01 forester P0336 and P0341codes, no spark

[Ian lund]

ok im gonna attempt to describe what i have done and where i'm currently sitting, 

 I bought a 2001 forester with a broken timing belt, assumed valves are bent, i buy the car because i have sitting on shelf an engine that ran that I pulled from a 2002 forester. ok,  (so lets start with the engine on the shelf), this engine i pulled form 2002 forester was not the original engine because it had a few things different,   first it didn't have an oil cooler above the oil filter, and also had a timing belt guard above the crank sprocket with is usually found on manual cars and that 02 was auto,  either way it should work fine, its an EJ25 block, it should work!     now,   enter my nightmare!    I installed the timing belt and rollers from another project i had,  the timing belt and rollers pulled from a car that had only 10K on it,   the belt is still new and so are the rollers, I thought "sure these parts will work for now just to get it rolling" i'll change them out later after i get it up and running,  timed the engine all the marks line up, ive done at least 10 timing belts on EJ25's, this was no different. now with the engine in the car, I use the intake manifold from the original 01 engine, and all the sensors, crankshaft, sprocket and cam sprocket, all from the original 2001 forester,   i hook everything up,   no spark!   throwing P0336 and P0341 codes,   okay so i change out the crank and cam sensors with sensors from my daily driver,  sensors run in my daily driver just fine,   so they are confirmed good!  so then i think its the timing,   i mean,  what else can it be??   i hand crank the motor over until all the timing marks line up,  on the crank and on the cams,   all at 12 o'clock lined up perfectly on their marks,   i proceed to hand crank the crank pulley another 360º so that the cams are 180º out, so i then pulled the timing belt and re-lined the cams up back to their marks. my thinking here is that the cams were 180 off from the crank,   still, no start, no spark, still getting P0336 and P0341 codes.   here is another strange thing,   if i pull the plug on cylinder 1 and hold the tip to ground and have my buddy crank the car, i get no spark while cranking but as soon as he stops,  the plug sparks once,  like its discharging or something,  THATS  the only kind of spark i have been able to get out of this thing,   I then proceed to replace the knock sensor with my daily just to check,   the daily now runs great with all 3,  the crank, cam and knock sensors out of this engine,  all those sensors are fine,   so just for the eff of it I rotate the cams 180º again because its clearly not the timing belt timing and i think the original was was probably right.   I checked all my engine connectors,   im at a loss here,   my brain hurts,    any suggestions?      thanks for reading this big mess!   

Edited January 27, 2021 by Ian lund

[1 Lucky Texan]

1. trust the crank and cam sprocket marks - make you use the dashed line/groove on the tab at the rear of the crank sprocket and NOT the arrow/dot/triangle on the front. Find the tooth count for the engine on-line as a triple check.

 

2. Seems unlikely but, maybe there is a mix-up on cam and crank sprockets? Or, a tab had been broken off the crank sprocket?(read of that happening twice before)

[Ian lund]

i am aware of the triangle notch on the crank pulley,  it sits at abut 3 o clock.  i actually have tried both sets of pulleys out of both engines,  visual inspection looks identical but switched them out as well just to try,   nothing   

[1 Lucky Texan]

on rereading, it's clear you know what you're doing.

I dunno, maybe try a battery disconnect reset?

did something else happen to this car that could have damaged the ECU?

 

(just BTW - my WRX has FIVE of those belt guards , 1 over each sprocket)

Edited January 27, 2021 by 1 Lucky Texan

[Ian lund]

okay, feeling a bit dumb here, but i ran a big ground cable from the block to the frame just for piece of mind, and BAM!! SPARK!! cranked over and started! WTF i want to shoot myself for lack of sleep and 2 full days of tracing this spark issue... there was a ground wire from the starter to the battery and another from the right head to the frame but apparently thats not enough... from now on i am grounding every subaru engine with a big rump roast cable from the block to the frame.... i hate myself right now... cheers and thanks for the suggestions. im gonna go put this thing back together now.

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Ian lund