Sorry, from what you have written it is hard to tell what is happening. It seemed like you weren’t able to get it to start even using your advance the timing approach recently which suggested that your problems lay elsewhere.
I like Neg’s suggestion.
To run, the engine needs to be in time: fuel, compression and spark in the right order. You can’t get it to start at the normal timing, which suggests some of the above things are not happening in the right order or time.
Checking the engine as a system to verify the timing of the mechanical system is not a bad idea, like so many things it is getting the basics right. The mechanical timing of the intake of air, compression, power and exhaust is driven by cam and therefor the timing belt, check and verify this first. You can jack up the car, remove the right rear wheel, remove the needed covers and verify everything is in time and not replace everything. If it isn’t, a new timing belt is cheap and setting it all up again at square one would be a the right way to go forward as it will remove a whole set of variables. Once that is done, verifying the ignition timing is where it should be relative to the rest of the mechanical timing and you should be good assuming you have fuel.
To remove the connections from the injectors, you need to remove the locking wire using a pick. When it comes off it will likely want to fly so be prepared by holding the first end you pry out with a pair of pliers. Once the lock wire is off you can rock the connector left to right and walk it off the injector or pry it in the direction it will be coming off. Yes it is fussy and rather difficult in close quarters.
Probably a daft question from me but have you checked the cam timing?
When it runs do you hear any loud noises from the cam pulley area?
I have read about the cam pulley wearing and allowing the cam to be out of time with the actual pulley meaning it allows the cam to be out of time with the rest of engine by the cam either ending up ahead or behind the timing of the rest of the engine.
This is usually portended by a loud noise at the cam pulley.
This has primarily been on 124 twin cams with phenolic cam wheels so it may not apply.
The killer about this problem is it will turn out to be an odd over looked area that none of us are seeing or thinking about.
Since you probably tried everything else...
Wild guess... Some of your symptoms may prove this is not the problem. But in my case, the timing belt tensionner was going bad. So after awhile (when the engine was getting hotter), the timing belt was also becoming hot because of the rough turning bearing , the timing belt was stretching and the timing was lost... Poor running engine, difficult to restart. Everything was back to normal when the engine was cold. Good luck!
Sorry to keep on about this but I would double check the camshaft timing is correct on cylinder 4 and maybe perform a compression check as well.
Yes the battery should have the positive terminal near the firewall and be toward the center of the car. The negative terminal should be next to the firewall and near the outside of the car.
I would redo all those connections to go to a terminal block that has only one connection to the battery. Those crimps on the wires look decidedly suspect. You might also consider getting a new positive connector as that one has certainly seen better days.
I was able to get a suitable battery at Costco which has worked well on my car for many years.
The output from the lambda sensor isn't going to help you much when diagnosing starting problems. Until it is warmed up by the exhaust, the lambda sensor does not provide useful output.We'd also like to be able to get an idea of what the Lambda sensor is seeing. Is there anyway to do this?
Just trying to examine anything else that might be the cause of the problem. Every part that can be replaced has been and the problem persists.The lambda sensor on these is pretty stupid, meaning it really doesn’t do much. The ECU is getting a signal of when it is at the correct mixture and is constantly edging up to the correct mixture, overshooting and falling back to do the same over and over. I don’t know what you are hoping for from this part of the system. Sort of like Marco Polo or the whole warmer cooler game.
Yep. Verified and also the problem has happened with 3 different AFM's. 1 bought from here, 1 from a friend's spare parts pile, 1 borrowed from a properly running X1/9.Have you verified the AFM flap is opening? A warped/sticking flap could produce the problem you are describing, it should move smoothly and effectively silently with only spring pressure and no scraping.
Yep.Does the fuel pump run when you have the key in the ‘on’ position and you move the flap?
We have not done that yet, but after cranking for several minutes - 10 seconds on, rest, 10 seconds on again, things start to smell somewhat rich.Have you verified flow through the fuel rail by running the fuel pump and disconnecting the return line to dump into a bucket?
No idea if this is the problem, but it's an area that hasn't really been extensively explored.A fuel pressure gauge can be plumbed into the system if you really think that is the problem.
Yep. It's also continued to do this with a NOS 124 Cold Start Valve.Is the cold start injector actually firing? It could be the opposite of what you are thinking, it could be that the cold intake is too lean to start a cold engine thus why you are putting the gas pedal down to get enough fuel into the engine to fire.
Almost everything. The problem has persisted even when replacement parts are swapped in - one at a time - swap a part, does the problem persist? Test drive, try the next part. I can see a few replacement parts having the same problem, but *every* part?Have you run through the diagnostics to verify that subsystem in its entirety is working?
As we are too... but there has to be a solution to this....Yes I am grasping at straws here.
Thanks. We're grasping at straws and that seemed like a viable straw...The output from the lambda sensor isn't going to help you much when diagnosing starting problems. Until it is warmed up by the exhaust, the lambda sensor does not provide useful output.