Ok so my dad's stock 1996 miata is having some issues. currently
It will not start or idle.
It will turn over and fire.
It has good compression on all cylinders
The timming belt looks OK
The fuel pump has been changed for a known good one.
New fuel filter
Coils speck out on ohm's
Plugs are new
Plug wires speck out on ohms
Car has 98K miles on it.

Bad stuff that happened just before.
Heater hose failure folowed by an attempt to get the car home. Car made it about 1 mile before the temp gauge said uh ohh and the car was promptly pulled over into a gas station where repairs where effected. Upon refilling the Rad and replacing the failed line. The car ran fine, all the way home 13 miles or so. During the repair process the CAS was removed and replaced for better clearance to the heater lines. Fast forward about 1 week car has been sitting, and the car now doesn't reach any more than 6K rpm and makes little top end power, timming is checked and set but the issue still isnt fully resolved.
Driving continues until the rpm ceiling lowers itself agian to 4k rpm with little power increase past 2.5k rpm. After parking and trying to restart the car now has a no power and limps home. Once home the fuel pump is replaced plug wires are checked plugs are replaced, and all general electrical connections or checked to the best of my knowledge. But the engine will not start. Now this morning the FP is replace with a known good walboro FP and it still wont start. The valvel cover is removed to confirm TB is in one peice and look for any missing teeth etc (everything turn fine). So i have no friggin idea where to go next i have spark i have fuel and i have real good compression but no amount of twisting the cas etc will get the car running agian. Anybody wanna lemme know what could be wrong? Or if there is something i missed?
Thanks in advance for any input guys i will consider and try any and all inputs i am desperate and running out of ideas.


I got it fixed Go to the last post to see how.

 

is it out of gas?

 

nope half a tank of gas. sorry forgot that part.

 

Anybody Bueler Bueler come on guys. some one has to have an idea somewhere.

 

If it were older, I'd say crank failure, cuz your story sounds exactly like what happens with a short nose crank takes a dump.

Let it turn over a bunch then pull a plug out and inspect it. If it's wet, you're getting gas. Rest the plug somewhere and put a screwdriver next to the electrode. Have someone else crank the car over while you watch for spark.

Have you checked the main fuses?

 

yep gettin gas and spark. but not running

 

well if you were getting gas and spark, it would run. :gay:

next suspect is the CAS since you dicked with it. Does the tach work?

 

yes as far as i can tell it moves when i crank it.

 

if you got fuel, spark and compression, it's gotta be timing, either spark or mechanical.

did you test for spark on all cylinders?

 

yes

 

CAS :gay:

 

How could it be messing up. Could it be blown or is there a wrong way to put it back on?

 

check timing again.

check timing belt for tooth slippage.

 

check the firing order of the plug wires... maybe you didn't get them back in the right places. you do know that the 1.6 and 1.8L had a different plug pattern right? Setting your dad's 1.8 to match your 1.6 won't work.

 

I screwed up the plug order on a Geo I used to own, it would crank and had fuel and spark but wouldn't run. Checked the wires and sure enough first try it started right up.

 

yep i used the 1.8 firing order. as per my haynes manual.

 

timming belt and water pump chaanged Crank angle sensor looks iffy though so it is getting replaced as well once that is in right we should be in business, i hope.

 

Possible to have the CAS 180 off?


Jason

 

nope... the pins are slightly off center, it will only go in one direction.

 

They said the same thing about Honda distributors, and I have seen them 180 off many times. Worth checking.


Jason