Won't stay running after engine rebuild
 

I rebuilt the engine in my 02 TA and finished the install yesterday, now it won't stay running. You turn the key and the engine fires but only for a few seconds then dies. A couple times I gave it a little throttle and it would stay running a longer and rev but die after a few seconds. For the short time it runs it sounds smooth,not struggling to run. It does have fuel pressure. I went through most everything during the rebuild, forged short block,cam,rebuild trans and rear,Racetronix pump,etc... A few things I have found are that the gas gauge and tach are not working, the couple times I tried giving it throttle the tach and speedo needles jumped up but then the car dies. My friend has a scanner that he uses on his Camaro, when we plugged it into my car it reads that it can't link, so I double checked connection at the ecm. We connected the scanner to his Camaro to verify the scanner is working and it connects to his car with no problem. Any ideas???

It sounds something similar to my problem in my truck. Went out and hit the gastank right where the pickup is. I would start with fuel if you matched all your internals. And if fuel is working properly the next step is to make sure you have proper wireing. If its getting air fuel and spark it should run. Otherwise its something you did. Hope that helped.

I don't deny that it's probably something I did. The trick question is what did I or didn't I do.

Look for an electrical issue, cross wired, short, missplug .... maybe crank sensor, cam sensor...

It will probally do that for a few times if there is no tune. The computer has to learn everything to keep running. If not check for some grounds you might of left loose.

You sure you put the timing chain on the right way?

this exact thing happened to me and i brought it into a shop and they told me my motor was no good. i told them to shove it up there ass and found out the 02 sensor was in wrong and when i changed it the car ran perfectly fine. check all sensors

Wires pulled?
 

Check to see if the wires didn't get pulled out of that connector right inside the firewall. When I dropped my 402 out, I pulled out 2 wires n had about the same problem. I soldered them back in n OK.

Your Cam sensor plugged in ok?

Appreciate the help, tomorrow I'm going to hook up my HP Tuners and see if that connects and if there aren't any codes or it doesn't connect I'll triple check the connections and grounds.

i'd check the sensors as someone said before me. if you have a dvom you can easily check the sensors output and match it to the specs. out of specs then you fond your problem or a potential problem. hope that helps.