I bought 4259R in pieces, shipped over from Louisiana in a container with 4688R. Both cars were in very bad condition, mostly dismantled, and looked like they had been in pieces for about 30 years.
When it came time to fit a newly rebuilt engine into 4259R, it had a freshly gas-flowed Weber head, a new distributor, new HT cap and leads, new plugs, so I thought getting it started would be easy. I was wrong.
Having gone through the leaking petrol tank drama, ignition switch rebuild, petrol delivery shortages in the UK, and locked front discs (so I could not rock the car in 2nd to get TDC), I started trying to get it started.
A new battery had been fitted, but try as I may, turning the engine over did not even get any cylinder firing.
I got my wife to turn the key, took all 4 plugs out, and all 4 were sparking.
The Webers were squirting petrol when pumped, but the plugs were not wet.
I tried squirting Easy Start into each open butterfly, but no matter how often I tried starting the engine, with jump leads from a Land Cruiser with its engine running, no cylinder fired. All 4 exhaust manifolds were stone cold.
Was it a fuel delivery problem? Surely Easy Start would get something happening. Not a squeak.
I asked a knowledgeable friend over (he helped design the De Lorean) so I explained everything to him, checked the valve timing, checked the ignition timing, and it was firing on the right cylinder, but no matter how hard we tried, there was a spark on all 4, but not a squeak.
In desperation, I had ordered a new 12v coil. It arrived yesterday lunchtime just after he left, I fitted the new coil, took the carbs off to see if I had left kitchen towel down the inlet bores, no blockage, and all 4 chokes on the 40 DCOEs squirted petrol in when the butterflies were opened. The float level was checked at 5.5mm, and the fuel pump was working correctly.
I carefully fitted the coil (I had to take the metal HT connector out of the old coil and open it up a bit with a screwdriver to accept the 8mm distributor lead) . When the carbs were off, I took the distributor out, put the engine at 10 BTDC firing on #1, and fitted a new set of points and condenser so every part of the LT and HT ignition system were new.
I timed the distributor with a resistance meter, checked 12v were at the + side of the coil, charged the battery, added jump leads to the Land Cruiser, and tried to start the engine again. 4 pumps on the pedal, then just hope.
Surprise surprise, I heard a cylinder firing. I kept the started rotating, and pumped the pedal. Oil pressure was fine, and the engine was still just firing on 1 or 2. Eventually after much throttle pumping the engine sparked into life with all 4 firing. Success.
I now need to get the engine running smoothly, but at least the bl**dy thing starts.
Moral of the story. Don't give up. Even if you have a spark with the plugs out, it may not be enough to give ignition in the cylinder. We had even tested all 4 HT leads with the timing strobe, and all 4 leads were firing, but just not strongly enough.
