Engine swap only cranks Topic is solved

[Turbojeppe]

Hello friends!

First words; This is my first engine swap, it's messy, non-functional, 2 years in the making and its not even my 850.

yeah I'm ambitious. Maybe arrogant too lol. I have never dealt with so much at once, it involves two kids, two 850 T-5R's, one 2.0L engine from 95 - one 2.3L from 96.

Siezed engine
My friend took his 95 T-5R to germany, a water hose broke and the engine siezed up in a queue.

They trailered it up back to sweden, he then found a 96 T-5R 2.0L with an 2.3L engine. It was a project and non running, but he only needed the engine and it was very cheap.

Chaos ensues
Both cars are 40 mins away from me. My friend and I are like 850 brothers and I often help him with problems so naturally I will help him swap the engine.
Player 3 enters! My son is born and my friend and I can wrench on these cars once every 2 months for a couple of hours at a time. At last the engine is in his T-5R and we transport it to my garage. Which it will soon have sittin for a year while I do what I can. Snail speed.

It cranks
So I manage to do very much work by myself, he wanted his 95 gearbox so I swapped that. I install the harness. Every hose and component that is needed. But it only cranks. No spark or fuel.

• It cranks. When it cranks it "floofs" every spin. But the downpipe is not connected to the turbo.

• It has no fuel. The pump is heard for half a second the turning the ignition. The injectors arent injecting anything, but the injector"bridge" have some pressure.

• It may not have spark. I tried myself with the spark plug was left dangling in the air, no spark. When I laid it against the head, no spark.

• OBD diagnostic LED have a constant "50% light" when connected to A2 and 100% light when pressed. I cant do anything, yet it still has the 2.0L ECU.

What has been tried?

• Checked the ground points for engine harness, I count 2 on the back of the head, 2 above the starter for the block and 1 on the transmission. All cleaned

• New spark plugs

• New plug wires

• New distributor and rotor

• New cam sensor

• New crank sensor

• New ground wire from the battery to transmission (old one snapped)

• Relays above the cooling fan turned upright

• New belt with new water pump and tensioner. Checked with TDC and the 3 marks on the cam gears and crank pulley.

Other info

• I followed some of the wires on my 850 to help connecting the right ones on my friends

• 95 2.0L ECU is oem for the chassi. The new engine is 2.3L from a 96

• The dash lights up, the headlights light up

• Cant read any codes on OBD1

• I have checked the fuses but havent switched any relays. The car ran before so everything should work?

• I have an multimeter but no clue how to use it. I checked a ground and it showed 4 something but I dont even know what it should be so I didnt check any else.

• His car is in fairly good condition, so fuel filter isnt old.

• Every car involved is manual

Can I save it?
I don't know. I feel defeated and tried so much without any change. I need help from someone experienced, someone just pointing out that something may be off, some tips about what is interchangeable that could be wrong or something like that. i feel dumb.

Did I mess up? Fried the ECU? Picked incompatible, unswappable parts? Please help me and shine some light on this dark green cloud that is perma-parked in my garage..

Yours truly, Jesper

[volvolugnut]

Ok, hang on and we can likely help you get it running if possible.
Others will have to say if the two motors are compatible with the electronics. I think they will be for those years.
You must first solve the no fuel and no spark problems.
Fuel:
Check that there is clean, fresh fuel in the tank - at least 1/4 full tank. Check the fuel pump is running when you crank. Install a fuel pressure gauge in a branch off the fuel line at the engine. Fuel pressure must meet the minimum pressure spec. I think maybe 50 PSI. Others will need to confirm.
Spark:
Be sure you have no loose wiring connectors hanging anywhere. There are many and easy to miss one. If you removed the distributor, make sure it is installed in the proper timing. Check power to the coil and see if you get a spark out of the coil to the center of the distributor if you touch power momentarily to the coil power in connection. If you do not get a spark to the distributor, find out why.
volvolugnut

[Turbojeppe]

Ok, hang on and....

Thanks for the reply. In my mind, the ECU should work, if only to give a lil fuel and spark enough to start. But I will check power the distributor. I should probably learn a bit about how to use multimeters.

I can feel in my little toe that it should be something electrical because of the issues.

Thanks for some meat on the legs til next time I lay my eyes on that metal brick

[scot850]

Fuel pressure up to 98 years is 42 psi at the rail. 99- is 52-60 psi.

I would also check the ground wire connections. Bad grounds will prevent starting.

I did hear of issues where bad grounding between the engine block and transmission can prevent grounding and starting. You could try to run a ground wire between the 2 to make sure.

With European models you got anti-theft stuff before we got them here. At least it turns over. So I'm hoping the anti-theft is not stopping you as when we got it here the engine did not turn over as I recall.

Neil.

[xanthefin]

So harness stayed together with ECU or is now mixed years?

[abscate]

Make sure the distributor rotor cam under the cover is inthe correct position. I chased a crank, no start for a couple of weeks once when I put this back together incorrectly. It is indexed but will install in the wrong place

[Turbojeppe]

Fuel pressure up to 98 years is 42 psi at the...

Wait 60psi is very much, when the plug got loose on one of the ends it sprayed but not 60psi spray. Gotta check that.

Aah that could be something, I did paint the gearbox. Couldn't I run a ground from the battery straight to the engine block instead? Or does the gearbox have to be grounded too?

95s in sweden doesnt have immobilizer, if they had they had a black stick and a hole next to the switches. And the keys are all the small keys with no immobilizer built in, very noticeable from 95 to 96 keys.

So harness stayed together with ECU or is now mixed years?

Yes the harness and ECU is "matching numbers" to his VIN. Only thing that got swapped was the engine.

Make sure the distributor rotor cam under...

I will check this, but for learning purposes; wouldnt this not affect fuel? Or does the ECU or relays have a fail safe for this kind of stuff and shuts everything off if something isnt right? Seems advanced for a 95 car and I have heard people flooding their engines. But that relay above the fan (that isnt the fan relay) does have a rollover safe which cuts fuel if upside down?

Sorry im advance about my quoting style

[misha]

In your 1st post you said that you installed the harness...in the other post...you said that ecu and harness stayed with '95 and that you only swapped the engine
Harness from '96 installed in '95 or not

[misha]

Couldn't I run a ground from the battery straight to the engine block instead? Or does the gearbox have to be grounded too?

MAIN ground from the battery goes to transmission housing

95s in sweden doesnt have immobilizer, if they had they had a black stick and a hole next to the switches. And the keys are all the small keys with no immobilizer built in, very noticeable from 95 to 96 keys.

From '96...they have chipped keys.

[misha]

They trailered it up back to sweden, he then found a 96 T-5R 2.0L with an 2.3L engine. It was a project and non running, but he only needed the engine and it was very cheap.

So....you bought a non running engine from a project car and it also will not run in your car

Basically...you should just install the engine from '96 and keep the original harness and ecu from '95.

If you did that....check the cam sensor orientation which abscate mentioned...scrub the paint on transmission where main ground from the battery needs to bolt on and you should be good to go.