# Bad wasted spark coil? ABA-T won't start



## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

I have just finished rebuilding my ABA-t and I can't get it running for more then 10-20 seconds at best. 
I'm running 034efi Ic with wasted spark coil, I've been using this system for ~5yrs now. 
I've went through the list: timing, compression, fuel, spark.

Mechanical Timing is set
Compression 150-155psi across 
Fuel pressure 43psi @ the rail, every injector fires properly 
When the car did fire up for ~10secs engine speed registered properly on the tach and on the computer, plus I just replaced my crank sensor.
I just put in new spark plugs but I think my waste spark unit has a bad coil.
I used Cyl#4 spark plug wire and went around the coil pack and ground out a spark plug on the body of the car for all cylinders. The first bank coil for cly #1 and #4 was very weak, it was bearly sparking at all. While the second bank for cly #2 and #3 was very strong, bright lightening bolt flash with audible popping/snapping sound (like it should). 

What do you think, is this the source of my troubles? I've been over this engine 5-6plus times and I can't figure out why it doesn't want to run and stay running. Everything seems normal when it does turn over a few times, but eventually it just dies.

How do I test this coil pack? Anyone know the specs I should be measuring with my multimeter?
TIA


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## Zorba2.0 (Jan 28, 2005)

I think the proper way to test coils is with an electroscope/ociliscope or whatever they are called, but thats looks to be the problem by your description.

On an unrelated note, Are you using the coil 034 sent you? What wires are you using, I need new ones but I dont want to hack them by adding the right coil ends on them again if i dont have to.


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

I made my own plug wires, NGP use to have a 'standalone ecu' set you can buy. But honestly speaking, if you already have a plug wire set that is 'good', just cut off the plug ends and make a new one (its essentially the same thing). You can buy the plug ends for the wasted spark coil on 034's site, or jegs I believe. :thumbup:

I am using 034's wasted spark coil BTW


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

bump for people smarter than me


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## DieGTi (Jun 19, 2001)

Best advice I can give is to sell the 034 stuff to a fanboy and switch to megasquirt. opcorn:


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## TIGninja (Mar 21, 2010)

Do you have any base tune loaded yet? Have you hooked it up to a computer to see if it shows a tach signal?


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## REPOMAN (May 3, 2001)

> Best advice I can give is to sell the 034 stuff to a fanboy and switch to megasquirt.


What a complete douch bag responce.... nice, keep your megasquirt.

Doesn't matter what system you are using, it sounds like it could be the coil, but i would also 
check your crank trigger. i had 034 coils go bad with the same results and also had the crank trigger wheel break and cause the same issue. so i would check your crank trigger setup and 
hardware.

:beer::beer:


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

Thanks for the input guys...
Last night I just ordered a new coil (because i'm convienced), so we'll see what happens I won't be surprised if it starts right up after replacement.

I did load another map that I KNOW that works from a couple years go.... I have had experiene with corrupted files changing strange parameters and not making my car start. One time it set my trigger wheel teeth to 0 and my index teeth to 0 and of course wouldn't start :screwy: (Don't ask how long it took me to figure that one out)

I just replaced the crank sensor about 1 month before I took my car off the road, trigger wheel was inspected when I put the crank in etc....... engine speed reads on my tach and on my 034 ECU when the car did fire up for~15sec.....

If the coil don't work than we'll take it back to the dwg boards... hope it doesn't come to that:beer:


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## TIGninja (Mar 21, 2010)

GTijoejoe said:


> Thanks for the input guys...
> Last night I just ordered a new coil (because i'm convienced), so we'll see what happens I won't be surprised if it starts right up after replacement.
> 
> I did load another map that I KNOW that works from a couple years go.... I have had experiene with corrupted files changing strange parameters and not making my car start. One time it set my trigger wheel teeth to 0 and my index teeth to 0 and of course wouldn't start :screwy: (Don't ask how long it took me to figure that one out)
> ...


When it started up and idles does it get a rpm on the software at the end? Does that software have a home counter? Or a TDC counter?


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## ValveCoverGasket (Mar 20, 2002)

does it run smoothly for the 10-20 seconds that it was running? if so... i bet your coil is fine. really rare to see those fail anyway without serious abuse/dwell times

easy way to check to see if youre getting signal to the coil and power to it, is with an LED test light. put the positive end on the coil power, and the negative side on the signal to each side of the coil. if it blinks nice and cleanly, youre set.


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

TIGninja said:


> When it started up and idles does it get a rpm on the software at the end? Does that software have a home counter? Or a TDC counter?


I'm not sure if I understand your question.
On the software end the rpm registers as it is running and you can watch it fall as the engine starts to slow down and stop. 
The ECU I believe uses TDC counter, but I could be mistaken.




ValveCoverGasket said:


> does it run smoothly for the 10-20 seconds that it was running? if so... i bet your coil is fine. really rare to see those fail anyway without serious abuse/dwell times
> 
> easy way to check to see if youre getting signal to the coil and power to it, is with an LED test light. put the positive end on the coil power, and the negative side on the signal to each side of the coil. if it blinks nice and cleanly, youre set.


Sometimes it will run smoothly and somtimes it will stumble. The coil is more 'weak' than completely dead no good, meaning some sparks are stronger than others from the one coil bank, but the other coil bank is always strong. 

I'll keep note of the LED test, I'll have to pick a tester up this weekend....or try the new coil if it comes in before...
On that note, if we assume my coil is perfect than where would we suggest our next avenue for investigation to be???


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## TIGninja (Mar 21, 2010)

Because you have O34 ecu and coils I would ask them what they require for dwell. Also check and make sure your map,temp,tps signals are in a normal area. If you have any questions start it up and tell me what the sesnors are reading. Did you calibrate the TPS?

There you for some things to look at (I do this all the time).


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## REPOMAN (May 3, 2001)

GPO for fuel pump. you have cold start and hot start injection pulse set to x amount of pulses at
start up, is the GPO running the fuel pump on start up?

I delt with dwell setting for awhile then i got it correct. i to had the same issue with week spark 
on one coil bank, after replacing the coil and adjust the dwell it has worked fine.
here are my setting for you to try/compare.

















also check the engine decel kpa setting.


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## DieGTi (Jun 19, 2001)

REPOMAN said:


> What a complete douch bag responce.... nice, keep your megasquirt.


No need for name calling; it's a completely serious response if you're educated on what is coming out of the megasquirt camp vs. the 034 camp these days. I do have other responses however if he wants to keep the 034. Such as:

Post up datalogs from start-up to stall. Post up all screenshots of operating parameter screens. No use throwing parts until you have a definitive answer as to what the problem is. 

:beer:


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

REPOMAN said:


> GPO for fuel pump. you have cold start and hot start injection pulse set to x amount of pulses at
> start up, is the GPO running the fuel pump on start up?
> 
> I delt with dwell setting for awhile then i got it correct. i to had the same issue with week spark
> ...


My GPO for fuel pump is on, and my hot and cold priming is set to my old values which I've used for yrs (at least not 0). I checked my dwell, I'm 3.2 compared to your 3.0 and 13 compared to your 15 so it seems like we're pretty close, I'll switch up see if it makes a difference.



TIGninja said:


> Because you have O34 ecu and coils I would ask them what they require for dwell. Also check and make sure your map,temp,tps signals are in a normal area. If you have any questions start it up and tell me what the sesnors are reading. Did you calibrate the TPS?
> 
> There you for some things to look at (I do this all the time).


034 has a pretty decent help guide which provides some good limits for dwell, I'm atleast well within those guidelines. I did check my sensors everything seems normal, I even checked the map sensor to see if it would react to vaccum and pressure. I don't believe my ecu has the ability to calibrate TPS, never the less its impact should be more for drivability I think with my Ic unit...input for accel enrichment. 

Thanks for all the tips, I certainly don't mind rechecking things 2 or 3 or 4 times


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## REPOMAN (May 3, 2001)

> Best advice I can give is to sell the 034 stuff to a fanboy and switch to megasquirt.




On what world is this a "completely serious response"

The guy has 034 and is looking for help not an internet troll spewing crap!


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## DieGTi (Jun 19, 2001)

REPOMAN said:


> On what world is this a "completely serious response"
> 
> The guy has 034 and is looking for help not an internet troll spewing crap!


If the OP is having challenges operating this system then alternative systems should be part of the solution discussion. And again, enough with the name calling. Thank you.


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## TIGninja (Mar 21, 2010)

OK dorks. The best standalone system is the new haltech platinum series or the motec (by far). Thats not the point of this thread though. The point here is to get this car running.

What do your trigger setting set at?


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

TIGninja said:


> OK dorks. The best standalone system is the new haltech platinum series or the motec (by far). Thats not the point of this thread though. The point here is to get this car running.
> 
> What do your trigger setting set at?



haha I really not effected by the 034 bashing, this type of standalone one upper always goes on here @ the vortex , it gets ignored

My wheel is 60 teeth and index teeth till TDC is 13.... this of course are also the same settings I've been using for yrs. I was sure to double check this asap because I've had my system freak out and set it to 0 before.... that was the time I replaced the crank sensor and realized I just had a corrupted file


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## DieGTi (Jun 19, 2001)

DieGTi said:


> Post up datalogs from start-up to stall. Post up all screenshots of operating parameter screens. No use throwing parts until you have a definitive answer as to what the problem is.
> 
> :beer:


Even with two dead cylinders from a dead coil the car should run although poorly. Show us your screens from the 034 tuning interface.

Print screen key- open MS paint - Select Paste - Crop to screen image - Save as - upload to photo bucket - post here.


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)

DieGTi said:


> Even with two dead cylinders from a dead coil the car should run although poorly. Show us your screens from the 034 tuning interface.
> 
> Print screen key- open MS paint - Select Paste - Crop to screen image - Save as - upload to photo bucket - post here.


From personal experience an ABA motor will not idle on 2 cylinders.....but it will drive you home ~3miles if you keep the rev's up to 3k 

Did you happen to know the trick if you hold 'alt + print screen' it will only select the screen image of the active program your on? This way ya don't have to crop :thumbup:

























Looking at this now, I probably should of reset my TDC trim adv back to 0 since putting a new block in ???
I had to adjust it before when I ran stacked gaskets.


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## GTijoejoe (Oct 6, 2001)




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