changed the intake manifold gaskets on a 2000 rodeo v6 3.2, had the intake manifold out, but not apart except from disconnecting the fuel rail and injectors, replaced the o-rings on those. now I put everything back together and the car wont start heeeeelllpppp!
hopefully something simple I am missing? can the injectors (or something else) get air-locked? the car is parked in 4wd in a slight uphill-position if that is of any matter.
cheers

 

finally got a fuel pressure tester on there - got 42psi when turning ignition on, going back to 35-38 when pump stops, then back to 42 when cranking, 35psi and holding when I let go of the key or turn off ignition all together - is that about normal or not enough to start? got spark and looooaaads of fuel, though injectors are not leaking. It wants to start after a resting period (cylinders dried up?) but then with further cranking goes back to nothing and being wet again.

Does anybody know the actual specs for the fuel pressure? All I can find is "test your pressure" but nobody actually says what it is supposed to be??

could the crank position sensor be involved? didnt think so since I got spark....
possible broken wire somewhere when bending the wiring harness out of the way? but then again it wants to start until it gets flooded again....

Any ideas?

 

Hello - did you ever get your vehicle running? What was the issue? My daughter had a clutch replaced on her Rodeo and now it will not start.

Thank you.

 

thanks for bringing it up again, after I got her started I was so happy I forgot about posting here!

funny thing is, yes it started, but ultimatly I don't know what the issue really was. here's what I did after I took the manifold out again to check if I missed something (took it completely apart and cleaned it this time as well, still wouldnt start):

so, I took all plugs out again, dried them, aired out the open cylinders with a blow drier and left them open for several hours (it was wet again in there, I mean WET, when I took the manifold out the second time there were puddles of gas on the intake valves),
for the first cranking try I left the air intake hose disconnected and there was a clue - as soon as the car wanted to start the throttle closed all the way - shut tight. don't know why, wrong info in the computer/faulty TPS, whatever, so I disconnected the tps and all the other intake sensors, held the throttle open by hand (a buddy helped me) and voila! she came to life! well with all the sensors disconnected and the hose off she ran like crap at first but then after reconnecting everything the rpm's smoothed out and everything was fine!
So I think it was an air-problem, and to confirm that, I had a similar no-start condition shortly after, (had cold-start problems eversince) what I did then was - after drying all the plugs again, I took the EGR out so it can get fresh air through the EGR pipe and she started up right away.
Ultimately I got a new EGR & TPS which took care of the cold start problem for a while.
As of right now it seems to get worse again, have to crank for several seconds (10-20) on cold start before she fires up.

Hope that helps, I bet I got a wiring problem somewhere, but pinpointing that would be worse than finding the famous needle in the haystack, especially not knowing if there really is one, so I didn't get around to it yet.....
cheers and good luck to you!