I was not having any issues with my ignition components on my old motor, but the new one won't start up. Using the same dist, coil, ignition module, motor was not getting spark. Swapped out the ingition module and now it fires up but won't run. What am I missing? Adjusting the distributor did nothing. Cam is comp cams xtreme energy XE266HR, my understanding is it has the 351 firing order since it's EFI compatible for 85-95 5.0 engines.
Check your warranty card that came with the Cam ... The Firing Order is printed on it .. Carb getting Fuel? Timing 180 degrees off? Proper Valve Adjustment? THose are the only things I can think of if you are sure it is getting spark.
Matt, sounds like either something that needs 12 volts is not getting it, like a broken wire or from a source that cant deliver a full 12 volts. Or something is grounded that shouldnt be. The good news for you it does fire, this has happened to me in the past, and what I mentioned above was the problem. Keep us posted. Dan
does it stops running when you let go of the key? does it fire only when starting and then stops always when you stop cranking it? mike
Yes mike does what you said -- it will not run on its own, always dies when i let go of the key and stop cranking it. When it does fire, it sure is loud through those open headers! :bananaman Firing order is not printed on my cam card, it does say "engine: ford 351w" on it, though it is listed in the 5.0 section of their catalog. Carb seem to be getting enough fuel, squirter always works good when pumping gas. I'm going to check the ignition with my meter when i'm done typing this. I am going to double-check on the 180 off, it was my first time, so i may may have screwed it up. Motor was professionally built by someone that builds a lot of race motors locally, including his own, so i am pretty confident he adjusted everything properly. I wish i had had him set the distributor too at this point.
this happened to me long ago. it was the power wire in the ignition starting system. check first to make sure you have power to the coil when the key is on the on position. this would be a small problem. hope i could help! mike
Well it's definitely an electrical issue of some sort. Funny I didn't have any before... Robert talked me through hotwiring the car, and we ended up getting it to run by disconnection the power connector to the ignition module and running a wire from the battery to the white wire on the module's power connector. It starts and shuts off with the key. Could this box be bad out of the package? It is pretty old, but has never been out of the package. I did have power to the coil in the run position, that was the first thing we checked. Still a bit puzzled, but at least the car will run now. I disconnected the wire from the battery so it does not run down. Robert said the easy fix was to buy an MSD box, which I was planning to do down the road most likely, but don't really want to spend the money yet. Oh yeah, IT's ALIVE!!! It's certainly loud, but not as loud as I thought it would be through the open headers.
quite possibly when you changed out the engine, you got the "run" wire on the wrong side of the solenoid. It will crank, then die, as soon as you let go of the ignition.:confused:
