The cylinders were flooded with antifreeze. It all happened so fast, the car was idling in mydriveway, began to stumble, blew white smoke then died. The engine cranked for a second then nothing. Radiator and overflow were empty.

My father and I spent the last three evenings tearing the car apart to replace both intake manifold gaskets. While we were in there we updated the upper manifold to the newer design. We numbered all the sensors, grounded the coils when cranking the engine, took digital pictures before taking it apart, used sensor safe cleaner, etc etc no cutting corners here. So when we got around to starting it theres nothing but cranking and the occasional backfire. Fuel pressure is there (according to the nipple on the fuel rail), spark is there too. Fuses are good. Wires are ran correctly.

Personally, I think we fried the ECM by cranking the engine. I did take the time to ground the coils as we cranked it to get the antifreeze out of the cylinders but I don't know what else it could be. Something else- I started the car while the OBD scanner was plugged in to the diag port; did that hurt anything? Any ideas???

Car is a 97 SE with 70k, btw.

hmm the way it sounds is that you did eveything correct but i would have done something different when grounding coils you could have just disconnected the ICM (ignition control Module)
how do your plugs look?

Try taking your radiator cap off and then try to start. If the hose from the rad to the block is collapsed you're still suffering hydrolock.

Yeah or just hold the gas to the floor, that'll keep the injectors from firing.

Starting it with the scanner plugged in won't cause any issues. I'd pull the ICM wires, pull the spark plugs, make sure your battery is STRONG, hold the gas to the floor and crank it - see if you get anything flying out the spark plug holes. Oh and if you haven't already, change your oil.

You mentioned you had spark but Do you have injector pulse?
You can check this by removing an injector plug and installing a 194 bulb in the socket. (bend the bottom bulb wires down)
Watch for the bulb to flash while cranking.
If no flash you could have fried your ICM or have a crank sensor issue.

Cool trick! . I made up a similar injector tester with an led and a resistor, but your way is way easier and better.

Thanks for the tip!

The Ignition is working properly up till the coils [plugs and wires are AFTER the coils, so that means the fault could be coils, plugs, or wires] if the tach jumps when cranking. I believe on your car, the PCM controls the tach, so everything has to go through it anyways, meaning that if the tach moves then, the ignition is fine throughout what I mentioned previously, and the PCM. It could be that you fouled your plugs with all the coolant. So, they could be shot, the wires should be fine if you took the care I think you did with them.

Doc'* suggestion is a good one to pull the plugs, and shut off the injectors [by giving 75%+ throttle {Or just WOT}], to see what/if [anything] comes out of the engine. It could be that you still have coolant in there, and that is preventing you from starting the car.

I still put my money on fouled plugs.


-justin

We're back in business...plugs were fouled

Good job on the rest of the rebuild Its quite an undertaking.