87 ford 2.3l OMC cranks to TDC and stops

[Mgsissonvt]

No Title

So now that I have taken everything apart and even started to remove the camshaft my buddy stopped by. We took my light scope with camera on it and checked out all of the cylinders again. I've attached a picture for everyone's pleasure and my misfortune (But also my relief).

We fished the camera around for quite a while and finally found this little gem sitting on the side of the top of the piston. My mind was perplexed because i know that the engine would turn over by hand before we put on the new starter. The picture is of part of the top of a spark plug that has been nicely crushed. I've got all of my spark plugs and none of them are broken so this has been sitting on this piston since i got the boat. I assume when we got the new starter on it it was enough power to move it somewhere that was causing the binding.

I guess that means the boat wasn't "running fine before the timing belt broke".

The good news is that the motor is turning freely now, the bad news is it dark and as much as i want to put everything back together tonight I'll have to wait for tomorrow.

I wanted to say thank you to all of those who offered ideas and solutions, I learned a lot more about the motor and will be confident as I put things back that the timing belt, cam shaft, distributor will all be properly aligned for TDC.

Once I get it running I'll be sure to update.

 

[GA_Boater]

How in the world? Amazing!

Hope in the process of crushing that thing, no damage was caused.

 

[Mgsissonvt]

Yeah, very surprising. The good news is I only cranked it once while it was in there. The rest of the time i was turning by hand and I never put much pressure on it. I think it is probably going to be alright but only time will tell.

Thanks again!

 

[Boisebiker]

Time to break out a compression gauge and test each cylinder. Then report back.

 

[tpenfield]

Wow . . . an extra and unwanted part inside the engine

Perhaps you can check the piston for damage with the inspection camera ?

 

[Mgsissonvt]

The piston actually looks fine, no scores on the cylinder walls and really no damage that i can see on the piston head. I got everything back together and it sounds great. My compression tool is broken so I haven't checked that, I just had a cheap one anyways so I'll just pick one up sometime this week.

It does appear that the fuel pump is working now!!! So we have fuel, we should have compression. But do we have spark? No sir.

I got a little frustrated after spending my after work hours putting everything back together and now I need to circle back on the wiring. I had a spare ignition coil but that didn't seem to be the issue. I found a few wires that were snipped and I have no idea what that is about. I think I have a PDF manual somewhere and I'll look back at the wiring.

Can anyone confirm this for me:
If you hook up your timing light to the battery, and instead of putting it on the #1 spark plug wire you put it on the wire from the coil to the distributor would it light up? If it doesn't light up (which is my case) when turning over the egine, does that mean at least one issue lies in either the coil, or the wiring before the coil?

Also - I know there are some other spark related posts so I'm checking some of those out this evening.

Thanks,

Matt

 

[GA_Boater]

No. A timing need a few thousand more than 12 volts. Like 20-35,000 or even more volts.

The timing lights to on the #1 plug wire if it's an inductance light or in series with plug wire and plug.

 

[Mgsissonvt]

No Title

Thank you, I figured there would be a reason it wouldn't work. I'm still going to look at the overarching issue of wiring as there are some that appear to be snipped off and I have no idea what their original intentions were.

I'll get on with my test light and volt meter tomorrow and see what I can find. I have a PDF manual for all the cobra models and I found the attached wiring diagrams. Does anyone have anything they've put together for a 2.3l OMC? I might go through the trouble myself to get them all onto one document.

 

[Speak]

If you have no spark replace your points and condenser- or at the very least clean the points contacts up with some fine sand paper and try crank her again - just a thought

 

[Mgsissonvt]

Happy Evening for me! I went through the wiring diagram and found that the previous owner had attempted to run a straight shot from the + coil side to the ignition switch. It was getting power when it was in the on position, but not while cranking. I found the original wiring that had been cut and rewired those two connections properly. (I have no idea why they cut the wire to the alternator and starter solenoid, other than maybe poor troubleshooting)

We had spark to the distributor. Took the distributor cap off and made sure that the spring was good and we had spark to the #1 plug!

Anxiety was high, but we connected up to a spare gas tank and cranked. Started right up, idle was perfect, acceleration in neutral, forward and reverse gear spinning. I can't even explain the excitement that was happening. I've got a video of the startup and tests.

Thanks again for the support and help!

 

[Speak]

Nice job. Try get your idle down to 650 when in gear in when in the water. This will save your dog clutch in the drive. Basically you don't want to hear a ratcheting sound when engaging the drive. Just something to think about - again nice work

 

[GA_Boater]

PO's PO CO's. Cut wires and spark plug parts in a cylinder! :facepalm:

Hit the water now!