90 Celica - Wont Start, Turns Over

[Mondo131]

Alright. First big snow of the winter, and my car is in a foot of snow.

I started it, took about 3 seconds, nothing unusual for the temperature. Waited for about 10 minutes, tried to back up, clutch pedal slipped, died.

It Will not start anymore.

Managed to get the car home.

Spark plugs are new, has spark, distributor is clean, as is the distributor rotor, has spark so its not the coil.

Lines are not cold, cold start injector works.

I was tinkering around a bit and decided to see if maybe the intake tube had snow in it.

The air filter has oil on it. I turned the car over with the tube disconnected and exhaust comes out of the intake.


The car DOES IGNITE! It just sputters for about 5 seconds then quits.

Does this mean that the EGR is bad or that timing is off?

I need help fast, my two jobs and college depend on it.

[bbmx952]

Here is a nice list of things for you to look into:

-First off try pulling a code if you can.
-I find that I say this alot but check your intake hose between airbox and header, make sure there are no holes and no splits duct tape is your friend here. This is a problem that I had a while back.
-Check air temp and air flow meters.
-Check your fuel pressure, make sure your getting fuel to the rail. Also check for leaks around the injectors.
-Check for any vacuum leaks.
-You said your spark plugs are new, how new? Are they gapped right? What about they wires are they good?

And last but not least, to answer your question it could also be your EGR or your timing. So check both. Also what kind of engine is it? I think I have left you with enough for now.

[toyomoho]

Might be a dirty IAC valve.

[Mondo131]

It ahs spark, that i know for sure, we took them out and tested it on the block.

Whats the IAC valve?

Theres no vacuum leaks, airbox tube is fine.

Is there a easy way to check the injectors?

And none of these really explain why theirs exhaust comin out of the intake.

It's a 5SFE engine.

[bbmx952]

OK... So I was wrong, you really did mean that. I thought it must have been a miss type.

Is the engine sound really loud kinda like there wasn't an exhaust manifold on the head?

I kinda doubt that your timing is fucked up this bad but go ahead and check it just to be sure.

I'm thinking that maybe one of your intake valves maybe jammed open, or one of your valve springs broke. I had this happen to me when my engine overheated due to a bad water pump and the seal jammed my valve open. Best way to check this out is to take the valve cover off and see if any of the lifters are sitting lower than any of the others. Turn the cam so the lobes aren't touching the lifters and examine them all one at a time. If the spring broke you might not be able to see the lifter sitting low and in that case you'll need to remove the cam and take out the lifters and look at the sprigs. If either is the case you'll have to remove the head to fix it and to do this I would recommend getting a Chilton's or Haynes repair manual so that you can take it all apart and put it back together without to much of a headache. Don't forget though you need sealant to put the valve cover back on so that you don't have any leaks.

[Mondo131]

Besides the sound of the exhaust comin from the intake, its quiet as hell.

I gotta get it unburried from my apartment parking lot first and get it into our garage. Too cold to do shit outside

Thanks for the help, ill keep u guys posted.