I picked up this wagon as a winter beater a few months back, and apart from replacing the power steering pump and throwing a cap and rotor on it I haven't touched it. It's got 216k on it, and based on the interior condition and other clues it has been well maintained. Two days ago I was trying to get up the icy driveway out at my farm and after a couple attempts I got a little too enthusiastic and redlined it trying to scream my way up. That attempt failed too, so I idled back down the driveway and when I got to the road I gave it some gas and it died. It cranked over great but no hint of starting. I put a spark plug tester light on a couple of cylinders and the rotor and it's getting spark. Tried some ether with out so much as a cough. Did I berk something up internally with my gunning it hijinks? What now? Test compression, timing? Loosen the fuel fitting and make sure it's gushing out? I've never had an engine problem that wasn't either spark or fuel before!
hmmm. '92 is a TBI motor right?
should be able to take the air filter housing off and see the spray pattern. Odd it wouldn't cough on ether though if it had spark.
Put a timing light on it to make sure the spark is still in time.
spray some starting fluid in it or dump some gas down the throttle body to see if it fires.
Yeah, `92 would be TBI. I'd verify that you have enough fuel pressure/ spray before worrying about compression.
I am assuming yours is a non-tow pack car?
My guess is distributor gear.
Thanks for the replies and thought fellows! It is a TBI and it has a receiver hitch, but I don't know if it is a towpackage car or if it was added on later. I will check the fuel spray pattern first, then put a timing light on it if that looks good. Regarding the distributor gear, are you saying it would have gotten chewed up/worn out and slipped, putting the timing off? I'll report back what I find out.
In reply to Taterstein:
Yeah, they wear the gear out. You're flogging may have been enough to get it to jump a few teeth. Or the timing chain could have jumped also. Use timing Mark on the balancer and pull the spark plug to find TDC on compression stroke of cyl 1. Then see where the distributor rotor is pointing. If it's not pointed at #1 on the cap then either the distributor or timing chain jumped time.
In reply to gearheadmb:
I see. I knew timing chains would wear out and skip teeth throwing the timing off, but I had never considered the distributor gear wearing out and changing the timing. I'll follow your protocol after confirming fuel and find out where the timing is. Thanks for the help!
Four things for an engine to run:
Compression, ignition, fuel and all at the right time.
So find out which one is missing.
it won't jump a tooth on the distributor gear- it will just wear out to the point that it won't spin any more. a good indication of this happening is oil that looks like the paint job on a 70's speedboat (or new Buick).. they can theoretically jump a tooth or two on the timing chain, but it's not as common as it was back in the days of the nylon cam gear.
one thing to keep in mind with the TBI B bodies if you trace it to something in the distributor: they used a different distributor housing than the trucks and F bodies did, with a matching intake manifold that was also unique to the B bodies. due to the cowl hanging over the back of the engine, they had to make the hole in the intake manifold for the distributor about 1/4" bigger so you could take it out if need be, and they made the mating surface on the distributor bigger by the same amount. that's what that mystery extra round gasket is for in a small block Chevy gasket set... the spinny parts and all the guts are the same as the truck distributors, but the housing is different. good luck pulling the distributor if someone swapped in a truck or Camaro engine somewhere along the line..
Taterstein wrote:
Thanks for the replies and thought fellows! It is a TBI and it has a receiver hitch, but I don't know if it is a towpackage car or if it was added on later.
Just a FYI, a lot of those B-bodies had a recall for a harmonic vibration of the rear frame members. The recall fix was to install a frame mounted hitch. It might have never towed anything, but still have a hitch.
In reply to novaderrik:
We still have that special nut driver that we cut down to fit under the cowl to change cap/rotors. HATED that engine bay.
UPDATE:
Great tip EsotericNixon to verify fuel pressure and xflowgolf to look for the fuel spray pattern. I put my pops behind the wheel to turn the key while I watched the injectors and what I saw was... No fuel. I put a capful of fuel in each bowl and it tried to fire up. I don't know why it didn't try to fire on the starting fluid. It was a only 1/4 full can fresh from my below freezing garage. Maybe that played a part. Moral is to confirm before assuming I suppose. Now I'm going to check the relay and fuse when I figure out where they live. I tried listening for the pump when my pops turned the key on, but all I could here was the noisy power antenna. I wish I hadn't just filled up the tank now if I have to drop it to reach the pump. So check relay, fuse, filter, connection and ground for the pump by the tank, and if those are dead ends replace the pump?
Thanks for the deep info on b-body's novaderrik, the interesting tidbit about the rear hitches toyman01, and I concur Bobzilla, the engine bay is big, but that distributor is way back there under the cowl, changing the cap and rotor took most of an hour!
Also, I've really been enjoying piloting this boat around! It's pretty cool looking, I've already slept in it once, I used it to move, it can fit 8 people, and the fuel mileage isn't that bad. I'm going to keep an eye out for a non-rusty 94-96 one with the lt1. It's a sweet roadtrip machine and gas is cheap right now!
