Ea82 rebuild: Cylinder 2 and 4 don't fire

[kharris12]

Hello all. 

After doing a full engine out reseal and clutch replacement on my 1990 loyale I'm having trouble getting my motor dialed in.

It fires up and runs but it's VERY rough at low rpm. The timing is not dead on but pretty close. When I pull the plugs on cylinders 1 and 3 they look a little sooty but not bad.

Cylinder 4 is very sooty/wet and show now signs of spark. Cylinder 2 is sooty and doesn't show much sign of spark. While the motors running I can pull the number 4 wire from the disty and it makes no difference. If I pull the number 2 wire the rpm fluctuates slightly but not much of a change.

If i pull wires 1 or 3 the engine dies.  

ADDITIONAL INFO:

After running for a bit the passenger side of the engine is hot to the touch while the driver side is cool. After the engine had been running a while the exhaust was glowing red. (maybe unburned fuel from cylinders 2 and 4??) 

Here's what I've tried:

-Swapping spark plugs

-new wires

-new coil

-new cap and rotor 

 

Any ideas? I'm going to the parts store here in spokane to rent a compression tester. but I'm pretty stumped 

 

Thanks!

 

-K

[Dee2]

I can only suggest start backtracking from the plug.  Do you have an in line spark tester ? That would help to verify if power was reaching the plugs.

[kerandt]

Greetings kharris12. So you pulled the motor and did the head gaskets and seals. Now drivers side is not firing. I would suspect timing, but if you've checked that then next thing I would do is the compression check. Could a rocker slide out of place when you mated the cam carrier to the head? This would cause compression loss out a valve.

Edited March 24, 2015 by kerandt

[DaveT]

1st 2 things that come to mind - Plug wires 2 and 4 swapped.  I did this once to an older Subaru engine.  It ran really rough, but it ran.  Quick harmless test, swap the plug wires on 2 & 4.

 

 

Other that might do this - timing belt - did you turn the crankshaft 1 full turn before installing the second belt?  I never tried this, but others have.  I am not sure exactly if an EA82 would try to run this way, or be backfiring and generally not run.

[86 Wonder Wedge]

Having the belt on 180 degress out of sync typically would cause all sorts of problems, but I'm also on the "low to no compression" wagon.

 

Thought I had a dead EA82T once due to the HLAs not pumping back up after headgasket job. Near 0 compression in 3 cylinders. Pulled the HLAs back out and sure enough, almost all of them were hydrolocked into the bores due to junk in the cam carrier.

 

Grabbing compression numbers will help. Good luck!