Progress Thread My centrifugal ppl, how’s this deal?

You got nothing with starter fluid....and I see the noid light is firing. That means the injectors are getting power....( likely not computer )... The fuel system has correct pressure ( likely not fuel ). The addition of starter fluid will start the car or pop through the intake or exhaust if timing is a little off. Timing would have to be way off or spark would have to be weak or missing.

Take the coil plug wire loose from the distributor and stick a screw driver in the end. Lay it in a way that barely touches some metal on the engine. When you crank the car it should be a bright blue white spark. Not orange or yellow.

Also, if you haven't check your engine grounds. Should be a battery wire running from the block at the timing cover or power steering bracket. It should run to the drivers side sway bar mount below the battery...and up to the battery. There should be a mesh wire strap from the rear top of intake to the firewall by where the speedometer or clutch cable goes through. ( green screw ).

Those grounds can cause types of issues like that. Make sure the computer ground is clean and tight ( black wire screwed between battery and starter solenoid ).

A vehicle needs air, fuel, spark, time, and compression to start. Compression won't come and go....neither will timing.

It sounds like something spark related. The coil, coil wire, TFI ( already replaced ) or pick up in distributor ( already replaced ? ). The pickup inside the distributor calls for the distributor to be removed and taken apart. The gear will have to be removed and the shaft of the distributor pulled out to access the pick up for replacement. The pickup controls the timing of the injectors. The starter fluid nullifies that being an issue. It would fire up with addition of starter fluid. If the distributor is loose it can cause issues with starting because timing could move. This isn't likely in your situation because it happened and then fixed itself and drove normal. Once the timing moves it doesn't move back car would run different.

If the spout is pulled out the car will start at mechanical timing....bypassing any set timing in chip. The other cause could be that it's trying to start pig rich. That would be verified by wet spark plugs. At that point the plugs are fouled with fuel and need to be cleaned off and dried. If its rich starting fluid would not start it either in some cases.
 
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You got nothing with starter fluid....and I see the noid light is firing. That means the injectors are getting power....( likely not computer )... The fuel system has correct pressure ( likely not fuel ). The addition of starter fluid will start the car or pop through the intake or exhaust if timing is a little off. Timing would have to be way off or spark would have to be weak or missing.

Take the coil plug wire loose from the distributor and stick a screw driver in the end. Lay it in a way that barely touches some metal on the engine. When you crank the car it should be a bright blue white spark. Not orange or yellow.

Also, if you haven't check your engine grounds. Should be a battery wire running from the block at the timing cover or power steering bracket. It should run to the drivers side sway bar mount below the battery...and up to the battery. There should be a mesh wire strap from the rear top of intake to the firewall by where the speedometer or clutch cable goes through. ( green screw ).

Those grounds can cause types of issues like that. Make sure the computer ground is clean and tight ( black wire screwed between battery and starter solenoid ).

A vehicle needs air, fuel, spark, time, and compression to start. Compression won't come and go....neither will timing.

It sounds like something spark related. The coil, coil wire, TFI ( already replaced ) or pick up in distributor ( already replaced ? ). The pickup inside the distributor calls for the distributor to be removed and taken apart. The gear will have to be removed and the shaft of the distributor pulled out to access the pick up for replacement. The pickup controls the timing of the injectors. The starter fluid nullifies that being an issue. It would fire up with addition of starter fluid. If the distributor is loose it can cause issues with starting because timing could move. This isn't likely in your situation because it happened and then fixed itself and drove normal. Once the timing moves it doesn't move back car would run different.

If the spout is pulled out the car will start at mechanical timing....bypassing any set timing in chip. The other cause could be that it's trying to start pig rich. That would be verified by wet spark plugs. At that point the plugs are fouled with fuel and need to be cleaned off and dried. If its rich starting fluid would not start it either in some cases.
Thanks for the input, I’m gonna try and go through some of these things and see if I can find anything or figure out what’s going on.
 
Alrighty I had a buddy come over last night that loves working on these cars and we checked a few things. I pulled the cap and rotor before and looks ok has some carbon build up I think or idk what the grey stuff is but is that normal? What would cause this? Also notice that the cap and rotor are surely hitting as you can’t see some areas where it’s scraping. I feel like I’ve heard that happens with the msd cap and rotors, not sure if it’s a problem. Checked my grounds and they were intact but noticed the motor to fire wall strap is cut slightly also not sure if that’s a big deal. So he brought this huge scanner and didn’t want to read but I tossed my small ford obd reader and let it check things and I got the usual 15,67,85 then 10,11. In my head I’m luck :poo: it’s gonna crank I know bc it’s all clear. Had an extra cap/rotor as well tfi he brought with him, said let me try and fire it up and got damn it she cranks up! Turned it off let it sit for a few minutes while we laugh on the fact that THIS JUST HAPPENED! For over a week it hasn’t wanted to crank up and now bang. He is mad bc now it’s that game of wtf was it and I’m happy bc the car started. Strange!!! I decided to pull out the A9L and take a look at it. First off I’ve never really seen a chipped computer but seems like weird fitment how it bangs into the capacitors but maybe that’s just normal. So I’m looking at the board and the capacitors seem a little beat especially the one that the SCT chip is pushing forward and has some black gushy crap coming out the bottom of it. I don’t know crap about what I’m looking at or what all these things do but do you guys think this could be causing issues with what’s going with the car? Is this board still looking ok? Appreciate everyone’s help! At this point I closed everything back up and plugged the harness back up and gave it another start after that last night and it cranked up.
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If he sends it to get refurbished could he request that they leave the legs, on the cap that is getting hit by the chip, long? I mean the leads coming off of the cap before installation are really long aren't they? It's just a thought.
 
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Those caps are bad. Looks like you had moisture in that cap. Common problem for MSD caps. If you have another MSD cap on and it won't start hit inside the cap with wd40. It'll clear the moisture out. I forgot all about that possibility. There's also a very big chance that your TFI was bad. Replacement ones suck.
 
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At this point I would just go with a megasquirt. I wouldn't waste money on a stock A9 computer rebuild. I have had the pmipxs in my car since January and it was by far the best decision I made. I know it is an investment, but factor in the cost of rebuild of your current A9, your towing charges, your chip (which probably has limitations) and you are close to the megasquirt cost. The thing I like the most is Steve (a91what) tunes me from Florida...and I am in Hawaii. The guy is amazing to work with. I also am planning on possibly putting a turbo on my car and it will be handled by a retune of my car via the internet. It's good stuff.

Chris
 
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Those caps are bad. Looks like you had moisture in that cap. Common problem for MSD caps. If you have another MSD cap on and it won't start hit inside the cap with wd40. It'll clear the moisture out. I forgot all about that possibility. There's also a very big chance that your TFI was bad. Replacement ones suck.
Yeah so it seemed weird with that build up in there idk maybe from a car wash possibly, but I’ll keep that wd40 idea handy. I didn’t end up swapping the cap or rotor and the tfi was still the same one that’s been on there with the cheap autozone dizzy I put in. When checked the codes and it gave me the system clear I decided to crank it with everything Ive had on it to see if it would crank, and it did. I do want to get a better distributor at some point. With the caps being bad in the ecu could that be causing this intermittent start up issues? Idk what those things do so not sure if this is causing problems.
 
At this point I would just go with a megasquirt. I wouldn't waste money on a stock A9 computer rebuild. I have had the pmipxs in my car since January and it was by far the best decision I made. I know it is an investment, but factor in the cost of rebuild of your current A9, your towing charges, your chip (which probably has limitations) and you are close to the megasquirt cost. The thing I like the most is Steve (a91what) tunes me from Florida...and I am in Hawaii. The guy is amazing to work with. I also am planning on possibly putting a turbo on my car and it will be handled by a retune of my car via the internet. It's good stuff.

Chris
Nice yeah I chatted with @a91what and he told me that the pimpxs is a good unit for my plans I had. Hard part is idk crap about self tuning. I’d guess one could get a base tune for it to start up then could take it back to the dyno and try and tweak for best results? So he sends a tune and you just download it into the system I’m guessing? I’m intrigued bc seems kinda fun but I’m also scared bc I feel like I’d be looking at the screen not knowing wtf I’m looking at.
 
Nice yeah I chatted with @a91what and he told me that the pimpxs is a good unit for my plans I had. Hard part is idk crap about self tuning. I’d guess one could get a base tune for it to start up then could take it back to the dyno and try and tweak for best results? So he sends a tune and you just download it into the system I’m guessing? I’m intrigued bc seems kinda fun but I’m also scared bc I feel like I’d be looking at the screen not knowing wtf I’m looking at.
All tuning is done live in real time, I do a takeover of your laptop thru the magic of the internet and you watch me make changes. Unless you are looking to seek out every last hp I dont need the car on a dyno, it can be done on the street. I put guys into the 8s in the quarter with street tunes and on3 turbo kits.
Well some of them, the stock block guys wont survive at 25psi.
 
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It's a learning curve, it's the future. And if something happens to the car you can yank the pimp stuff out and stick it into what ever you want, very few exceptions. Hell it'll run your lawn mower! Well, unless your mower is electric, in that case your lawn mower sucks.
 
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Quick google search:
There are others, some members have had their computers rebuilt.
But keep in mind, what is gonna happen in five years? Will you still be able to get them rebuilt? Just something to thing about.
 
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