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Hard starting on first crank

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Old 10-28-2012, 02:41 AM
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Default Hard starting on first crank

For some reason my car will crank and crank and crank the first time you try starting it. Let off and then try starting it again and it will fire up right away and always on the second try. Looking in efi live i see where it has enrichment tables for restart. Is it firing up on the second try because it is getting more fuel?

Do I need to add more fuel when cranking? If so what is the best way to do this? the cranking ve table? Why does it always fire up immediately on the second try? Never on the first crank. I even cranked for several seconds and still wouldn't hit. Stop and try it again and immediately fires.

For a little info on the car it is full bolt on's with a cam, and I have converted it over to e85. I have pretty much everything tuned in and running great, except for this starting issue.
Old 10-28-2012, 09:25 AM
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Fuel pressure bleeding off?
Old 10-28-2012, 09:57 AM
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I don't really know since there is no way of logging fuel pressure on these cars. Also when i try to start the car the first time, i will turn the key on and wait till the fuel pump is done pumping up and it still doesn't fire first time.
Old 10-28-2012, 10:12 AM
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Any chance you swapped timing chain sets when you did the cam swap?
Old 10-28-2012, 07:50 PM
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Nope, car came with the cam installed already. Only thing I have done is put a racetronix fuel pump and hot wire kit in then tune it on e85. Someone once said something about the fuel pump leaking fuel in the tank from putting a clamp to tight when i did the pump upgrade. But i have a hard time believing that as when i turn the key on I wait to crank the engine until I hear the fuel pump shut off pumping up the system.

I have even cycle the key twice to make absolutely sure the pump has the system primed and the first time i try starting it when cold, it won't start. Thus why i believe it has to be something with the tune.
Old 10-28-2012, 08:30 PM
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Did the car always have this problem since you purchased it or did the problem just randomly start one day?
Old 10-28-2012, 09:31 PM
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my 98z just started doing this too. i was just searching to see if anyone else had the same problem but this was the only thread i could find on it. car just has some bolt ons, stock fuel pump unlike yours. it wont do it everytime but some days are worse then others with how many times it will do it.
Old 10-29-2012, 09:22 AM
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Nope, problem just started once I put that pump in and put it on e85. I'm pretty certain it is a tuning issue and need to enrichen the starting tables and cold idle tables. I'm just not sure which ones to mess with to richen up while cranking.
Old 10-29-2012, 09:47 AM
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Went and looked at my tune more. I think the commanded fuel when cranking is the table i need to enrich. I just have a question, what is that table showing a measurement of? just has values in there and when cold had a value of .995 but when warm has a value of 23.77. Is that showing a/f ratio? and then when it is warm this table isn't adding any additional fuel at start up?

But that doesn't make sense either cause how could you command a .995 a/f ratio??? that is stupid rich.
Old 10-29-2012, 08:42 PM
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.995 I would think would be supper lean.
Old 10-30-2012, 12:00 PM
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I am still working through this on my 408 but here are some things to look at in your tune:

Engine>Fuel>General>Cranking Fuel>First Pulse Mass

Try increasing this table and see if that helps your start problem on first crank.

Other tables to increase are:
Engine>Fuel>General>Afterstart Enrichment>Initial Adder vs IAT and or Initial Adder vs ECT

Play around with these and see if any of them help. I've gotten mine better but sometimes still doesn't crank on first try. Always will on second try though.



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