The spark is orange. Does this mean anything significant?. Could be why the 4.9 is not starting.
The 4.9 died slowly a little while ago by backfiring black smoke out the exhaust and chugging very badly, which now brings us to a no start.
So far we have replaced fuel filter (which was clogged) and removed / cleaned the injectors which brought us back to the correct fuel pressure but still no start.
Also, the coil, cap, rotor are only 1 month used, (about 4 months old) and worked fine for a month (about 1000 miles).

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-Kyle
Email: arte@sek-c.com
Aim: Littlechugger
1987 Notchback 4cyl. (Busted Tranny)
1992 Corsica 3.1L GT =P

[This message has been edited by arte444 (edited 03-22-2005).]

Thought I'd add, the timing set has 1000 miles on it, and it's an Accel cap, rotor, and in-cap ignition coil. We're getting spark to all 8 cylindres, and the fuel injectors are firing (tested by sound and with a noid light). Oh yeah, fuel pressure is 43 with ignition on and 38 while cranking. Before the car died it showed symptoms of fuel trouble - stumbling on acceleration (that's when it would backfire). Injectors are not clogged (were just cleaned). Fuel pump runs strong. Vehicle had had problems with the VATS bypass but I don't know how often those "stop working" and what the symptoms would be if one did.

[This message has been edited by Wipe0ut (edited 03-22-2005).]

Sonds like a weak spark; it should be blue-white. Most likely a bad coil.

I've heard that the color of the spark doesn't really matter from a few people now, as long as it's a good quality spark. The car doesn't even try to start currently.
P.S. on a side note how do you check a MAP sensor?

[This message has been edited by Wipe0ut (edited 03-22-2005).]

Orange spark means that it's probably burning something on the spark plug (carbon, fuel, oil...)

Map sensor can be checked by probing the middle pin with the key in "run", and applying vacuum to the sensor (with like a mity vac type pump) Those things rarely go bad though..... I'm not familiar with the 4.9 - does it have a crank or cam sensor? How are those? Wait, it's distributor, right? Is it loose?

btw - black smoke means it was running rich. That could be because the timing was off (bad crank sensor, bad distributor signal, loose cap, whatever)..... or the map sensor (but those don't go bad all that often), maybe a stuck open injector, or a bad FPR, but that's about it.

[This message has been edited by ryan.hess (edited 03-22-2005).]

I don't think there was any black smoke I think Kyle was making that up. It's not running rich; I'm pretty sure the backfiring was due to a lean condition. Could that have b0rked anything up? Also, I drove 300 miles with cardboard in my radiator, so the engine ran slightly hotter than normal. I ran it like this (all one big highway trip) until it started backfiring then I removed the cardboard. It was so cold outside that without the cardboard the temp needle would fall back to the first tick on the gauge once I got on the highway. The temp needle pointed straight down with the cardboard. Could that have b0rked anything?

Backfiring could still mean any of the timing things mentioned above..... (have you tried checking the timing?) The cardboard shouldn't have done anything.

I haven't checked the timing. I don't have a timing light - I'll have to rent one from Autozone. I don't have a garage so I only work on my car on days when it's not frigid out - and there hasn't been too many recently (18" of snow).

Guess what, it was the timing. Now all I need is a working ISC motor.. if anyone has one to sell let me know - they're like $100 at every store.. I'll have to find a 4.9 at a junkyard I suppose.

Sweeeet.