John, you say you have everything required for combustion, you need three things and one of them is air. Is it possible that there is a a blockage in the intake somewhere, even a throttle plate that is jammed somehow. I'm clutching at straws here.

 

Possible, but not likely. Considering how long the car is able to crank, and the burping out the rear after every 5 seconds of cranking.

 

Too much air? Timing? Timing chain jumped teeth due to tensioner failure. More straws.

 

I noticed Steve is not posting on this thread. Did you check your tailpipe for bananas?

 

We're basically at the point where a diagnostic is a must. We've chased every paper tiger we know to chase, at this point it becomes a game of assumtions and that can get 'spensive really quickly.

So far, we're out two sensors and six hours of troubleshooting, so the effect is minimal.

I've read that the $40 ebay camshaft position sensor is a recipe for a parked car. Noteworthy that the car wouldn't run well, but it would at least idle prior to swapping in the Beck-Arnley unit from ebay.

Of course, we goofed last night and left the ebay CPS (cam) in the front, so even after we swapped the rear CPS (crank) the car still wouldn't even fire. The rear CPS we used was indeed Bosch.

I'm awaiting a new ribbed idler pulley from Rob (the one included in the PSK went bad after 100 miles or so). So, we must remove the PSK/idler pulley to access the camshaft position sensor anyways; we're simply waiting on the new pulley to arrive before we tear into it again. The OEM camshaft PS will be reinstalled and if the car starts, we will know the culprit

Ironically, the Beck-Arnley unit and the Borg-Warner are supposed to be interchangeable. But I know for a fact the car went from running sh!tty with the BW unit, to not running at all with the BA unit. It's just a simple magnetic pickup, so i can't see the car being a brand queen but I could be wrong.

 

You bring up a rather brilliant point...

 

I have been watching this thread with interest, hoping you'll figure out the problem is a simple fix. People will probably laugh me out of the thread for this, but I would be remiss for not mentioning that you should check your battery terminal connections (assuming your battery isn't old and doesn't need to be replaced first). In my Limited corrosion to the battery terminal connections led to symptoms similar to what you are describing. I cleaned the connections and poof, car was turning over just fine.

 

Let me re-phrase slightly by saying that if its a battery issue, the car probably won't turn over at all, which is not the same as the symptoms you describe since it turned over and ran rough initially. Either way, worth checking if you haven't already. Good luck!

 

Mine was doing that, and it was the tow switch. It would try to start but no-go.

 

If it's something as simple as that, I will eat my hat.

mrobinso -- We definitely checked the battery first, it's good to go. It was replaced with a Mopar unit in '08. And she's cranking with plenty of oomph.

 

Althouh not related to your current no-start issue, I thought I read here somewhere, that if you crank the engine 30 times, and she no starts, something like the ECU locks up, and now now your really hosed.

And it requires a replacement, or re-program or something, for very big bucks.

Was I dosing off when I read this, or is there some truth to this.

I have to think that you went thru a $hit load of cranks trying to get that puppy road worthy...

 

Inquiring minds want to know... and mine too!

 

steve doesnt need to post due to the standard saying in my garage..... IM NOT WORRIED IT AINT MY SH&^!!
i also knew the answers would be battery, cps, rcm and banana in the tailpipe. checked all those. what john didnt tell everyone is that he tried to put my mercedes center air box cover in the trunk to install on his car and my amg parts arent havin any of that!!!

 

I asked Rudy about this over the phone, he had never heard of such. I had read that as well and asked him specifically for the exact same subject of concern.

Right now, I'm at ~15 cranks w/o firing, give or take

 

Actually, the car ran like **** with the engine shroud in the trunk. When I removed the shroud, the car won't start at all.

 

payback from the evil green beast for even thinking of installing it!

 

Your car is evil. It has fought you every step of the way. NOTHING has come easy on that thing.

 

Sounds more like Johns car is choking and puking at the thought of the parts! ROFLMAO..

 

Your symptoms sound a lot like what happened to my car (not a Crossfire) years ago when I got bad gas. The source was water in the gas back then. Maybe you got a bad ethanol blend. That's not uncommon these days.

 

Pull a fuel sample off the Schrader valve on the fuel rail? Two layers mean bad news.. not the meth is ready.. LOL