After nearly 9 months of laboring on this restoration, the time finally came to see if the engine would still start. The car still isn't driveable yet - it's still sitting on blocks and the suspension isn't all together yet, but I thought hearing the engine roar to life again would give me a bit of much-needed inspiration to finish the remaining work. Wishful thinking. I turned the key and the engine cranked, but nothing else. I thought I heard it the engine kick over once but I'm not sure. The ECU was blinking an error code, so I consulted the service manual and it's troubleshooting flowcharts, which soon led me to the fuel injectors. The error code indicated an injector problem (code 16), so I checked both with an ohmeter and sure enough, one appears to be bad (measuring 8.3 instead of 1.5-2.5 as specified). But before I head to the local junkyard in search of a replacement, there are a couple things I'm curious to know. First of all, shouldn't the engine still start if at least one injector is working (especially with a 2-injector TBI system)? And second, is it possible for the injector to fail after sitting for a long period of time? I should note that before I began restoring this vehicle it was very hard to start, but I assumed that was caused by fuel pressure being lost via holes rusted through the lines. The lines are now repaired and fuel pressure is normal. I didn't try swapping the two injectors, I think I'll just replace the bad one first and see what happens. But I'd still like to have some answers to those other questions. Thanks for any advice.
- posted
14 years ago