put it back togehter, now it won't start sparkplug order, 4 cyl rangr/mazda

No direct experience with this specific engine, but if 'totally doesn't fire' I'd wonder if you had the distributor(s) 180 degrees out of phase?

Both distributors run clockwise, but, for spark extension, emissions control, and the fact that one is about 180 degrees mechanically advanced to the other, of course the starting point for cylinder #1 has to be 180 degrees ahead of the other distributor! Actual spark delay is in microseconds.

Sequence is as printed on the distributor caps!

Do you have a timing light, or one of the Harbor Freight Tools.com spark tester lights? It is a neon bulb that flashes in the presence of the high energy spark.

If you have spark, and the sequence is proper, then, the other thing to do is to check compression, because if the belt broke, the valves bend in an interference engine, and need head repair to get the valves to again seal. No seal = no compression in the cylinder.

AFAIK, that is an interference engine. Scroogle it, (I prefer not being tracked and spammed, so I have the FF addons like Scroogle, Ghostery, and Adblock+... ) and only run Linux Mint, on all computers... Even Microsoft runs on 31,000 Linux computers, servers, firewalls, workstations!

This engine -should- be DIS (distributorless Ignition System)

According to Mitchell On Demand, the wires are routed as such;

The timing belt MUST be installed correctly. I can be mounted on the pullies in any number of ways, but only one way will allow the motor to run. The engine should have been set to TDC and the marks on the cam and crank aligned through the center of the respective shafts before the belt was installed.

The firing order is typically molded onto the intake manifold, so you should be able to set the plug wires properly.

I DO NOT KNOW WHQT THE FIRING ORDER IS, but I think he has the order wrong because (assuming you are right) his order does not match yours.

He says the order is 1432/2341, but you say it is 1423/3241. You and he have Plugs 2 & 3 reversed in the order.

His front of the engine faces to the right, my front of the engine faces to the left.

If you flip his diagram over, it matches mine. (or I'm going blind)

It should still run if he has but one coil pack wired correctly...

You have a firing order of 1423, he has a firing order of 1432. I don't know what the order is, but you and he do not have it the same.

It should run with only one coil pack, but it would run stronger with both of them.

I'm not sure what the reason is behind two plugs per cylinder, maybe they fire alternately so the coil has more time to charge -- maybe one of the plugs fires on one cycle and the other plug fires on the next cycle. Or, maybe both plugs fire at the same time so the fuel load combusts more completely.

At least on the Dodge HEMI, which has 2 plugs per cylinder (yea, that's 16 plugs, quite a tuneup), they both fire at the same time, and the idea is a smoother burn for more power/lower emissions.

Also, with eight coils, each coil fires two plugs, but not the same cylinders--there is actually a spark at each revolution in each cylinder, yep, a spark on the tail end of the exhaust cycle! But it works, so who's to complain?

Can't be because I have posted no firing order, I posted the wire routing. This engine uses Distributorless Ignition, you can not discern a firing order from looking at the top of a coil pack other than by realizing which cylinders are companion cylinders and realizing that the primary signal from the ignition module alternates between the individual coil windings.

The left most 1 4 is one coil pack. 3 2

The right most 1 4 is the second coil pack 3 2

The physical orientation of them on the engine is that they are mounted

180* opposite each other so that one coil packs primary connector points one direction and the other coil packs primary connector points 180* opposite. 1 and 4 can be switched with each other and everything is fine, 2 and 3 can be switched with each other and everything will be fine. Thats the way DIS works.

The actual firing order is; 1-3-4-2

Actually, there are times when only one coil pack is used. I forget the circumstances due to the training having been 22 years ago and the fact that hardly any 4 cyl Rangers exist in this area.

Emissions. The Pinto motor is filthy.

"Jeff Strickland" on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:53:32

-0700 typed in alt.trucks.ford the following:

Two sets of plugs make the engine burn cleaner, it is a way to get the engine to pass "smog" without a lot of rework.

The whole thing is a kludge - to get to the timing belt, you have to remove the fan, alternator, a/c ... fnord!

pyotr filipivich on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 21:38:54

-0700 typed in alt.trucks.ford the following:

Okay, I should have followed up sooner.

There are, it turns out, two marks on the cam shaft. I didn't ask what the one was for, but if you line it up with the mark on the head

- the engine doesn't start. You're about 37.5 degrees out of sync. If you line up the two matching symbols (the diamonds) then it runs just fine!

It was one of those "minor" details which was obvious when the Factory Trained Mechanic came to help us out.

Because it wouldn't start, we checked compression, and couldn't get it - because the valve were out of timing, but we didn't know that. So pulled the head - it turned out to be fine, although two lifters had died. Replaced those, all eight plugs, plug wires, (while you have it apart is the time to replace things which are otherwise "buried"), and thermostat. Once we got it back together, it started first time, and ran good. Got me home in one piece.

Many thanks for the followup! And good to hear it now runs. I've seen similar stories in the past (one, a friends OHC motorcycle, a Honda) where valves were out of time.

PeterD on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 08:11:09 -0500 typed in alt.trucks.ford the following:

I'm just glad we managed to get it done - it made the trip about five days longer than planned... "fortunately" I didn't have a job had to be back in time for.

tschus pyotr