88 escort no start

HI. I've got an 88 escort that won't start. This car was stored for about 3 years. I have the engine cranking now, it was partially seized. It has CFI, and I am not seeing any type of moisture or gas at all in the throttle body or anything on the bottom of the injector nozzle; it is bone dry. I poured about 6 oz's of gas in there to prime the pump, and all I got was a few backfires out the TB. I tried some old starting fluid that I had laying around - probably couldn't even get this stuff any more - it is ether and nitrous oxide; still no luck.

One other thing of note is that some lovely person who had worked on this car before - I am told it has a head gasket problem - lost all the bolts for the valve cover. I am having a heck of a time finding these parts. Although the bolt went nicely into a 1/4-28 threaded nut in the hardware store; I got some 1/4-28 bolts at autozone, and after about 3 turns down, it feels like that bolt is going to shear right off and/or strip out the threads on the head.

1. - could the lack of compression caused by having the valve cover basically floating around on the gasket cause the no start condition

2. - anyone know where I could get these - I am about to start going to junkyards, I have called two head shops (no pun intended), and several recyclers, etc., checked a few parts stores on line, etc., even the ford dealer doesn't have this part any more - very harsh.

3. - I am a little concerned about finding TDC for cyl 1. as the 'timing plate' is just that sticker on the timing belt cover, hopefully it will be obvious when I get around to that, I am still working on getting wrenches to take off the egr valve.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like a fun one.

Yeah buddy.

Story of my life, if it ain't broken, someone else must own it.

I did reset the fuel switch, that happened once on my 88 tbird - but the fuel pressure test instructions indicate that the car must be "running" in order to diagnose a low pressure condition. My hope is that it is not a plugged fuel line, or bad pump because I really don't want to pull the tank. However, since the gas in the throttle body didn't turn the engine over, I'm not sure what the problem is. The only possible caveat is that the gas was siphoned from my compressor and it is of an August, 2003 vintage, but other than that, that's why I'm posting!

Thanks!

do a compresson test and if its low then i would chck the timming belt , it may have jumped a cog or two, after it was sitting for a while the belt may have got a memmory or dry rot. I'm not the best spelling so i hope you can figer this out. I hear ya, If its not broken it must be somebody elses. Thats me too.

Maybe a mouse or some thing like that got hungry and chewed some thing?

Well I scored me some valve cover bolts at a junk yard.

The engine in the junk yard looked nicer than the one in my car!

The engine 'sounds' like it wants to start, I have an intermittent problem with the spark. I am fairly sure that the compression will be off as I have been informed that there is an issue with the head gasket (thankfully a new head gasket kit came with this beast), and I am not 'going there' with the timing belt yet as there is no way to get a standard breaker bar and socket in there, and I don't have the 19mm offset tool to play with the crank pulley yet.

With regards to the spark, I did not get any continuity from my meter on the ignition coil (primary circuit engine crank test). I didn't use a test light as I really couldn't cobble one together in the time I had. As I replaced the plugs (way fouled), I cranked the engine with a remote starter on all cylinders as I replaced the plugs to clear the chambers, and a puff of grey dust blew out of 3 & 4 cyl., and I put in some new wires I had laying around - for a Chevy, I guess I should compare specs on the resistance, but I don't think this is the issue!!!. There was some minor oil on cyl 1's plug (very light coat) - the plugs' terminals were for the most part rust color.

I also abraded the distributor terminals down to get the rust off of them, and I cleaned some minor carbon fouling out as well. It seems I had nice spark on all 4 after I took the ignition coil out to clean the terminals and run the diags on it as listed in my haynes manual (ie it wasn't mounted in the normal position, but was basically with the conductor for the distributor pointing "up"). I got TEST OK on primary and secondary resistance. I didn't test the battery voltage percentage series (start, run, off) as it was extremely cold outside (19 deg. F - plus the meter was acting kind of weird after it cooled down to outside temperature) and I kept draining and charging the battery. I got NO spark after new plugs and wires and remounting the iggie coil.

Well tomorrow's another day!!!

My gut is the iggie coil is bad, but I don't have $32 to keep throwing parts at it, and if I do get a new coil and it doesn't work, I think I am looking at an ignition module issue, the rotor looks OK. That might make it worthwhile to donate this thang and take the write-off.

":P

"Best of all it's a Ford" ...

one thing all the wiring is on top or sides of the motor where you can actually see it so I have checked pretty much the whole wiring harness out (in the engine compartment anyway), I think it's rodent free, although did I get a free wasp's nest included in this great deal.

Well i just started testing compression - 120 on cyl. 4, 75 on cyl.3 - way low - I stopped right there, as soon as my big wrenches come in I am doing the head gasket.

I am going to attempt the 'haynes method' and keep the timing belt unaltered. I'll worry about timing if I get the mechanical stuff done. This thing is not worth pulling the engine out, but it IS registered and insured!!!

I am surprised it didn't start, got a new coil, and I have reliable spark now, and I have seen some cars running with antifreeze coming out all over the place around the head.

You are having the same problem my neighbor did with his 88 escort. It wouldnt start, and it had poor compression on cylinders 2 and 3. We only figured that out after we did a complete head job on the engine (new camshaft, valves, the whole nine yards). It turns out that the rings on pistons 2 and 3 were fried, so the time and money spent on the heads wasnt really worth it.

So, naturally, we came to the conclusion that he should have the bottom end rebuilt professionally, since time and other things were inhibiting process. We had no idea really why it would need the work, it only had 60 k miles on it. A couple days ago, he told me that it had overheated....... :banghead:

Do you know if it was overheated?? if it is, a head gasket may be the beginning of your problems. And by the way, after it was put back together by the mechanic it got 5k miles then seized....

Huh, that is interesting. Well, all I know is that this car has been sitting for ~3 years. Apparently the person who my friend got it from before me is/was a mechanic at pep boys and made the head gasket diagnosis. In the haynes manual there is a procedure to check the rings ie squirt oil in the cylinder through the spark plug hole and compare to the 'unoiled' compression test, I will do that tomorrow, thanks!!! BTW if I get 5k miles out of this thing I will be fine.