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Thread: Melted Engine Earth/Ground

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    Melted Engine Earth/Ground

    After doing my battery relocation I left off the main chassis to engine ground, like an idiot It cranked over a few times then stopped, all I could hear was a buzzing from the starter motor area.

    I found the small ground wire from the head to firewall had melted, so I quickly realised what I'd done and fitted a nice new 25mm^2 cable from the head to the firewall. This has now sorted the issue and it cranks over fine.

    My question now stands; what are the odds I've cooked a few negative wires within the loom as well?

    The car hasn't been run in 3 years (long term project w. manual conversion) and this was its first start, so whilst it doesn't start I cant definitively say if its ground cable related or not.

    That leads me to my next question, what would stop it starting? Its had new oil, coolant, plugs, gaskets everywhere, vac lines, clean fuel filter, new fuel lines, new fuel (tank was drained). It sounds like it wants to start but it wont

    Sorry for mall the questions, I'm just a bit annoyed that after 3 years and a nut and bolt restoration it doesn't work

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    Still got nats?


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    Quote Originally Posted by kingk View Post
    Still got nats?


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    Yeah, it's running the standard auto ECU.

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    Plugged in the halo? I know it sounds silly but I forgot to plug mine in and couldn’t work the issue out for about 3 weeks haha


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    Guest ANDY black s13's Avatar
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    to check there is an earth wire for the ignition amplifier on the nearside strut turret,iirc there is another for the abs module (if still fitted)
    earthing the module to the inner wing chassis, there are two earths on the inlet plenum for injectors/coil packs
    chances are the melted earth on the head took it for the team and the others survived but need check them
    adding a fat/0 gauge earth lead engine to chassis won't hurt as the OE wire is old (past it's best) and not that fat to start with

    regards the non start was it running ok 3 years ago as in you heard it running not the seller said it ran ok
    ,has it run since doing the manual gearbox swap,have you checked its getting fuel and sparks,
    if you haven't heard it running a compression test could tell you a lot about it's condition (high or low comp readings) chances it will start or not

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    Guest ANDY black s13's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kingk View Post
    Plugged in the halo? I know it sounds silly but I forgot to plug mine in and couldn’t work the issue out for about 3 weeks haha


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    could be something a simple as that ^^^^ ,we've all done it at some time or another

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    Quote Originally Posted by ANDY black s13 View Post
    to check there is an earth wire for the ignition amplifier on the nearside strut turret,iirc there is another for the abs module (if still fitted)
    earthing the module to the inner wing chassis, there are two earths on the inlet plenum for injectors/coil packs
    chances are the melted earth on the head took it for the team and the others survived but need check them
    adding a fat/0 gauge earth lead engine to chassis won't hurt as the OE wire is old (past it's best) and not that fat to start with

    regards the non start was it running ok 3 years ago as in you heard it running not the seller said it ran ok
    ,has it run since doing the manual gearbox swap,have you checked its getting fuel and sparks,
    if you haven't heard it running a compression test could tell you a lot about it's condition (high or low comp readings) chances it will start or not
    Ill get the meter out when i get home and check all these, cheers mate. I'm hoping it's all fine, I'd rather not go through the loom replacing individual cables! haha.

    I bought it running, it'd been sat a while but it ran perfectly before I stripped it down. I'll check for fuel and spark, pretty certain it's got both as it smelt of fuel and sounded as if it wanted to run, but ill double and triple check. Its got a nice new fat cable with proper crimped on lugs from head to earth now, so id hope that'll do the job.

    Good shout, I'll check the halo later.

    What would cause the NATS to stop it starting other than the halo? Pretty certain the battery is going in the fob, as silly as that sounds would that have an effect on it?

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    I <3 BBS LM Actual_Ben_Taylor's Avatar
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    Blown the 100A ignition fuse?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Actual_Ben_Taylor View Post
    Blown the 100A ignition fuse?
    Checked it last night (after working out how to remove it) and its fine.

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    Nats is just a general ball ache if it has an issue. The key (transponder chip) needs to match the ecu, halo needs to be plugged in, other than that it should fire I think unless you have some major issue with it, when I was trying to get somebody to come look at mine they wouldn’t, nobody wanted to touch it as they all said it’s too much aggro


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    Quote Originally Posted by kingk View Post
    Nats is just a general ball ache if it has an issue. The key (transponder chip) needs to match the ecu, halo needs to be plugged in, other than that it should fire I think unless you have some major issue with it, when I was trying to get somebody to come look at mine they wouldn’t, nobody wanted to touch it as they all said it’s too much aggro


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    The key is matched as both the ecu and key are original, not 100% on the halo so ill check that later. Thanks for the help.

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    Are you getting a signal to the spark plugs and fuel injectors

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    Quote Originally Posted by autosri View Post
    Are you getting a signal to the spark plugs and fuel injectors
    I haven't fully checked yet, how would I go about checking for those? Just see if I'm getting fuel and spark or is there a more exact way to measure it?

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    Pull the spark plug out push it into the coil pack then hold the thread of the spark plug on the engine and get someone to crank it and you should see flashes in the gap in the spark plug

    Injectors you will need a meter of some kind or a 12v lamp like a small 5w side light remove the injector connector and press it into the loom then crank it and see if the lamp flashes

    Have you got any fuel pressure pull the pipe that feels the fuel rail put it into a 2l pop bottle and turn the ignition on to prime the pump and see if you get any fuel out of it

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    Well it started in the end it must have been flooded from my numerous attempts yesterday, it took a few seconds but it fired into life.

    Now i need to work out why ive got no oil pressure....

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    Quote Originally Posted by james2404 View Post
    Well it started in the end it must have been flooded from my numerous attempts yesterday, it took a few seconds but it fired into life.

    Now i need to work out why ive got no oil pressure....
    I replied to that in the other thread , suspect dented sump possibly

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