Project: 1995 Miata

[Jake]

I stopped at Advance and picked up some things last night, which meant more wrenching.

Pulled the coil pack off and replaced (well, added, really) the gasket to the "water outlet" - which is the doodad that holds both coolant temperature sensors on the back of the block. This was, naturally, a giant pain in the ass. But, the gasket is on, the second temp sensor has been moved from the '95 to '99 motor (it was covered in a layer of filth, so I didn't see it before...) and... it still leaks coolant, dammit.

I need to get in there tonight and have someone look to see where it's leaking while I run the motor.

HOWEVER. Coolant be damned, I wanted to start the motor last night. So I replaced the gasket, moved sensors, fixed wires, etc. and it wouldn't fire. Cranked all day long, but wouldn't catch. My first thought was fuel - because we had to re-engineer the fuel rail, maybe a line wasn't going to the right place.

There are two hard lines that come out of the engine bay. One is send, one is return. I triple-checked, and in our/my/DJ's guessing, they were on backwards. So I un-did them, got a spray of fuel to my face (after tasting coolant while replacing sensors, yum) and swapped them. Jumped the fuel pump to ground to prime the system for ~20 seconds, and still nothing.

At this point, I'm frustrated... get out and look again at plug wires, coil packs, so on. My eyes are scanning the firewall and I spot an orange connector that doesn't have anything plugged in.

The motor starts on the first try when the damned cam angle sensor is plugged in. Who'da thunk it. Anyway, there was much rejoicing, much pulley/belt squeal from rusty pulleys sitting for a long time, and I only revved it to 3k, briefly. But it runs.

Up next...

I need to find and fix the coolant leak, add transmission fluid, install exhaust gaskets, re-install hood and bumper.

Getting closer by the day!