[Shotimes] Car will not start after valve lash adjustment (long)

[Steve Tatro]

Having not touched the timing belt, it's likely that you just didn't
plug something back in.

Did you remove the DIS from the intake?  If so, make sure it's properly
grounded.

The dielectric grease in the wire boots won't hurt a darn thing.  I used
it, many other people use it.

Double check to make sure you have the plug wires routed to the correct
terminal on the coil pack.

Firewall
1 - 2 - 3	
-----------  	is the engine
4 - 5 - 6
Radiator

And 

Firewall
5|1	
6|2		is the coil pack
4|3	
Radiator

I know that sounds simple, but many people mix this up.

Here's a list of vacuum lines you probably unhooked.  Check and be sure
you got them all reattached:

.	One 5/8" coolant hose and two 1/4" coolant hoses under the
throttle body (the fourth 1/4" vacuum hose routes to the idle air
control (IAC) valve and does not need to be removed, the hose clamp on
one of the 1/4" coolant hoses is not easily accessible until the
manifold is lifted a few inches)
.	One 1/4" vacuum hose and one 3/8" crankcase breather hose on the
top forward face of the throttle body
.	One 3/16" vacuum hose on the fuel pressure regulator 
.	One 5/8" vacuum hose on the passenger side rear of the intake
plenum
.	One 3/16" vacuum hose to the secondary intake runner valve
vacuum accumulator
.	One 1/8" plastic vacuum hose on the exhaust gas recirculation
(EGR) valve (3.2L)
.	One 1/8" plastic vacuum hose on the EGR pressure sensor module
(3.2L)


Here's a list of the electrical connections you probably had to
disconnect.  Check and make sure you got them all reattached:

.	Two to the distributorless ignition system (DIS) module on the
intake crossover tube
.	One to the idle air control (IAC) valve
.	One to the throttle position sensor (TPS)
.	One to the mass air flow (MAF) sensor
.	One to the solenoid on the vacuum accumulator (black plastic
canister)
.	One to the EGR pressure sensor module (3.2L)

I cropped this info from a complete 60k service worksheet done by a
member on the SHO Forum.  If anyone wants the entire document, let me
know.

Good luck Ken!  FWIW, you can ignore the 542 code, as it's stored any
time you stall the car.  It does not point to a specific problem.

Steve Tatro 
Red/Black '93 with 167k miles 
Cincinnati, Ohio 









-----Original Message-----
From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net
[mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Ken Johnson
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 5:08 PM
To: shotimes@autox.team.net
Subject: [Shotimes] Car will not start after valve lash adjustment
(long)


This is not the first time I have pulled the SHO engine apart enough to
get the valve shims but this is the first time that I have actually
removed and replaced shims.  The previous time I pulled the valve covers
was because there was oil in the plug wells of my '91 but at that time I
was not interested in the valve lash.

Here is what I did to get my car not to start. Did all the obvious
things you got to do to get to the cams, pulled the hood, intake and
valve covers.  I used my Helm service manual and the Stage II cam
installation video as reference.  I got the tappet depressor and holder
from the SHO Shop.

Notables
1) The only deviation from the video that I did not think was a big deal
but maybe it was.....in order to measure all the gaps I was bumping the
starter to turn the cams in the video they put a wrench on the fly wheel
but since I was not doing a timing belt I was not interested in pulling
that side of the car apart.
2) When I measured the gaps two weeks ago prior to ordering the shims I
got about .002" larger gaps than I got when I got back into the car
after recieving the shims I thought I needed to bring everything back
into spec. So an exhaust that was .016" needing to be replaced was now
coming up .013-.014 with the original shim.  I found this out because as
I was installing the new shims the resulting gap was much smaller than I
had orginally calculated.  The only thing I can think of is engine
temperature, Ii believe I drove the car from the street into my driveway
the morning of the initial measurements so if anything the motor was
warmer the day of the intial measurements and unless there are
dissimilar materials in the valve train I can not see why I would get a
smaller gap 2 weeks later with the same shim with a colder engine.
Anyway I ended up only replacing 2 exhaust shims when originally I had
planned on replacing about 5 total shims.  I just could not put the
motor back together with an intake gap at .004".
3) New plugs and new wires installed (checked the firing order already
and it is OK)
4) Put small amount of dielectric grease on both ends of the plug wire
prior to installation (have not done this during previous R&R of plugs
and wires but heard this was a good thing to do, yes?)
5) New gasket for the valve covers, RTV'd the plug well seals.
6) New gasket for the intake manifold.
7) cleaned the intake manifold by hand with carb cleaner
8) cleaned IAB valve per instructions on FAQ
9) cleaned intak on cylinder head with carb cleaner - basically a lot of
carb cleaner all around.

Put everything back together (as far as I know).  On the intial key turn
the engine starts quickly and dies just as all the other SHOs I have
used carb cleaner to clean the intake.  Turn the key again and engine
just turns but sounds pretty normal.  Turn the key the third time and
the engine spins. I say spin because it sounds more like someone pulled
all the plugs out before I turned the key this last time.  Engine seems
to be turnning faster now and with less resistance as if there is not
much compression going on in the engine.

Pulled the KOEO codes since that is all the car will do now and all I
get is 111 (system pass) and 542 (fuel pump secondary circuit failure).
The second code shows some promise but when I turn the key I can hear
the fuel pump charging so I believe the pump is working.  Need to get my
hands on a compression gauge.

HELP   !!
Ken Johnson
'95 Blue MTX will not start
'91 Mocha Mocha runs fine
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