1992 mx3 valve stem seals

[SuperK]

I find there is a 50/50 chance of getting your fuel lines reversed. It won't work if they are reversed.

These issues are annoying, but ya gotta get spark fuel and air.
so I'd check the fuel pressure, fuel line orientation and fuel quality (does it start with starter fluid?)
spark, you can get a spark plug tester to see how strong the spark is.
air, gotta check your VAF and vacuum leaks

also check all your grounds. THere's a ground by the distributor that if it's not properly grounded you're not going to get spark

[valk1317]

the one by the distributor i was kind of curious about. it is just a bracket that attaches to the thermostat housing and one of the heads.. the ring terminal is supposed to be screwed to the bracket via the single bolt or to the head?

there are three ring terminals i could find that are all connected. one on the motor mount, one on the top of the intake manifold by the vris actuator and the thermostat housing.
I will try the fuel lines.. i didnt give much thought to that as i just reinstalled them as they seemed to want to sit, but i did have to man handle them around a little when i removed them, stuff them into an empty oil bottle ect.
the exhaust pipe doesnt reak of gas as id expect from a car that is flooded so you are probably right.

forgive the noobness. aside from being brave enough to totally disassemble my transmission on the msp, this is as deep into automotive I have attemped. fortunately, on a car worth $500 heh.

[valk1317]

bleh..

so switching the fuel lines around was the problem. i fixed that and it started right up with a jump/leech battery from my other car. It started and ran for a few minutes off the other cars power. started to steam a little bit then cut out, and wouldnt start up again. pulled a plug out and they seem kinda wet as if its running rich.
it seemed to have some trouble gaining rpm past a certain point as i let it idle for a minute or so and gave it a few little blips to clean it out.

i did everything to spec so not sure. ill test the distro again on th eweekend and give it another try. pulling the battery out of my car is a bit of a pita.

[SuperK]

did you rebuild this engine? Did you set your head bolts to the proper torque, THEN do the additional turns after that?

[valk1317]

I followed all the steps in the 1992 workshop manual. Ill have to look at it again this weekend. Really don't wanna take it apart again.

[SuperK]

Well you would know if you did. The head bolts you torque down (normally) then you have to go all HULK SMASH on a breaker bar to get it to turn the extra turns, and it makes these metallic grinding noise as you turn them and you think that you're going to snap the head bolts apart.

If you did not experience this, you may have NOT torqued the head bolts to spec, which would allow coolant in your combustion chambers

[valk1317]

An education car lol.

I certainly didn't hit them with a breaker bar. My torque wrench only goes down to 20ftlbs so I did that then a little more.
They did sound twangy but I guess ill just have to pull it all appart and check it again.

Since ill have to time it again, should the mark I.make for thr crank pully be to the right or left of 180 at the bottom of the crank? I think I put it to the right.
Steam was only coming from engine bay. Not tail pipe.

[SuperK]

Yeah I once missed that step. It was bad mmkay.
I was able to re-tighten the head bolts with the engine in the car. Just removed the manifold/camshafts and cranked them down.
so you initially turn them to 20ft lbs, that's fine.

You then turn them all 90 degrees
Then do ANOTHER 90 degrees

so at the end they are turned 180 degrees from their original 20 ft lbs torque spec.




When you set the timing, rotate the crankshaft TWICE and verify all the marks line up.

[Sleeper6]

bleh..

so switching the fuel lines around was the problem. i fixed that and it started right up with a pulling the battery out of my car is a bit of a pita.

How do people still do this? Does no one else just remove the one from the fpr and unbolt the feed? Always done it this way myself and its foolproof when reassembly happens whenever you do it.

[valk1317]

I couldn't see a mark on my crank pully and the guide I followed had the key facing straight up. Which way is correct? Having the key facing cyl one and two theeth right matching the triangle in the block?

If I follow the picture in the faq post I'm wrong, in the post in this thread, I'm right lol

[valk1317]

not sure what you mean by unbolt the feed. i simply unhooked the fuel hoses and pulled the mani with everything attached to it and set it aside.

thanks for the continued patience and help superk. not all of us are really car people. in my case, i just cant afford to pay someone $130/hr to fix it lol.

[SuperK]

to not reverse the fuel lines, what he means is... the nipple for the intake fuel line is bolted into the fuel rail. You can just remove the bolt from teh fuel rail, which would disconnect the intake fuel hose along with the nipple. That way you HAVE to bolt the line back to the rail and you can't accidentally reverse the hoses.

You can probably get away with just unbolting the manifold and tilting it to the right side to clear the heads. You may not need to disconnect and remove the manifold altogether. I didn't. I was lazy.

If this confuses you don't worry about it. just tape the intake and return fuel lines and label them, you won't have a problem.

[SuperK]

A little confused by what you mean about timing so I'll just start from the beginning:


The crank timing gear has a notch on it. that needs to line up with the downwards-facing arrow that I highlighted in red.

Then you line up the cam timing gears.

Once you get the timing belt tensioner installed, rotate the crank twice and make sure everything is exactly lined up. If not, redo.

If you go by the mark on the crank pulley then you would need to align that mark to th 0 timing mark on the plastic timing cover, which is offset to the left. If you go by the crank timing GEAR then it's the notch to the arrow on the oil pump that goes straight up.

[valk1317]

yeaaaa. your right. those bolts were kinda loose. got the first head retorqued and ill finish assembling it later after bbq. second head should go quick too. im pretty sure my timing belt was off a few teeth so ill correct that as well. i might have to hit the gear and pump with a messload of cleaner though as i cant see any mark that should be a timing mark. its prob just too dirty. I wasnt THAT far off.. but enough.

sure goes a lot faster the second time lol.

[SuperK]

Well, the K series engines are VERY temperamental with timing.

Glad that we at least found the issue first try with the head bolts and you didn't have to do a lot of unnecessary work to diagnose the issue.