Car Won Start After Rebuild

jdnet · January 7, 2013

hey guys,

Any input on this would be appreciated. I had my tribute rebuilt. Basically everything minus the pistons, piston rings and bore. Got everything in last saturday and now we can't seem to get her running. My mechanic is actually not here since his dad died so I'm left with the joy of getting this done. It started twice so far. Once on saturday and then again this morning. On saturday I had to shut it down since a transmission line sprung a leak.

After fixing it today it start up with a bit of an effort and ran rough till it shut down. Ran a scan on it and got a code for an ignition circuit malfunction. Upon further inspection I found that someone had mixed up the wiring to the coil packs. Put it in correctly and tried starting it up but it failed. the battery charge was low but I recharged it and even tried a new battery to no avail.

Now my odometer displays dashes when in the on position. in any other position it displays the mileage as it's supposed to. Also my scanner will not connect to the pcm. I thought I may have fried the pcm but after taking apart the cover it does not show any signs indicative of a fried pcm. The pcm fuse seems fine and I swapped the relay.

Also there is spark at the coil packs and fuel pump switches on and the fuel rail remains pressurized. So now I'm kinda lost as to what the next step here should be. Any ideas?

BTW. the motor this is for a v6 mazda tribute with a ford duratec motor.

NZer · January 7, 2013

You got wrong timing.

NZer · January 7, 2013

Try not to mess with anything else. If the engine ran fine (even tho compression was low) after a rebuilt it should run fine. Have you done any work on the Valves? If you got them mixed up they could be leaking too unless you checked it before fitting it. If you have assembled the engine right then it should start fine. From what you say its definitely the timing you got mixed up. Also make sure firing order is right. Good luck

fonfe · January 7, 2013

you need to rule out lack of compression wiht a compression tester.

if thats fine then like nzer said check your timing.

if thats ok id check your injectors are firing correctly, and same with your plugs.

to be honest though it could be a mulititude of things that if your not a mechanic i suggest you wait untill your returns as you could be there for a long time trying to work out whats wrong.

question though....why was the engine rebuilt? and what was replaced?

Rumesh88 · January 9, 2013

Check if you have forgotten to connect one or more grounding returns to the engine block.

jdnet · January 14, 2013

Didn't get to update this. Turned out the problem was a bad contact cleaner and corrosion from leaving the harness off the car for two months. Got the entire harness off an cleaned up each and every connector, plugged in and runs fine. Now I do have an alternator issue to sort though. It doesn't seem to be charging. My best guess would be that someone may have crossed wires at some point so the alternator needs to come off tomorrow to have the voltage regulator checked out. That itself is another massive PITA since it means the subframe, lower control arm, etc. will have to be pulled out. Messing with alternators on these trucks is not fun.

Clark's son · January 14, 2013

Hey mate how much did you run on the duratec v6 before it asked for a rebuild?

jdnet · January 14, 2013

190k. Rebuild wasn't for any damage to the engine. Had a oil leak from the oil separator which called for the removal of a head and another oil leak in the oil pan. Since the one head needed to come out and the engine needed to come out to get the power steering rack out for new mounts, i just overhauled the whole thing just for the hell of it. A little excessive but it should be good for at least another 100k and i wont have to worry about any more oil leaks. The bore, pistons, rings were in top shape so left them as is.

fonfe · January 15, 2013

Glad to hear you got it running again.

If you want a bit more poke out of it fit the inlet system and cams from a Mondeo st220

jdnet · January 17, 2013

Well I solved the alternator issue without taking everything apart. Turned out the pcm signal wire was not connected. I had a non-ford alternator put in two years ago since the old one gave out and ford alternators are crap. The ford has a 3-pin connector whereas the replacement is two pin. the pcm line was added separately I guess.