beautified the engine bay, and now it won't start

ModusPonens

Registered User
my engine was running alright beforehand. not great, but it never gave me a problem.
I removed the engine of my SC so i could install a sway bar, headers, and clean up the engine bay including sending my intercooler, tubes, supercharger, and accsessory brackets out to be media-blasted and i painted them with high-temp black. in the process we replaced the harmonic balancer and pully, supercharger pully, all belts, bigger fuel injectors, spark plugs and wires, and almost every gasket except the headgaskets. put everything back, and now it won't start. engine is rebuild from ford- has about 4k miles on internals.

it cranks. i have fuel, but most of the time there's little or no spark.

while attempting to fix it, i've changed the: cam/crank sensor, coil, some ground wires that had seen better days, timing chain with both gears...
i made sure the DIS module had a good ground to the accessory brack it sits on. same with coil.
fuses are good. harness connections good.

many said to check the grounds. does anyone have info on exactly where grounds need to be on the engine- i've sanded away plenty of the paint insuring a good ground.... but maybe i'm missing one..??

there must be something i'm missing. it must be something dumb, or completely obscure.

anyone know where i can find a GOOD picture under the hood of a mostly-stock supercoupe, for comparision? no one i know has a supercoupe.

thanks
 
the block to body ground should be bolted to the pass. side front lower motor mount bolt then to the frame.the same bolt has a bracket for holding the trans. cooling lines.
 
I had a nightmarish flashback to my logic class when I saw your user name! I will snap some pics this weekend when I am near my T-Bird and post them if nobody else points you to some by then.
 
bigger fuel injectors

You didn't mention how much bigger you went with the injectors and whether you changer your MAF to match the new injectors. You may be getting too much fuel now. Pull a few spark plugs to see if the are fouled by fuel.

Bryan
 
There is a very important ground strap that mounts from the firewall to the rear of the drivers side head. It is easy to forget. John
 
i believe my stock injectors are 30#s? i went to 36#s.. not a huge difference.

i knew it wouldn't run well without changing the MAF, but i was under the impression it would at least start up- and just run very rich. i wasn't planning on driving the car anywhere until i finish the body work and put the interior back in.

you can smell fuel strongly when it tries to start, but that's also a sign of a lack of spark. in my logic- of course the spark plugs are going to smell like fuel if there's no combustion. can that change in injector size really drown out spark?

if this is the case- of course i'll look for a new MAF after i finish writing this. but do i have to get new injectors? they were brand new. and expensive. do i need to change the oil again- if you think too much fuel has gotten into it?

things were so much easier when i had a 5.0... she was so forgiving. this 3.8 is driving me crazy.
 
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