What's my Problem??

I am finishing up a rewire of the Jeep using the EZ21 harness (which is great!) and am now trying to fire it up. I started it and it ran great 2 weeks ago when I finished the engine compartment wiring (only working a bit at a time). Yesterday morning I started it up again, it was pretty hard to start but ran. Yesterday afternoon I tried it again and it wouldn't start. I put a new battery in it last night figuring I had run the marine battery the PO installed out of juice. With a new battery and cables it still wouldn't start. I pulled 2 spark plugs and they were fairly well covered with what looked like oil. Is that a big problem (rings and valves), little problem (just sat too long) or just change the plugs and see what I get? A little more info, there is a small puddle of oil forming under the rear of the motor as well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

-Milan

 

Oil-Rear main seal maybe? Plugs i'd change them and try again. Good luck

 

I don't know how much time your v6 has on it. But, if its oil on the plugs I'd suspect the valve stems. You'd have known about bad rings already (continuous blue smoke, especially under load). Mine has ~270,000 on the clock. Every morning it puts out a little cloud of oil smoke at cold startup from oil leaking past the guides. So plug changes come about every 2 months for me. At least I know its getting oil up top

I agree w/ duke54. Change those plugs and see what happens.

Dip your finger in that puddle of oil and check for a sulfur smell. It could be gear oil also.

 

Oil fouling will make the engine hard to start. It may not be oil though - if you're running really rich, the plugs may be wet with fuel, esp. if you just tried to start it and it wouldn't start. Carbon and wet plugs could be mistaken for oil.

Won't run? - Always check spark and fuel first. The first thing I would do is to remove all the plugs and clean them, or if they are old, replace them. Check that your plug wires are good, there's no moisture under the distributor cap, and that you get a nice, hot, blue-white spark when you crank the engine. If it's above freezing, leave the choke flap open and pump the pedal a couple of times to see if it will fire. Look down the carb when it's not running to see that you get a strong squirt of fuel when you open the throttle quickly.

 

Thanks for the great help. I just pulled one of the plugs and cranked the motor. I got no spark whatsoever. I am wondering if my coil has gone bad? Do they slowly crap out or is it a sudden thing? I know there is no ballast resistor but I don't know if the coil has one internally. Mine ran OK yesterday and today no spark. Wondering also if I'm having trouble with the new fuse box. Too many places to trouble shoot! It has never smoked before so Tim you may be right that it may be fuel. It's always given me good response with the fuel in the carb so I'm starting to think it's a coil/wiring thing. How do you tell if a coil is bad?

 

By the way, how do you pull the plug closest to the firewall? My plug socket wouldn't fit!

 

Re coil, they can go bad all of a sudden or slowly. Ohmmeter is an easy check - if the 12V side is open, then it's NG. Otherwise, borrow a good one and try it.