To preface this, I bout a ‘98 cobra with a blown engine. I rebuilt and stroked the engine with an Eagle Rotating Assembly, Arias Pistons, Teksid block bored .20 over and honed. I got the heads redone, rebuilt the oil cooler, gelato gaskets for the whole engine, new freeze plugs, water pump, High Volume oil pump, and all ARP hardware (studs).
I got the engine hooked up and put in and the engine wouldn’t fire up. It would turn over, but that’s about it. The compression on the right side was good, but the compression test showed less than ideal pressure on the left side. To make matters worse, there seemed to be spraying water coming up into the heads (probably a good thing it decided to not actually start up). Wire tracing saw power to the injectors but they were not pulsing. Grounds were all checked as well.
From there, I looked into the CCRM, and PCM. That’s when I found out there was a BAMA custom tune installed as well as a chip. I don’t know if any of that effected the issue of no-start, but I figured it was worth mentioning.
So, to conclude this with my ultimate question, why is there water (coolant) spraying through my heads, and what could cause my no start issue? Could the water issue be the oil cooler I rebuilt, or could it be the new FelPro head gaskets? Could the rings be incorrectly gapped for .20 over and that’s why it has low compression on the left side? I’m unfortunately pulling the engine out this weekend again, so if there is any insight that would be greatly appreciated before I drop more money into this build. Thanks in advance, and I can answer any questions correlating to codes, other aspects of the car, etc. Thanks in advance should anyone be able to help!
I got the engine hooked up and put in and the engine wouldn’t fire up. It would turn over, but that’s about it. The compression on the right side was good, but the compression test showed less than ideal pressure on the left side. To make matters worse, there seemed to be spraying water coming up into the heads (probably a good thing it decided to not actually start up). Wire tracing saw power to the injectors but they were not pulsing. Grounds were all checked as well.
From there, I looked into the CCRM, and PCM. That’s when I found out there was a BAMA custom tune installed as well as a chip. I don’t know if any of that effected the issue of no-start, but I figured it was worth mentioning.
So, to conclude this with my ultimate question, why is there water (coolant) spraying through my heads, and what could cause my no start issue? Could the water issue be the oil cooler I rebuilt, or could it be the new FelPro head gaskets? Could the rings be incorrectly gapped for .20 over and that’s why it has low compression on the left side? I’m unfortunately pulling the engine out this weekend again, so if there is any insight that would be greatly appreciated before I drop more money into this build. Thanks in advance, and I can answer any questions correlating to codes, other aspects of the car, etc. Thanks in advance should anyone be able to help!
