dirocyn

1994 S10 manual with 2.2 engine, I bought it cheap & not running. Turned out the timing chain was in pieces, that's replaced & everything lines up just like the book says, with the timing marks on both pulleys pointed towards the tabs on the tensioner. Also replaced the oil orifice, which I believe is the reason the chain failed in the first place. I've got the the chain on and everything torqued down, I have not put the serpentine belt, fan & shroud or intake tubing back on, I wanted to test & see if it would start first. And it won't start. I've only gotten a couple of pops out of the exhaust pipe. I do hear the fuel pump prime and I smell gas in the engine bay after cranking, it smells pretty stale. The tag expired April 2017, 11 months ago--which means it was running in April 2016 anyhow, the gas could be almost 2 years old. I have no idea how much gas is in the tank, the gas gauge points off in a weird direction, it does move when I turn the key. I poured a couple gallons of fresh gas in the tank just to make sure it has some, but that didn't make any difference. With it sitting a while I expect it to need to crank for a while to get fuel through the injectors.

A screwdriver in the spark plug wire & laid across the AC compressor where I can just barely see it--I don't see any spark. A jumper cable stuck to the coil pack output and run in through the passenger window did not shock me as I cranked the engine. I've got no spark. This is a DIS engine with coil packs way down low on the passenger side of the engine, I can sort of reach them through the wheel well but I can't see very well in there, sure can't tell what color anything is because I don't have very good light and it's all greasy. There appear to be 3 pigtails going into the coil assy. The one on the left is 2 wire, one side of the plug is bigger than the other and the big side gets battery voltage with the key on; this plug looks like the picture in the Haynes manual where they say test for power getting to the coil. The middle plug is I think 6 wires, the plug on the right has 2 wires but the plug is oval and looks like there's a 3 wire version. I didn't find any power in that plug. There is power at all the fuses in the panel inside the driver door.

The coil secondary windings are in spec (8410 and 8440 ohms, the range in the book is 5k-10k) and I haven't pulled off the coil packs to test the primary windings. I haven't pulled them out yet to test the primaries. I just feel like I must be missing something dumb. It should start without the intake hose, right? The intake air sensor is still in the engine bay, that shouldn't stop anything. Shouldn't need power from the alternator to fire the sparks, or the water pump turning, or the AC compressor. Is there another fuse panel, or a relay I need to check? Or do I just carry on and pull the coil packs to test the primary winding?

kevinkpk

I am not sure what you are saying on the timing alignment. All I've ever seen is both crank, and cam marks pointing at each other.

dirocyn

They don't just point at each other, there's a tab on each side of the timing tensioner that they also point at. Since it's closer to the tooth it's easier to tell you're lined up with that, and not worry about whether you're looking at something from an angle. I'm confident the timing is right, though I can't yet rule out that one or more valves got bent when the timing chain broke. Mostly wondering why I don't have any spark.

dirocyn

I figured it out, finally got an assistant to turn the key for me. I do have spark, it's just kinda pale, hard to see if you're not up close. And exhaust smoke blowing out the intake, meaning I'm nearly 180 degrees out of time (exhaust valve open on compression stroke).

So...I figured out the problem, the cam sprocket I have has a divot drilled right at the teeth, almost 180 degrees out from the round through-hole that is the actual timing mark. That divot looks just like the timing mark on the crank sprocket; whoever came up with that brilliant design idea oughtta get smacked. I should feel like a moron for lining things up with the wrong mark, but...this looks more like a timing mark than the actual timing mark does. This one's not my fault, somebody made this confusing on purpose. Good job. Pulling the timing cover back off, scraping more RTV. At least it's a pretty day.