Did you buy the car with this issue? Or did it run fine & suddenly no start? Or did it run fine, gradually ran rouger, and now doesn't start?

Compression, timing, fuel, ignition: These are your elements. Compression can be related to timing. Start with taking cylinder compression with a good quality pressure gauge and let us know what those values (in psi) are.

 

Bought it like this. They say it ran fine then just stalled out like it was out of gas. I pulled one plug, checked for spark, which it has, and that plug was wet... Very wet... This was after I was cranking it for a bit. Under the hood there was one relay missing ( or not, not sure if it should have one) " fuel...." Forgot if it said pump or what it said right now....

 

I pulled one plug, checked for spark, which it has....

OK. Explain what you did when you stated this. How did you determine there was spark?

 

What was the plug wet with? Coolant? Fuel? Sorry, but when dealing with vehicle maintenance issues, need really discriptive feedback.

Assuming wet with fuel, sounds like you have a working fuel source. And you said you have spark (ignition). Probably should check for compression. If the timing belt jumped, your compression will be particularly low. 5S-FE engines, if someone replaced the timing belt and was not particularly precise, could cause a later jump, which would affect the timing of the ignition and valve operation, causing a no-start.

That relay you say is missing, if it is the fuel pump relay, it likely has a jumper in the socket. If so, for a 5S-FE engine, this is normal. The 3S-GTE turbo engine had a fuel pump relay in that socket in 1992, but other Celica engines did not.

 

Sorry, fuel soaked plug. Will be attempting to dig a little deeper into this over the weekend

 

Compression was checked - 160 in each cylinder -
Saw a tag on the fender well - Timing Belt replaced at 99,500 miles - the car currently has 159,450 miles - with the little time I did have I started to get the timing belt cover off to see where the marks are - is that start - or - is there anything a bit easier?? even by cleaning the plugs and dumping gas right in there - it still will not take off... stumped...

 

Even by cleaning the plugs and dumping gas right in there - it still will not take off... stumped...

I think this previous statement from you said you already did just that (put gas right in the cylinders and run the plugs back in and go???), right?

If you did this already, and with the compression pressures you have (assuming all 4 cylinders are uniformly at 160 PSIG), then your engine should have fired, at least momentarily. The fact you had plugs wet with fuel already suggests the engine is getting fuel. Your compression pressures suggest your mechanical timing is fine. The only thing I see is a problem with your ignition system. If it was me, and if I am interpretting your responses accurately, that is where I would go next.

 

If the units of "160" are PSIG, then you have good compression, so your timing has to be close to have this kind of compression pressure.

If you poured some gas down into the cylinders, and still the engine would not fire up at least momentarily, I would challenge your assessment of having spark. Or at least correctly timed spark. When you have compression & fuel, spark is the only thing left to get an engine running (provided all is timed properly).

 

Thx... So how does one easily get to the timing belt to check marks....

 

Now I'm confused, Danomc1. If your cylinder compression pressures are uniform at 160 PSIG, why do you feel the need to check timing marks on your timing belt? If it was off a tooth or 2, you would have seen lower compression pressure values. From the values you took, mechanical timing (timing belt) is not where I would look. Pouring fuel into the engine with good compression is an indication of ignition problems. Any reason you don't want to go there?

 

Guess I don't know what to do... Which is why I am here. Just thought timing would be the next move... So you are saying put gas right in cylinders and run the plugs back in and go???

 

Pardon my lack of knowledge on all of this....I am used to big block old school Chevy engines... So where do I go in the ignition arena?

 

Pulled each plug - plugged them back into the wires - grounded them out and rolled the car over.

 

Sound like you have good compression, good fuel, and good ignition, and the good compression is a strong indicator mechanical timing is good. Based on this, if all these are present when when everything is in its normal operating state, your engine will start up. Because it doesn't, something is lacking.

Did the original owner ever have the distributor pulled out of the engine?

I'm not sure on a 5S-FE if it is possible to install the distributor input shaft 180 deg. out of phase with the camshaft or not. I would think it is not. But if it is possible, or if it was forced, perhaps the distributor input shaft is not correctly installed into the camshaft connection. If the engine ran normally, then stopped with this problem, the distributor shaft position would not be a possible cause though.

 

I have been thru this problem many times
you might be getting spark but it should be a bright blue spark I bet it isn’t
I have had many Camry’s with the same set up and am on my 2nd Celica too
change the spark module in the distributor(or what I do is for like 110 dollars I order the whole distributor, cap. Rotor, wires off e bay I have about 30k on the first on I replaced still working great) or just change the spark module it’s not to hard a job just make sure you put the plastic cover back on the new coil
you’ll have to retime the car after your done
and at almost 160k thats where mine have failed before
mike