injector doesnt turn in the rail, in my rb20 they move freely since its a different fuel rail.
Okay thanks, I planed on drianing and filling back up with 2 qrts of oil this way i keep drianing it as it floods.no its does not get milky and there is no white residue on the cap. When I smeel from the oil filler hole on the engine i can smell the gas when i pull the dipstick its not as bad i can rub the oil between my fingers and it still has the consistency and viscousity as oil should(before it gets warmed up).
So first thing you suggest would be to drain the oil, fill back up partially, then move injector #1 to injector #2 position and see if problem follows?
I would drain all the oil completely…and fill it up with fresh oil that doesnt smell at all… and then switch injectors and see if the smell will come back. that way you can confirm the problem 100%
Two good things to check is your timing and fuel pressure…
But regarding the injectors
try using a 9V or 12V battery pack to click the injectors, make sure they all click on and off consistently
check each injector’s resistance values for any major variation indicating bad voicecoil within (low imp =2.2-4.5ohm, high imp=11-12.8ohm)
use a noid light on the injector harness to make sure you’re getting a good clean signal to fire each one, your harness may be faulty and moving it around for repairs might make it worse
did you verify that you have spark by grounding the coilpack/plug to the valvecover and cranking?
you can check for a leaking oring or stuck injector by pulling the rail with injectors still installed and turning the ignition to on, pressurizing the system.
e everyone thanks for all the help, problem is now solved. After making sure I indeed was getting a good clean spark, taking plug out and grounding it I decided to move in to the injectors, starting with injector plug itself. I hooked up a noid light and got nothing,there was heavy amount of blue corrosion after a good cleaning, re- connected and everything was good to go. Checked the rest of the plugs and they all had a little corrosion but not nearly as bad. For now it work! Gunna order a new harness from the specialist… thanks again to everyone for the help.