WTF? Are these bolts? Why wont my car start w/o exhaust?

[e30Andym42]

These are the "bolts" that connect the rest of the exhaust to the header, right by the tranny.







I can't remove transmission until I get these fricken things off!

[monty23psk]

They are welded studs on one side and nuts on the other. You can get new studs and nuts. You might need to put some penetrating oil as with the heat the copper has rusted out somewhat.

[monty23psk]

Looking at the pics again, looks like the nuts are stripped. So you might have to cut them or use a special tool for stripped items.

[papercutout]

Damned drill 'em out of cut them off, aint no other way they're coming off!

And put copper ones on when you do it back up!

[e30Andym42]

Ok now, what the hell.  Got the bolts out via plasma torch, and the engine won't start at all.  It cranks, but that's all.  There is a spark, and there's fuel, no fuses seem to be blown....  Do I need the backpressure from the exhaust to get it going?  It's at my uncle's house, and I need it here.  I want to avoid towing...  Is this my problem?  It's all I can think of.

Pleaseeeeeeeee help!  I am such a n00000b!!

[B318M42W]

check if O2 sensor is connected?
OR
you could try and plug those 2 wires from the "did we ever find the hot start issue" post that tells the ECU if it has O2 sensor or not.

might work??!

[quinn11m20]

Don't worry about it. Mine looked like that too before I wrapped them. As for the non-starting issue, you only need a little back pressure for the car to start. BUT be for-warned, No back pressure is not good for these motors. I know. I cut off my exhaust just past the O2 sensor and notice serious loss of power and just a GOD awful sounding exhaust. Its all replaced now.

Now if the o2 sensor is not connected your car should start but the "check engine light" will stay on. You might have to investigate futher. Like check the integrity of the spark. How intense it is, or not. Good luck.

[colin86325]

You don't need any backpressure for the engine to start or run.  You can run the engine with only the headers attached.

When you used the plasma welder, did you disconnect the battery and/or ECU?  If not, it might be damaged.

[e30Andym42]

o2 sensor is obviously disconnected, because the exhaust is off, and I drove it over there without it anyway.  I don't care about power loss, or anything like that, I need the exhaust off to remove the transmission, then after all is repaired, I will put exhaust back.

The battery and ECU were connected when using the plasma torch, but the battery isn't damaged, because it turns the engine fine, but the engine wont turn over.  I also don't understand how the ECU would be damaged, though, because, though I'm not certain where the ground was connected to, but the arc only made contact with the headers, and the ignition was in the off position.  But I am not an electrical kind of guy.

God help me!

[e30Andym42]

Update:  There's no fuel coming into the engine.  Maybe I should make a new post...  

But anyway, My car ran fine to his house other than the TOB, or whatever's up with the tranny. No oxygen sensor was connected.  We plasma cut the busted studs and nuts out, and now no fuel comes into the engine.  My fuel gauge is not accurate at all, but I am 99% sure there's gas in the tank.

There's power to the fuel pump at fuse 11 when cranking, but that is it.  Only some leftover gas came through the return line, and when we cranked it, nothing came out of the high pressure in-line.  Do I really need to replace the fuel pump?  Because that would be just peachy :mad:

[individualist]

Pull the fuel pump and run a couple of wires from the pump connecter to a battery. Then you'll know if it's good or not.

[colin86325]

I don't know all the how's or why's about welding, but it's generally a good idea to disconnect the ECU.  Maybe somebody else can explain it in details.

[B318M42W]

If you had power to the pump and could here it working, then check your in-line is it's stiffer than normal: at the pump, before filter, after filter. you could just have a small vapor lock. remedy: disconnect and blow some air through that section of line. put it back together and start.  (had one about 4 days ago...)

[e30Andym42]

I am not sure how it happened, but the fuel pump stopped working.  After a while of contemplation, I ran some cables from the pump to the battery and nothing poured out of the high pressure fuel line I had disconnected and pointed at the ground.  So the fuel pump was bad.  Advanced Auto Parts had a pump, strangely.  But I got the pump and screen ($104) and worked on installing it.  

It took me a while due to the fact that I had to keep leaving for other matters.  I got it running at 12:30 am.  I ran home in my dads car, picked him up,  and got my car.  Scariest drive in my life!  Open header :eek:  Everyone around got a wake-up call at 1:20 am I'm sure, haha.

[91318isguy]

Andy,

I just removed the tranny from my 91 for a buddy of mine. You don't have to remove the header at all. First, you removed the drive shaft right? Ok, now that the D/S is out of the way completely you just pull the tranny out past the spline and it will seem to get hung on the bellhousing with the close tolerances. Just jack the car up and preferably have someone else to help you with this (I didn't and it was really nerve wracking).

Work the tranny until it plops down... you may want to get some foam so when it falls 10 inches or so you don't chip anything you want to keep, like concrete or more importantly the bell housing.

Now I may be the dufus on this but that's the way I did it. I also am scraping the body (I did a complete interior and suspension swap to my new one... i wrecked my first baby). So I'm not worried about cutting anything off. You shouldn't have to worry about cutting off the cat (since these are OBD1) just get a silencer from your local muffler shop for a post cat mod.

Just a though.