Thread: V8 Non start after rebuild

frank - prior to that episode hadn't touched a distributor for around 20 years. one of the advantages of having diesels! in particular the 300D merc, nothing to do other than service the thing. makes the 4.6 disco with all of its foibles an interesting proposition.

brett.

Well after the donation of a spare starter from a kind AUROlian (good to meet you CountP), the news is still bad.....if not worse.

There's only a click now, not even a turn. Nothing.

So with a new battery and a replacement starter, I can't get anything now.

I've replaced the starter relay, checked the relevant fuses, and tried a direct feed from the battery to discount any wiring problems. I'm now stumped and don't know where to go next.

It's very much as if the starter does not have the power to turn the engine, so I'm wondering if I have screwed something up somewhere in the rebuild. At each stage (after replacing rings and big ends, then after cam and chain, then after replacing the heads) I was careful to give it a spin over from the crank bolt to feel for tightness and smooth operation.

Any thoughts or offers of 5 litres of unleaded and match welcomed.

Originally Posted by sheerluck

Well after the donation of a spare starter from a kind AUROlian (good to meet you CountP), the news is still bad.....if not worse.

There's only a click now, not even a turn. Nothing.

So with a new battery and a replacement starter, I can't get anything now.

I've replaced the starter relay, checked the relevant fuses, and tried a direct feed from the battery to discount any wiring problems. I'm now stumped and don't know where to go next.

It's very much as if the starter does not have the power to turn the engine, so I'm wondering if I have screwed something up somewhere in the rebuild. At each stage (after replacing rings and big ends, then after cam and chain, then after replacing the heads) I was careful to give it a spin over from the crank bolt to feel for tightness and smooth operation.

Any thoughts or offers of 5 litres of unleaded and match welcomed.

Pull the plugs out and see if anything comes out of plug holes, not hydraulicing, rotate engine by hand (socket and bar) with plugs out and feel for bumps (valves touching), if no noise or bumps spin over with starter, get back to us with results, PM sent, Regards Frank.

Check the battery earth to the block.

Cheers Greg

I’m no expert in this field, a 100 things can stop an engine from starting, but I believe that flooding really only occurs in a warm engine where the fuel vapour displaces the air, unless you really drown it! Your engine sounds like its stone cold (dead). I’d pour a bit of fresh fuel down its throat and see if you can get some sort of fire out of it, if nothing happens, and you say you have strong spark, well fundamentally, something is wrong. A mate of mine made a simple mistake and forgot ford v8 dizzy’s spin anti clockwise; he checked everything, but no go, till it was pointed out. As for the starter, well I wouldn’t be too worried, cranking over at low volts for an extended period may have helped kill the last one, but the new one is most likely stuffed two (I’ve had it happen to me, hence I don’t like second hand parts, or poor quality repos!), unless the earths and connections are really bad anyway, If the engine was put together as you say, what could go wrong? Mating to the gearbox maybe? Is it an auto? I’d like to have a look, flooded in in CQLD at the moment, and should be down that way in a few days hopefully. Hope this helped, if not give me a pm.

Go back to basics, remove the plugs and turn the motor over with a socket. That will rule out binding. Hot wire the starter to check operation and recheck your cam and dizzy positions. and as said before aerostart is a good diagnostic tool. If it wont fire on aerostart it can only be one of two things dizzy 180 out or incorrect cam timing.

I'm no expert but I was waiting for someone else to maybe mention this. A mate had a V8 disco that wouldn't start and had many people look at it with no success. Was told that it may have a senser in the sump that detects fuel if flooded. This bloke couldn't get it started for three weeks, changed the engine oil and it started first go. I would welcome comments on this as I have never heard of it before. Cheers Rob

Any further progress?

Cheers,

Lionel