Long cranking time....

Deep6

Registered User
Hi fellas.

It's been a while since I posted my last problem, which was a leaky Timing cover gasket. After about 4 weekends of dissassembly and re-assembly, I've had my bird back for a few weeks now. Everything is running fine and I don't seem to be losing ungodly amounts of coolant.

However: I noticed about a week after I did my timing cover gasket that, first thing in the morning (cold engine) that I have run into a long engine cranking.

Normally, it takes about 1/2 a second for my engine to start up, kinda sounds like this "Brup,Brup, Brup, Brup, VROOOOM". OK?

Now I'm getting it something along the lines of a 2-3 second cranking time "Brup, Brup, Brup, Brup, Brup, Brup, Brup, Brup, Brup, Brup, VROOOOM".

All consequent "hot" starts are back to normal (I.E. the 1/2 a second start). Although the cooler temps have settled into the area here in Albany, I don't think that would be a major factor. I've had my SC for 3 winters here and I've never had winter starting woes, even on a frigid -2degree F morning.

So, is this something for me to worry about? Did I screw something up when I re-installed my camshaft syncronizer? (Don't worry, I referenced marked everything and when I slid it back in (didn't turn the engine crank, it fired right up like normal).

Maybe my Coil pack is Fugged, or my Dis is going south? I've got a 95. Of course any and all advice is appreciated. PS. Plugs and wires are good, I replaced them 2 years ago with double plats and jacob's wires.
 
My XR-7 has always had the same starting variation you describe. Sometimes it fires on the first crank, other times I have to crank it 4 seconds. Normal operation as far as I'm concerned.
 
NO.

AL,

No the carnk sensor didn't get anything on it. I drained the coolant system before removing the timing cover. The cover was leaking but not in the locaton of the Sensor. I did make sure to wipe the sensor down properly and screw it back on the timing cover.

I know what you are thinking, perhaps my crank sensor is out of adjustment? But as far as I could tell, there was no adjustment, it just screwed in one way, there was no way to slide it up or down.


KaToom,

This behavior isn't normal for my car. It's always started up after about 1/2 a second of cranking time.
 
My car has always (as far as I can remember) taken a few seconds to start up, and it can occasionally vary by a couple seconds. However, I have had some fuel problems in the last year that may have contributed to that. A dirty fuel filter caused some cutting out and hard starting, and now the EEC doesnt want to send any voltage to the pump (still waiting for the new one to come in :mad: ).

If your fuel filter is old, you might want to change it. Maybe its taking a few more cranks to get the fuel flowing well. Its easy and cheap, and that damn thing has caused me problems before.

-Travis
95/5
 
Thanks Tbone but...

I don't think that fuel filter is the problem or not. I did change my fuel filter around 60k miles. Now I have around 79K miles. Do they really $hit the bed after 20K miles?

I've been of the a$$umtion that usually they should be changed every 40-60K miles.

Maybe, i'm running into a fuel pump problem....
 
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