hottscennessey

Oops, what I meant was you could test *for* the CAS code by installing the S13 distributor, cranking the motor so the ECU will "see" the CAS signal. The CAS detects the speed the engine is turning at by sending a signal to the ECU. The ECU "looks" for spikes in signal that are caused when an optical sensor detects light passing from an LED like source, through slots in a wheel. It looks for the 4 slots indicating each piston's TDC and 360 "sync" signals per full engine cycle.

lbs_ft

See, now I'm confused hahaha so I'll try to explain everything.

The block and head are S14 KA24DE, but the harness, ECU, intake and exhaust manifolds and everything else are all S13 KA24DE, including the distributor. I know that the S14 distributor has a coil under the cap, but my S13 distributor doesn't. There are four wires coming off the cap to each spark plug, and one wire going to the cap in the middle that feeds spark to the distributor. The wire comes from the driver's side inner fender, where the coil and resister is mounted. The wiring harness runs to one end of the coil, and there's only one wire that comes out that goes to the distributor. Power is making it to the coil, but nothing is coming out.

This is a picture of my bay as soon as the engine went in:


You can see the coil on the inner fender, running to the distributor. And that's my setup. So now I'm confused, but I hope you aren't so you can explain it to me hahaha

hottscennessey

Gotcha, that helps

The reason you're probably not getting power through the coil is because the ECU can't see that the engine is moving. It won't send an output to fire the coil if it can't detect the position the engine is in. It detects when to fire the coil using that CAS.

lbs_ft

What CAS? What is that? hahaha I'm still lost! The distributor is crazy simple, just the gears that go in the block, and on the head are the pins, and under the cap is a little metal prong that spins. Super simple. It ran fine, that just wouldn't start. What am I looking for?

hottscennessey

The CAS is located in the distributor, it gives the vital information to the ECU (speed and position). The ECU controls timing, it is not a static advance system like a old school v8.

lbs_ft

Oh, its what that plug on the side of the distributor leads to?

hottscennessey

Exactly

lbs_ft

So do you think that's a legitimate reason as to why my motor won't catch? It was running like a beast a couple hours early, I had no forewarning that it would just not start.

I'll check the ECU and coil today. Is there a way to test the distributor? And what about all the codes?

hottscennessey

Yes, without that CAS working the ECU has no idea when to fire the coil. I think it probably has to do with the radio incident. The main codes are 11 and 21. Don't worry about the knock sensor code for now, as the car will still run despite it (it will be slower).

If you have a service manual it will give you step by step to test the distributor.

lbs_ft

I'll check the ECU, CAS, and coil today, as well as power all the relays and make sure they open and work fine. I'll let you know what I come up with