Thread: Fuel, Spark, Crank, no start

Good morning SR20 Guys and Gals.

It has been oh so long since I've been on, but I'm stumped.

Brother picked up a 94 SE-R, very clean, receipts and paper work from JGY for a red top N/A Avenir. Car ran strong and great for 2 weeks.

He calls me up the other day about a crank no start issue. After talking to him for a while, he states that the day before it was having longer cranks than usual to start, but started w/o a problem, just longer cranks. The day of, crank crank crank etc.... no hint of starting.

So the fuel pump fuse had came loose SOMEHOW, and the pump starts. Ok good.... crank crank.... no turnover. Ok, well maybe spark. Pull plugs, plugs are dry.... so we arc the plugs to metal during cranking, sure enough strong spark AND smell gas from the missing plug. OK so we have fuel and spark.

For fun, Had some starting fluid sitting around, sprayed a little past the TB ( yea I know not the best idea ) cranked it and WAM! Starts strong, no misfire, revs great... then dies ( as the starting fluid is now spent )

Well.... suspect fuel now is the answer.

Luckily, sr20 parts are abundant between myself and a friend. Put a new pump in.... nothing.... change the fuel filter.... nothing.... change the FPR... nothing.

I'm running out of ideas for diagnostics, and unfortunately, no locally available Fuel Pressure testing equipment, so I really have no way of fully testing Fuel Pressure.

Really at a loss, and to ad to things, the engine install was only in the past year or so, the pump in the tank that we took out was replaced at some point due to the splicing of wires.

Sort of at a loss now....
Any suggestions at this point would be worth so much to us right now. Probably something we are over looking, I know I've read a few posts about the ECU Fuse here http://www.sr20-forum.com/general-sr20/47821-crank-but-no-start.html

The only caveat is the hard starts the day before.... and the flawless engine running during Starting Fluid running.

Thanks so much guys

Temp sensor, but he also has less then a qtr tank of gas the car could "think" the tank is empty.

Hi Shane, did you let him know about it? I do vaguely remember reading on temp sensors

Just had same issue. Disconnect fuel rail, then manually spin the distributor while the key is in the on position. The injectors should spray if they don't, check the ground wire on distributor. Could have broken. If that's good and still no spray..... Replace distributor, that's what calls for the injectors to fire. No veteran with this but as I said, literally same issue 2 days ago

I did tell him, he didn't look for it tho. But with the walbro 255 he needs to use a adjustable fpr and I don't think he wants to pay me 175 for it. Which would be half off,also he would need to run a fuel gauge that I have but I doubt he wants to buy either hahaha

Thanks for the input, but this is a low port, so fuel rail isn't as easy... would you think a noid light would give the same result?

Uhh... NO.



A noid light will tell you if the Fuel Injector is getting signal from the ECM only - It will not tell you if it is spitting fuel or not.


? When you turn the key to the on position, does the check engine light come on indicating that the ECM has power and is on ?

Pull the fuel line off after the fuel filter - Verify that you are getting some fuel to the rail. Get a fuel pressure gauge - You can get a good Snap-On one for about $300 and it's worth every penny. Without a Fuel Pressure gauge you will be chasing you tail.

Other fuel problems could be:

Out of gas
Bad Fuel Pump
Bad Fuel line from Pump to Sender Unit
Bad Fuel line from Sending Unit to Fuel Filter
Bad Fuel Injectors
Bad Fuel Pressure Regulator

Do it once - Do it right. You will only get out of it what you put in.

out of gas and jgy touched it

two very bad things

I said out of gas and got "uh no....." Then he list some things and out of gas was first on the list what a tool

I'd like to think that I am a pretty laid back easy going dude. It appears that I was not clear in my response so let me clarify.

Temp sensor will not cause the car not to start. That is what I meant to say "Uhh... NO." too. If the fuel gauge is on Empty, it will not prevent the fuel pump from powering up. These cars are not that smart.
@LightPeach - If you think think that I'm a "tool" my response to you is who pissed in your Lucky Charms this morning.