Starting problem

[Troy]

I have a 99 sho that just decided to quit on me. When I go to start it, the car will not start by just turning the key. I have to hold the gas pedal all the way to the floor to get it to start and then I have to rev it to keep running. Since the issue I have put new cam sensor, crank sensor, iac,and fuel filter in. Prior to issue I put in all new coils and plugs in. I have checked fuel pressure at rail and I have 38 psi. I'm at a loss here any help would be appreciated.

 

[SHOdded]

Are leaky injectors an issue on the Gen III's? Sounded like flooded engine from the beginning of your post. I'd pull the plugs again to check & see if they are wet with fuel or smell of fuel. How long does pressure hold at the rail? Should be a few hours.

 

[stephen newberg]

Also, are the cam sprockets welded? If they have slipped and the timing is off, you could get these sort of symptoms.

pax, smn

 

[Troy]

Thanks for reply. Im going to take front valve cover off today to check cams. To me it seems like it is out of time so I'm fearing the worst.

 

[Troy]

Well I checked fuel pressure after a couple hours and it held at 35 psi so I took valve cover off and didn't see any weld marks. Turned the key and only one cam moved so I believe it's done. Correct me if I'm wrong please but to my knowledge of cars that's not good. Thanks for the replies guys and pointing me in the right direction.

 

[stephen newberg]

Sorry to say, but yes, you have a serious problem. The question now is how much damage has been done and if it is worth your effort to fix. The only way to know is to take the engine apart and see the condition of the values and pistons. From your indicated symptoms, I suspect it is going to be bad. Let us know what happens.

pax, smn

 

[Troy]

Yeah it really is too bad cause the car only has 100,000 miles and not a spec of rust on it. I should have checked this issue out when my son bought the car but we are new to this type of car and didn't know about the problem. Are parts hard to come by for these engines? Is cost enormous? I would do most of the labor myself but worry about putting more into car than it's worth.

 

[sperold]

You have already bought lots of new parts, so you should take a look to see what the damage is.
A lot of parts are not available anymore, like head gaskets, but people coat them and reuse them (see various posts on this).
You can get parts on this forum in the Parts for Sale section and post what you need in the Wanted to Buy section.
If you have the time and the space, give it a try and take lots of pictures to make reassembly easier.
Chances are the rear head unit has not spun the cams yet, so for now, everything is concentrated in the easier to work on unit.
It won't be easy. Get lots of advice on this forum; and find who is near you, to get some help when needed.

 

[stephen newberg]

The above advice is good, IMO.

pax, smn

 

[E1]

Sorry about your engine. As said, you won't know the severity of the internal damage until you get the head off. Sometimes the valves just bend, some times they snap off and get pounded into the pistons.

Troy - where are you located? I'm in the Chicago area. I am all out of ready to go heads, but I DO have a spare welded running engine I could be convinced to part ways with but you'd have to come pick it up.

 

[Troy]

My son and I are still looking into rebuilding. There are a couple of donar engines around here in the twin cities area of Minnesota on Craigslist but I fear that I may inherit there problems too. Do you always have to get the heads redone or ground down to level?

 

[E1]

If any valve head broke off, the head is destroyed. I have seen a combustion chamber completely remanufactured by a place called cylinderheads.com, and it was beautiful. I believe it was special order only.

If the valves just bend, then I have found success getting replacement valves from Federal Mogul through RockAuto.com and hand lapping them in myself. I check the heads for flatness before trying to fix them, of course. Not seen warped heads from a camfailure yet.