WONT START!!! HELP

[aceifty]

I was driving to work today in my M20B28 and she was running smooth, as I got to work she died. Tried starting her again and the engine just spins and wont come to life!! Any thoughts on what it could be, was thinking it may be the crank sensor so will check this once I have finished my shift, just trying to think what else could be stopping her from starting.

[d1mkaz]

fuel pump?

[aceifty]

fuel pump has been replaced not too long ago, will give it a check tho

[Grrrmachine]

Best thing to do would be to work through the steps here and report back:

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... oubleshoot

[Barx325i]

when you say the engine just spins, is your cambelt still intact?

[aceifty]

forgot to add that, yh the cambelt is still there lol, was the first thing i thought of as it happened to my B20. will look at the steps on that link, looks like it covers everything

[aceifty]

Best thing to do would be to work through the steps here and report back:

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... oubleshoot

went through the steps and everything is fine but still wont start. there is fuel, spark, icv is fine everything in the list is fine.

when turning the key the engine just turns but does not cough, could it be the crank sensor

[Grrrmachine]

If you've got spark then it can't be the crank sensor. If you've got fuel then it can't be the DME relay. So it would suggest you're either flooding the engine or there's an air leak of some sort.

After a cranking session, can you pull out a spark plug and confirm that it's wet with fuel?

[Speedtouch]

Try spraying some brake or carb cleaner down the TB intake.

[aceifty]

Right just had a look at her, went to check the compression and found plug 2 to be butchered, and no compression at all in any cylinders!!! Ill upload a pic of the plug as soon as i can. What could have happened to her??

[Barx325i]

unless you've bent valves in every cyl or holed every piston or had catastrophic gasket/ring failure it can't be zero comp, can you check the device on a known good engine? Just seems odd

[aceifty]

Im thinking the same for the conpression to die on them all is strange. Will check the conpression on another engine, just need to get her home first.

[Speedtouch]

Perhaps the cambelt jumped and caused valve-piston contact - was there any unusual noise as it died?

[aceifty]

Need to check the timing, but what can cause the timing to skip. I did change the belt about a month ago after replacing the head.

[Speedtouch]

Did you fit a new cambelt tensioner? It's possible if the old tensioner was re-used that it could have failed, but then that could happen to a new one as well, particularly if you didn't use a BMW one; some of the replica parts about today are total cr*p.

[aceifty]

Was a new tensioner from euro car parts, have already learnt my lesson about buying cheap parts in the past. But how would the timing explain the spark plug, will get a pic of that up shortly

[Barx325i]

as above, but hopefully the plug damage isn't due to impact

if it is, I'd seek some sort of (at the risk of waking the compensation police) recompense from the tensioner manufacturers..

I had a K&N with the square type insert fall off during winter & it buggered the engine. K&N were happy to help and subsequently they altered their design

[aceifty]

these is what happen to number 2 spark plug







what can cause this to happen.

iv never seen this before,

[Barx325i]

bits, which then fused - bad times I'm afraid - uncool, very uncool

[Barx325i]

on the plus side (and I say plus with trepidation) possibly m52 time

[Speedtouch]

Jeez, that's bad damage. Looks like head-off time, for a look-see to see the true extent of the damage...

[aceifty]

Looks like ill be rebuilding the m20b28

[Speedtouch]

It's hard luck, alright. I take it it's run nicely for the month or so since you did the cambelt?

[aceifty]

It's hard luck, alright. I take it it's run nicely for the month or so since you did the cambelt?

She ran so good i just wanted to drive all day long, had all the bushes changed to polly 2 days a go.

[Speedtouch]

Well, that's just asking for trouble! I feel for you, but at least it's warm weather to make it easier to carry out an autopsy...

[aceifty]

will start rebuilding the m20b28 in August, with new bearing, rings, in short the whole lot will be new.

[Speedtouch]

Good for you - a rebuild thread with pics would be nice...

[aceifty]

will do, was meant to do one last time

[ameetgill1]

i had the same issue changed the crank sensor all is well now

[BenHar]

i had the same issue changed the crank sensor all is well now

You changed the crank sensor and it fixed a snapped cam belt and straightened the valves?

Ben

[aceifty]

i had the same issue changed the crank sensor all is well now

how does the crank sensor fix the damaged head, piston and sparkplug

[aceifty]

it been sometime since my car died on me, iv found out that all combustion chambers are dead.

if anyone has a face-left 325i or 320i engine that is taking up space and you done wont it any more then ill be interested depending on price.

[aceifty]

been a log time since the car was off road. i managed to get the head of yesterday and the valve head has broke of causing damage to piston number 2 also the head. the damage was the same as the spark plug but allot worse.

What can cause the valve head to snap?

also there was no compression in any of the cylinders, number 2 not having any compression i can understand but the the rest not having any lost me as the rest of the pistons and valves are ok.

can someone shed some light on this please as i m rebuilding the engine and don't wont to go through this problem again.