URGENT - Carlisle attendees - NEED HELP

[jonnymopar]

Does anyone staying in or near Carlisle have an older Snap-on scanner or DRB or anything that will scan a SMEC vehicle? I am waiting for AAA to tow me back to my hotel. I can not get my car started and I'm nearly certain its a fuel issue. My number is now removed from this post. If anybody can help me out I would sincerely appreciate it.

[acannell]

codes?

theres gotta be someone at carlisle with a boostbuton cal and the laptop/sci cable setup working...

is there spark?

why do you think its a fuel issue? any fuel issue that a scanner would help with would really be another issue like no ignition signal..wouldnt it

and if its a more obvious fuel issue like no pump worky then a scanner wont help

[jonnymopar]

The pump primes, tach shows activity during crank, codes 12 and 55 which dont help. Im just trying to get it somwhere that wont kill me like where i am now. Ill get a better look at it then

[acannell]

The pump primes, tach shows activity during crank, codes 12 and 55 which dont help. Im just trying to get it somwhere that wont kill me like where i am now. Ill get a better look at it then

can you pull the rail out and visually confirm the injectors are spraying during cranking? only need a 10mm wrench of some sort. maybe not even that, I bet you could do it with a leatherman or pliers

or at least confirm you smell gas?

anything AT ALL weird going on with the engine before this?

is there any ECU state that would see ignition signal but not send fuel?

how about the ASD relay?

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can one hear the injectors clicking during cranking? im not sure...that might be easier than pulling the rail out..maybe you could use a hanger and a paper cup to make a mechanics stethoscope and listen to the injector..yes really lol

[jonnymopar]

can you pull the rail out and visually confirm the injectors are spraying during cranking? only need a 10mm wrench of some sort. maybe not even that, I bet you could do it with a leatherman or pliers

I haven't pulled the rail yet. I just finally got the car back to the hotel and it's after midnight, so tomorrow is another day.

or at least confirm you smell gas?

Can't smell gas through the exhaust after cranking the daylights out of it with no start.

anything AT ALL weird going on with the engine before this?

Hell yeah. It started acting funny about halfway here when I was driving out Thursday. It would feel like a quick skip. But the car would keep driving along with nothing alarming on the gauges. It's gotten slowly worse since I've been here. Seems to be very random. If I start the car and leave it idling, it has simply died a couple times. Started right back up though, except for now.

is there any ECU state that would see ignition signal but not send fuel?

Not sure.

how about the ASD relay?

Checked that. Even with the relay removed and the fuel pump feed jumped directly to the battery (pump audibly running), it still won't start.

- - - Updated - - -

can one hear the injectors clicking during cranking? im not sure...that might be easier than pulling the rail out..maybe you could use a hanger and a paper cup to make a mechanics stethoscope and listen to the injector..yes really lol

Maybe something to try tomorrow. I'm mentally exhausted and aggravated enough to not be thinking clearly right now, so I locked it up and am going to bed. At least the car and I are both safe now. Working on a car with about 4 feet between my stationary butt and a tractor-trailer at highway speed... that's thrilling, but not in a good way.

[acannell]

Hell yeah. It started acting funny about halfway here when I was driving out Thursday. It would feel like a quick skip. But the car would keep driving along with nothing alarming on the gauges. It's gotten slowly worse since I've been here. Seems to be very random. If I start the car and leave it idling, it has simply died a couple times. Started right back up though, except for now.

gah...that REALLY sounds like HEP but I suppose if the tach is moving during cranking its not......right? thats a big if..maybe there is some way the tach can move but the ECU is not getting good ignition timing

that or massive electrical fault?

if you can prove the injectors definitely arent firing during cranking that would be important I think

what would you use the scanner for?

this makes me wonder something

can you make the injectors fire by manually spinning the distributor? (assuming the distrib is out of the engine so you can spin it freely?)

and can you do this both with the key in run and start (assuming you disabled the starter electrically so it wouldnt turn on when in "start")

that could be an easy way to listen for injectors..but youd have to pull the distrib out and therefore lose proper timing unless you marked things

hope you feel better in the morning!! sounds stressful!

[tryingbe]

If it is fuel issue, get a can of carb cleaner and spray it to the T/B or one of the vacuum line during cranking, the engine should starts.

[mopar-tech]

If it is fuel issue, get a can of carb cleaner and spray it to the T/B or one of the vacuum line during cranking, the engine should starts.

Gold star right there.

Give it a shot in the TB will determine if fuel issue or not. You bypass the fuel pump, injectors, regulator and injector drivers.

Carb or brake cleaner will do.

[wheming]

Had some similar issues and was an ignition coil going bad. Would do weird things before it finally totally failed.

[jonnymopar]

Had some similar issues and was an ignition coil going bad. Would do weird things before it finally totally failed.

Ding ding ding ding ding! Tell him what's he's won!

This is why frantic aggravated misdiagnoses are the worst. Now, for the perfect 20/20 hindsight:

I put a Forward Motion turbo on the car over a month ago. The SRT-4 turbofold heat shields are this goofy looking 2-piece clamshell type thing. When I put the new turbo on, I left the top half of the heat shield off in order to make my adjustable wastegate arm more easily accessible for tweaking. I left it like that until last week when I was prepping the car for the trip. My coil is a later-model E-core type mounted up on the valve cover where the stock 2.4 coil pack would normally be. Thinking about all this, I think I physically cooked my coil. Going through and jiggling nearly every electrical connector in the engine bay, I found that pressing down on the coil connector would cause the car to miss and die, but only after it was warmed up. I replaced the coil and went ripping up and down I-83 and the car feels great (and this is with a VERY used coil off a late 90's 5.9L that someone lent me).

Thank you to those who contributed. Hopefully tomorrow's 400-mile trip goes smoothly.