The car was pressurizing the cooling system. Bad head gasket. We have torn the engine down to the heads. Had the heads reworked at Head Works in Nashville (not cheap). Heads were cleaned, not sure if they were planed.
Bought all FelPro to put her back together, all new timing components, bought the special tools for timing the engine.
Replaced the water pump, thermostat, all other parts as we were going through her.
Timed up well, engine turned 360 degrees several times as directed on the lengthy instructions. Timing marks hit the cam calibration tool less than 1/2 a mark from the mark on the cam several times.
Assembled all of the remaining parts, put in plugs (did not put in new plugs yet) New filters, new clamps where needed, all new hoses, got a radiator from Pull A Part and had it cleaned at the local radiator shop.
Milk Shake in the oil filter, coolant was clear. Water under the oil in the oil pan. Oil plug with the old O-Ring made removal a challenge, but done. New oil, new filter, new coolant.
Car tries to start, but will not. Compression in the front cylinders, have not checked the rear cylinders (yet). Occasionally pops through the intake manifold, but not every cycle. No weird metal to metal noises ever heard. Turns over with less than 60 ft lb on a torque wrench on the crankshadt with plugs in the car. Coil packs are good, plugs fire out of the car mounted to the coildpacks.
There is a single plug with 2 wires underneath the intake manifold. (Picture attached ) Does not look like it was ever connected, but I need to be sure.
Other than that, we have gire, fuel, compression, air.
Car tries to start, but does not. With 2, 4, 6, plugs out, still tries to start, but just feels like it cannot.
I have overhauled multiple cars, most recently tackling the bottom end of an Escort 4 cylinder and an in-car top end on a 3.4L V6 in my wife's Venture. (no fun - we will try dropping the cradle next time ) My son is #3 in his class a couple of years ago at Nashville Auto Diesel College and has assisted on my Bricklins and the Escorts (several of them) and the Venture project.
Wondering if we can get a little advice. We only have a code reader borrowed from Auto Zone.. Code reader produces NO CODES ?
Son and daughter in law wanted to go to her parents' in Chicago (we are in Nasvhille) on Friday. We're all bummed.
I am wondering if the electronics are confused? Also, gas smelled bad so we added a Little StaBil and Heet to the tank.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated. This would be agreat learning experience'\.

 

Picture didn't come through, but there's a good possibility you haven't hooked to the Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor (ECTS). Darn thing adjusts the air/fuel mixture based on the temp of the coolant. Almost impossible to get a start with it disconnected

 

Tryig Picture Again

 

I am not familiar with the engine so comment may have no bearing on anything but a not uncommon problem when dealing with an ignition system that uses coil packs, and for some reason one that deals with a coil pack for two cylinders per coil pack is to get the wiring order screwed up so they are hooked to the wrong cylinders.
S cars have had that problem on this forum and buick 3.8 V6 engine application when they were more popular used the same thing, two cylinders per coil pack. And it was not intuitive which one the wires went on. Other than that the only one I screwed up on was a timing belt application of an overhead cam engine and one tooth off messed with my mind on the 3rd belt I put on it. The only problem that engine ever had in 300,000 miles, a new belt about every 70,000. What a waste of engineering.
Well that and maybe things I do stupidly but that is not your fault.

 

We figured it out ! Cam gears have numbers on them for dowel placement. We had the 2, 4, 6 cam gears in backwards.

That problem is solved, but now the fuel pump is not coming on.

Watch for another post