95 Eclipse GST turbo firing problem

Ok guys/girls...my son and I bought a GST turbo that has sit for a while.The boys who parked it couldn't figure out how to put a tranny in, so we showed them! :cool: However, we inherited a strange problem with it...we can't get it to fire. It will crank, we have power to the coils, gas, etc. but no start. We rented a scanner but the scanner keeps telling us to plug it in (?). New ecu so we feel that's not the issue, new MAS, new wires, plugs, new coils...we've done a lot so I may be missing something new. But MAN....this is really baffling. I hope someone can help. My son is wanting to part it out, but I told him there are people out there with answers....we just have to find them. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Tommy

PS - I'm new to the forum thing so if I do something wrong, tell me....lol

Sounds like you covered a good bit so far... Do you know if they ever had the engine out or tore apart? I'm wondering where the timing stands in the car. Have you checked it to see if the cams are 180 degrees out of time? Or possibly bent valves if the timing is off a few teeth. I definitely think timing is the next area to check though.

First, I want to thank you for replying to our post. Very kind of you! I appreciate any help cause the more brain-power I get on this, the closer I am are to getting this project on the road. I'd love to be able to drive it in the Blue Ridge Mts. where I am not far from...if I can get it away from my son.:)

The engine ran fine the last time it was on the road. The guys who had it initially blew the original engine, replaced it with the exact same kind, then proceeded to blow out the transmission. They ended up buying one but could not get it back together.

We did a little more troubleshooting on it today with the help of a Chilton manual and discovered that opposite from our first belief, we did not have any gas going to the engine. After digging around, we found that the fuel pump was pumping if we wired it directly to the battery, but there was some other wiring going to the pump connector that we had no idea what it was. So we left it undone until we could figure out if it is something to do with the anti-theft or just someone didn't know what they we doing with it.

I am a computer/electronic grad (a while back), so I could help my son test the sensors as well as we could without the engine running and I discovered that the 100A engine fuse had blown. We replaced that. I am pretty sure that the camshaft angle sensor is missing as it is not where the Chilton manual says it should be. We see the knock sensor, but not the camshaft angle sensor. I tested the IAC sensor and found one leg of it bad, SO...we will replace that. But the big issue is we are not getting spark to the plugs. I have tested the coils and they are good. We get power coming in, but nothing to the plugs. I can't figure out how to test the power transistor (that goes to the plugs) as I think I need current applied to test it. Maybe an electronics shop can test it (just thought of that...lol).

After we changed the 100A engine fuse, we tested again with an OBDCII tester and what'da know, it read like it should but everything PASSED. AAAAARRRRRGGG!

One other thing I noticed when I got on the scene is that the engine cranks very slowly. Battery is reading 13.1 v so it's not that. Not sure what this means, just thought I'd mention it.

Hmm what seems very interesting to me is that they would be able to swap a motor but not figure out how to get the tranny back in. :wtf: That would really make me nervous about how things may have been done on the motor... :uhoh:

If there is no signal going from the cam angle sensor then you won't get anything to fire in the cylinders and since you said the cam angle sensor is completely missing then you need to get one first. As for the wiring going to the fuel pump, they probably put a 255lph pump in and tried to rewire it for more power. I would just get the thing running the best you can with stock parts/wiring before doing any modifying to the car...

You are definitely right about going back to stock! That's pretty much what we had decided Sun night. I have no idea what these guys did before us. Seems like it was said after they got the second engine, they tried to put it in and couldn't do that and ended up paying someone to finish the install. Thinking the motor was too hard, they thought the tranny would be fairly simple and straight-forward and when they ran into trouble there, they/the owner could not pay to have someone finish the job - so mom and dad went out and helped him buy another one.

As soon as payday comes on Tues, I am going to get the angle sensor. I looked harder at it and found the bracket that help it was still shiny with the marking of a piece removed. So it did go there at one time.

Again, appreciate your replies! Just bouncing things off someone else helps. Thanks!

Tommy

Lets look at the basics for a moment, for an engine to run it needs fuel, air and spark. What I would do is pull a plug and make sure you have spark on all the plugs. If you do then check fuel pressure while cranking. Another test I like to try is spray some starter fluid into the intake, with a turbo car this is easier said then done but you can pull off the intercooler pipe and spray some in there. The car will bust off without the pipes hooked back up but probably will not run. Test and get back with the results. It will help us point you in the right direction

Hey guys, This has been a pretty good problem if you like to sit a figure it out. However, we don't! I want to get the car on the road....so in that respect, we just this weekend came across an 95 Eclipse GSX turbo that had been rolled and totaled two weeks ago. So we bought the engine out of it and we're just going to use the best of the two. Right now we are having some trouble testing the sensors as Chilton does not show some in the repair manual. We'll see how that goes.

Although I still may need some help, I want to thank both of you for replying. You have been most helpful with your suggestions! Maybe we will post some pix when we get it all together and on the road!

Tommy & Eric

Good luck with the swap of the new motor! We hope to see some pics and future posts from ya! :thumbsup:

I just wanted to add in that the location of the Cam ANgle Sensor switched after 97-99.

The manual may be referring to the wrong motor year. If the CAS is on the top left of the head then its the 97-99
check this link out
http://members.shaw.ca/dsm.1000q/Engineprimer/2G/cas.htm