99 Alero 3400 no start after head gasket repair

[hoosierloser]

A few weeks ago my fiance's alero overheated and blew a head gasket. I tried to drive the car a little ways to get it off the interstate and turned it off just as the temp gauge was nearing the red 260 or so. I tried starting it again after it cooled off some but it wouldn't fire, nothing.

Towed it home and tried starting it in the shop nothing still, just fouled plugs.

Tried starting it again after replacing the head gaskets (resurfaced the heads) put everything back together and 350$ later still no start. I cleaned the plugs up before I put the engine back together. It has fuel and spark verified. I'm sure the compression is fine I tried running a compression test with a little cheapo rent a tool form azone but the tool didn't seal well in the port and only read like 40 psi. This was before the repair.

I'm stumped with this one, did we route the CKP sensor wrong or something, it has spark so there is a signal but could it be faulty. Anybody seen this before or know where I should start. I don't have access to anything but a multimeter. I may be able to get a scope somewhere but who knows.

[pocket-rocket]

If you have spark and no fire, than you probably lack fuel.

[CNCguy]

Will it fire on starting fluid? Plug wires on right? They can be confusing due to the way the LIM is marked.

[hoosierloser]

I'm pretty sure that the plug wires are on right. When we removed the wires we kept them all connected to the coils and the wire holders on the wires so we could just put everything on without mixing them up.

The only thing that I know for sure is that the car would not start after I drove it that one last time to move it and the temp gauge nearly topped out. The only difference is that now there isn't coolant coming out the back of the engine when its cranked

If the plugs were left wet for awhile, like when I cranked it before the repair a couple times and then let it set a week.... could that permanently damage the plugs?
Could I take the plugs out of my 94' 3.1 car and try it with those, I guess that will be my next step.

It stinks because I can only work on the car on the weekends.

[pocket-rocket]

I wouldn't worry about coolant not coming out of the back of the engine considering there still is going to be a lot of air trapped in the top end since you just had the heads off. No, leaving the plugs wet would not make them go bad, but yes, if you do want to try it, I believe the 3.1 plugs are the same plugs for a 3100 and 3400. Do try Marc's suggestion of starting it on starting fluid, though.

[Schmieder]

A few weeks ago my fiance's alero overheated and blew a head gasket. I tried to drive the car a little ways to get it off the interstate and turned it off just as the temp gauge was nearing the red 260 or so. I tried starting it again after it cooled off some but it wouldn't fire, nothing.

Towed it home and tried starting it in the shop nothing still, just fouled plugs.

Tried starting it again after replacing the head gaskets (resurfaced the heads) put everything back together and 350$ later still no start. I cleaned the plugs up before I put the engine back together. It has fuel and spark verified. I'm sure the compression is fine I tried running a compression test with a little cheapo rent a tool form azone but the tool didn't seal well in the port and only read like 40 psi. This was before the repair.

I'm stumped with this one, did we route the CKP sensor wrong or something, it has spark so there is a signal but could it be faulty. Anybody seen this before or know where I should start. I don't have access to anything but a multimeter. I may be able to get a scope somewhere but who knows.

Is the engine trying to run or is it absolutely no combustion?

Do try Marc's suggestion of starting it on starting fluid, though.

+1

[hoosierloser]

It didn't even sound like it wanted to fire. Once it backfired when we had the airbox off of it and the MAF exposed, but it was a pretty weak backfire. I will try changing out the plugs when I get a chance this weekend.

I'm debating whether or not to invest in an OBDII PC based diagnostic tool. Some of those on ebay look tempting.

[pocket-rocket]

If you order anything from China, you are going to be waiting 2 weeks. At least that's how long it took to get my OBD2 interface cable for my laptop.

[Schmieder]

It didn't even sound like it wanted to fire. Once it backfired when we had the airbox off of it and the MAF exposed, but it was a pretty weak backfire. I will try changing out the plugs when I get a chance this weekend.

I'm debating whether or not to invest in an OBDII PC based diagnostic tool. Some of those on ebay look tempting.

I believe that back fire is from the waste spark. Hmmm, your fuel delivery seems completely dead because you should get SOMETHING from a weakened fuel system like a failing pump or clogged filter. But then again fuel pumps can fail just like that, I guess. I wouldn't rule it out yet.

So lets assume you have spark. The car overheats and fails to start. I wonder if a wire had its insulation melted off and is shorting the fuel delivery, pump or injectors.

What were the condition on the fuel injector o-rings, the bottom ones connected to the LIM? Melted or just old?

Did you try spraying carb cleaner or starting fluid into the intake while someone else cranked it? That would be good to know how that worked out.

[hoosierloser]

Put new plugs in the car saturday and it fired right up. I guess the spark was just too weak. Although once the car warmed up a bit it seemed that there was a little too much white colored smoke coming from the tail pipe. The oil looked milky, some water fell in the cylinders when removing the heads, so changed the oil. Seemed to fix that.

But something about the car still seems funny to me. I'm towing it to a garage to have them check it out for me. I hope I didn't do all this work and find one of the heads was cracked. I guess I should have spent the 180$ to check for cracks.

[pocket-rocket]

$180!? That's robbery. I pay $80 to have a set of v6 heads (they don't care what they are off of) cleaned, deck checked for straightness and pressure checked (that will show cracked or leaking heads). Did you call around, or is that the cheapest in your area?

[bob442]

did you atleast inspect them well visually? and if you had the heads off...i couldnt see why you wouldnt IMO

[Schmieder]

Put new plugs in the car saturday and it fired right up. I guess the spark was just too weak. Although once the car warmed up a bit it seemed that there was a little too much white colored smoke coming from the tail pipe. The oil looked milky, some water fell in the cylinders when removing the heads, so changed the oil. Seemed to fix that.

But something about the car still seems funny to me. I'm towing it to a garage to have them check it out for me. I hope I didn't do all this work and find one of the heads was cracked. I guess I should have spent the 180$ to check for cracks.

Can't beat that, the price of new plugs.

[Schmieder]

Lets hope you did not mix up the Head Gaskets. They may APPEAR to fit right but the water jackets swell at the gasket and create a tight seal. I mixed them up once and resulted in a coolant leak. Had to rip the heads back down to discovery my error.

[hoosierloser]

First of all, it was either 40 or 80 a head to have them checked so my math was a bit off (80 or 160 not 180) my bad.
and there really is only one other place close to where i live that does machine work and this one had the better reputation.

Now the good news Mechanic checked out the car and this is what he found and fixed.

First of all there was a code for a malfunctioning SES light. An open wire in the CTS circuit caused the computer to see -38°. Which I think explains the old plugs being horribly fouled and what I thought was excessive smoke on startup and running, it was just way too rich! No coolant on the chambers yay!

And he also put about another gallon of coolant in the car, I didnt really bleed the cooling system before I took the car in so this wasnt a big suprise.

But thats all it was, temp sensor overfueled the car and I had no way of knowing since the SES light doesnt work, lol.

So that news made my day.