Firing order for 1990 GM 3.3 help please.

Firing order on coil packs:

Cylinder lay out:

The original coil packs are have cylinder #'s on them. Replacements don't.

Thanks a lot, ours are a mix of originals with numbers all over the place.

Mike

Ouch, something is really wrong here....

I know I traced one wire through the channel to show the kid how to and for sure it fit in the number 2 coil. This wire was on the front drivers side end of the engine or tranny end, not the waterpump or front end????

Your diagram shows it opposite with number one on the passenger side or waterpump side?

Thanks,

Mike

OK, this is nuts. The car was driving nice, just passed emissions, etc and we decided to tune it because sparks were flying out of the wires in the damp.

It looks like the first coil pack is replaced with 5 and 2 on it instead of 1 and 4, the rest look original with the numbers 5,2,3,6 in descending order with the buss line at the #6 end.

My son mixed a couple wires at the back so it wouldn't start this morning, it did run last night, got those now in the 'original when we got it' coil packs.

'I' traced two wires in the front channel of the engine just to show my kid how to do it and 'for sure' the wire plugged into the front right or tranny end of the engine was in coil #2... The front left one was in #6.

Everything I read says 1,3,5 are the front bank of cylinders, not the back bank?

OK, so is this engine wired backward? Something like clocking a distributor cap 180 off because you messed up the cam?

It just don't want to start now though. I get a hard sounding crank crank crank and seize, let off the key, try again and a solid crank crank crank and jam.

Man I need a beer.....

Mike

Wife's car - 90 beretta, 3.1. Not same engine, but when I did the plugs and wires I had managed to butcher it - I had cylinder #1 wrong. Is there an underhood decal still?

Which head is further "forward"? (front of engine, not front of car.) I don't know if the 3.3 does that, but the old small block did, and the

If you've got it totally backwards, I think it would run, but badly because it's a waste-spark setup. But don't quote me on that.

yeah, nothing sucks more than messing up the plug wires and alternating between backfires and no-start.

But hey, at least there's no carb to light on fire when it backfires. ;)

Ray

OK, I checked that and the front head is indeed forward. That would imply # 1 is front of car and belt side of engine. LOL, This is nuts.

The stubs of the wires that were in the front channel are still there and 100% for sure the front left or passenger side of the belt end of the engine's wire came out of #6 on the coil pack with # 2 on the front of car tranny end of the engine. I just checked again...

Mike

Well, this is just too funny. I don't know what drugs or kind of red wine the last owner of our Cutlass was into but the spark plugs were wired to use the waste spark idea Ray mentioned and timing matches for firing to make it run, who cares what the numbers on the coil packs are.... LOL! Someone had a weird sense of humor.

What a strange thing. It ran beautifully except for rainy starts.

We just put it together according to the diagrams dahpater gave, tied the O2 sensor back into it's hole with a coat hanger and away it went. Just purrs again.

Thanks all!

Mike

Mike Roma> We have a 'new' 1990 Olds Cutlass Ciera with the 3.3 engine and I need

Well, the kid got an apology for the bad thoughts aimed his way. The last person to wire this sucker had to have been higher than any drug I have tried yet. I want some of what he was smokin'...LOL.

It was just insane. We totally rewired it according to spec and it runs like a champ.

Mike