Need some help... Engine won't fire up

[anderzen]

Hello All,

It's been an interesting start to my morning with the Manual swapped E420...

Starting off, car had sat for about a week without being driven with the snow we got. Decided I better get it moving today and decided to drive it to work. Started up fine but within the first block leaving home I could tell it went into limp mode (first quarter of pedal dead). It has done this before and usually if I get it up to temp it will be back to normal; after restart. Got it to a gas station, filled it up and started up fine, pulled off normally no more limp mode.
Few miles later, limp mode came back and because it's manual hard to keep it driving like that. I was halfway between work and home when it finally sputtered to a standstill.
It will crank over and want to start but then produce small backfires and nothing. I checked the blink reader in my haste and believe it was code 6, didn't get a chance to plug in my actual blink tester... I tried unhooking battery and clearing faults but still the same behavior.

I know with what I am giving you guys I am kind of shooting in the dark, but if there is any ideas on where I should start please shoot away!
Hoping for the best case scenario which is I go back, it's warmed up outside some and had the battery unhooked for long enough that it will forget it's groggy morning and jump to joy again... yea, we'll see...

Thx,
ANDERZÉN

 

[gsxr]

Try again in 20-30 mins... if it fires and runs normally, you just got bitten by the in-famous moisture in the distributor caps (probably worse on the passenger side). If this is the case, there will be zero fault codes stored. If you have time, pull the passenger cap and see if it's wet inside.

 

[anderzen]

that was my only inclination atp as well... was hoping I could keep it running long enough to get it hot and dissipate some but, spark seems to be what's missing from the equation so I will start there. Thx Dave!
I did pull some extra caps off a junk yard car a few months ago which I have been meaning to do the vent mod on... maybe now is the time.

 

[anderzen]

welppp after a VERY adventurous time getting it back home... it's home. Distributor caps were indeed the culprit...
I didn't have tools with me on my way back from work so I tried to just get it home as is, needless to say it was acting up but got me almost there... However it decided to stop at a four way intersection in the left turn lane and would not turn back on! Luckily my brother in law just happened to be driving past me and got out to help me push it to safety. Ended up landing next to a Nissan dealership entrance where I spoke to them and they kindly let me run back home and gather what I needed. From there I took the caps off and found the smoking gun, lots of moisture and corrosion. Cleaned it all up with electronics cleaner and brass scrubber.... she fired up and felt nice and smooth like normal. Sheesh! What a day lol....

 

[anderzen]

you can catch the whole issue unfold and be solved here...

The car had been tuned up before I bought it so the distributor caps and rotors are both newer Bosch it looks like... I'd love some advice on if they should be replaced the way they look? You can see them before cleaning around 17min mark and after around 20min mark... I have heard Bremi is no good for these components, what about Beru?

 

[gsxr]

you can catch the whole issue unfold and be solved here...

The car had been tuned up before I bought it so the distributor caps and rotors are both newer Bosch it looks like... Id love some advice on if they should be replaced the way they look? You can see them before cleaning around 17min mark and after around 20min mark... I have heard Bremi is no good for these components, what about Beru?

Those look fine. The problem is the liquid / moisture, not the green stuff on the contacts. IIRC, @Klink has said in the past that the >20kV spark blows right through the crud on the contacts. I've seen far, far worse caps fire normally. Clean, dry, ADD VENT SLOTS, reinstall. Scraping the contacts makes you feel better, but likely had no effect on electrical transfer.

The rotor edge appearance (20 min) is completely irrelevant - you are chasing wild geese there.

Have you removed the insulator / dust shield yet? That must be removed to inspect the BACK side of it for more liquid, and also to check for oil leakage from the cam sprocket seal.

No Bremi... Beru caps should be ok, but not their orange rotors after mid-2020. Search the forum for more info on brands, this has been discussed ad nauseum.

 

[anderzen]

Thank you! I love a wild goose chase haha jk!

I will plan on doing the insulator cap and pulling everything out to do it properly soon. This engine needs a lot of love overall that I will tackle soon, manifold rebuild, metal cam oiler tube swap, upper timing guides and lots of little seals etc... it deserves it, especially after this lol!

I'll search around and gather what I need.