Fresh new rebuilt engine wont start?
Turbo Mini Forums

After about 2 years I've finally got round to getting this engine fitted and ready to go..was going well, got it fitted up and firstly made sure it was showing oil pressure..which it was.
So continued to wire up the megajolt etc....it must be wired up correctly as I'm getting a spark.
It turns over at a reasonable speed but will not fire, every now and then it will give a little backfire out the exhaust...but not very often.
It also has plenty of fuel.
I've tried with choke out, and in, and throttle open, and closed.
I'll continue trying but just wondered if I'm missing something obvious?

““A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”” - Jeremy Clarkson

1) Can you get hold of a timing light? Sounds like the timing could be miles out. Recheck the dizzy drive and make sure you haven't got it 180 degrees out. EDIT: oops Megajolt, sorry didn't see that.

2) Crank it while spraying a little carb cleaner / WD40 directly into the carb. If it doesn't make a difference I'd definitely look over the ignition again.

Edited by PhilR on 19th Aug, 2015.

I dont have a dizzy fitted. Its using megajolt.
Could the crank pulley be wrong? maybe its been machined incorrectly?

““A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”” - Jeremy Clarkson

Try to change the spark plug order

Pedro Silva

http://miniciados.blogspot.pt/

I had a very similar problem on a na engine check the rocker cover isn't catching the rockers!

The coil pack to plug leads need to be

1-1
2-2
3-3
4-4

Not in the firing order that you would expect when using a dizzy.

I run a supercharger and I don't care the TB is on the wrong side.
VEMS + 12 PSI + Liquid Intercooler = Small Bore FUN!

I had this when i first tried starting mine a few years back. Swapped leads about and fired straight up.

The plug leads are in the correct order, the only thing I can think that could be wrong is the trigger wheel, this is what I'm going to check next.
I've tried spraying easy start but it makes no difference.

Edited by adam1330 on 20th Aug, 2015.

““A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”” - Jeremy Clarkson

If you suspect the trigger wheel, I'd definitely get hold of a timing strobe and that will tell you straight away. Even if you did get it to start without one, your actual advance could still be far different to what Magajolt says it is.

It's screaming out trigger wheel or gap between sensor and trigger wheel. Good place to start

as phil says
mine was off a few degrees an easy fit tho just changed it in tuner studio until it matched the strobe

I'm now sure it's something to do with the trigger wheel or the sensor bracket being wrong, so I'm going to rob the bracket and possibly the wheel from my other mini and see if it makes any difference.

““A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”” - Jeremy Clarkson

Checked what I said above?

Compression, fuel, spark....those 3 basics is what it's all about. On top of that there's timing: camshaft and ignition.

The ignition timing is a good candidate for being set up in the wrong way on your engine....and this is probably down to user error, not the components! A trigger wheel is just that, a 36 tooth wheel with one missing...can hardly go wrong there and changing it for antother one is useless if you don't know what's going on.

Have you 'told' your ecu what trigger wheel position is TDC? Is the missing tooth indeed spaced 90deg from TDC which MS seems to require? Does the crank sensor give the correct signal when you hook up your laptop and crank over?

If , and only if, everthing above is checked to be ok then your focus should shift to the map itself. Be methodical about it, just throwing on random new parts won't get you anywhere....

Are you sure the sensor is wired corretly?
Seen that gone wrong before

Edit: back firing would indicate it's firing so wiring would be ok...

Edited by Yo-Han on 22nd Aug, 2015.

Dazed and Confused....

Are the plugs getting wet?

Can you confirm that the crank sensor is positioned at 90deg before the missing tooth when at tdc?

It should start and run at 10deg with the megajolt disconnected if the sensor is correct.

Should the missing tooth be at any particular position, or is it that the sensor needs to be 90 degrees from the missing tooth.

““A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”” - Jeremy Clarkson

I've now disconnected the megajolt so its just on the edis, that way it rules out any megajolt issues
If it's sparking then the sensor must be wired correctly and Is working.

““A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”” - Jeremy Clarkson

You can put the missing tooth and sensor wherever you like, so long as the engine is 90° BTDC when the missing tooth passes the sensor.

Does not rule out the missing tooth and sensor being in wrong place. With no jolt the edis fires at 10 deg BTDC IIRC. If the sensor is wrong this could be anywhere.

http://www.autosportlabs.net/Ford_EDIS_technical_information

It's as simple as this, set engine to TDC, check missing tooth is 90deg before this. If it is out, adjust it in the map either by individual value or offset the whole lot.

Update!....It now starts!
Rob Gavin was correct.
I changed the plug leads around and it fired up first time.
I still dont understand why? they were in exactly the same order as they are on my other mini, 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4.
But now they are 1-2, 4-3, 3-4, 2-1.

““A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”” - Jeremy Clarkson

wires to the coil pack swapped round .

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

Nice one!