Little brothers dream car

Car hasn’t moved since 2002 apparently. Car was saved from the junkyard by the previous owner and now I need to figure out what’s wrong with it.

So far we have -
* removed rust from gas tank doing electrolysis multiple times.

* replaced fuel pump and filter (what a pain)

* replaced engine oil and filter

* replaced spark plugs and poured a little bit of oil down the cylinders.

* removed timing cover and verified all timing marks lined up


So far I still can’t get it to run , kind of has me stumped , I verified I have good spark, made sure timing marks are all lined up , verified I’m getting fuel by pushing on the afm flap and hearing the pump run. Next im thinking is I need to check injectors and or compression

Morning ! And Thanks for the replies guys , it’s very much appreciated since I really want to get this car going. to answer the questions , I verified I had spark at the spark plug itself , and it appeared to be a good healthy spark.

For the fuel pressure itself , I felt along the fuel pressure hose while I had the fuel pump running and I could feel the fuel flowing through the fuel filter outlet line. I know I know it’s not the most accurate way of testing , I don’t see any spot where I can hook up a fuel pressure gauge sadly.

Would it be okay if I pulled the line going to the cold start injector to see if I’m getting fuel flow or would that be an inaccurate way of checking ?

Worst case scenario I probably will pull the fuel rail off and see if I’m getting fuel out of the injectors.


Other few things I’ve noticed that might help isolate the issue , I noticed the dizzy was adjusted all the way counterclockwise , makes me wonder if someone pulled it and maybe threw it back in ?

I also sprayed starting fluid down the throttle body to see if I could get it too run for at least a second to see if I could completely isolate this to being a fuel system problem but alas the car didnt start even on starting fluid.

Just to update this thread , I did confirm that it had rod knock. Maybe that’s why they sent this car to the junkyard in the first place. No worries though. I’m not giving up on this. I’m getting this car back on the road.

I think my next plan of action is to actually get a revived title on this thing. This car has no title since it was sent to the junkyard in Fresno CA. I have the paper work to actually get a title and after speaking to the California dmv this thing needs to get a vin inspection before I can get a title. So that’s my next step. Once I actually secure a title I will start searching for an engine or rebuild this current one.


Right now to keep myself busy I’m in the process of getting everything electrical working.

I’ve gotten the headlights , turn signals working now
And I found a radio wire grounding out causing the taillights and dash lights fuse to keep blowing. Will repair that this weekend. Still need to figure out hazards and horn and put the interior back together since it’s all apart

Plenty of work to do on this old piece 😃

Got the rear interior back together , cleaned lighting connectors before throwing everything back on.

Got the horn , hazards , turn signals , license plate lights and headlights working. Only issue right now is that the side marker lights don’t appear to illuminate.





still missing a few pieces here and there but it’s coming along rather nicely.
Btw Anyone got a good running 5mge within a few hundred miles from Vegas by any chance ? 😅

got the brakes working again on this !! Fresh fluid and bled the system with my little brother and it has nice pedal feel 👍🏽.

Also repaired the butchered radio wires that were causing my parking light fuse to blow. Not sure if one of those wires I repaired were for the fog lamps because those are working now too , double
Win haha .

soldering isn’t perfect but it does the job.

Looking might fine.



he sure does love this car… it hasn’t been easy but seeing how happy it makes him is worth it.

Towed it to CA today , everything went pretty smoothly thankfully , all that’s left to do is the brake and light inspection , was going to do it but found out the handbrake has to hold the vehicle and right now the bottom on the handbrake handle is missing so the handle doesnt stay locked in place..so hopefully I’ll get that sorted and get that last inspection done so I can finally get a title on this thing.