The car is an 89 / 90 TP EFI Elante manual. I have had the engine rebuilt, and done away with the balance shaft whilst in the process.
Everything checks out OK, timing seems to be spot on and fuel is getting through OK.
I have even removed all the plugs and sat them on the rocker cover and cranked the engine over to check for spark, they all seem to spark in some sort of order :happy: and the cylinders are pumping out a healthy mix of fuel at the same time but when the two are put together, there is not earth shattering KABOOM! She just won't bang.
There is no immobiliser or anything that I am aware of at least as an after market anyhow. The car is dual fuel, but I cannot see any issues there as I am using the petrol only as the starting procedure for now.

Is there anything I have missed or could check, re check?? It was running great until it stuffed the balance shaft bearing and damaged the teeth om the sprocket that drives the oil pump, hence the rebuild.

Cheers,
Jeff

Ignition timing - may be 180 degrees out. Just move your plug leads on the distributor cap by 180 degrees and try again. You say "Timing seems to be spot on", that is a bit of a worry, as the engine has to be running to get it spot on with a timing light.

My bad, I meant spot on as far as setting it up with number one at TDC - timing mark at right position on crank and rotor button pointing to right place. Still I will try the 180 turn, can't hurt and I am getting too old for this shit ;) probably got it all back the front anyhow.

Unless you look at the cam lobes you can't tell if the number 1 piston is at top dead centre on the compression stroke when the crank pulley marks line up. Remember its a 4 stroke, the marks on the timing case and harmonic balancer/pulley line up at TDC on the number 1 compression stroke, and at TDC on the exhaust stroke.

If you pull the rocker cover off, TDC on the compression stroke for number 1 has both rocker arms on the BACK of the lobes ie both lobes point down.

Could be 180 0ut as the others said.

also check for vacuum lines off as it wont go if it dont suck properly

Yes it was 180 out, or the other car I am using as a guide is 180 out ;) either way I git to run but that has created a whole new problem.

The oil pressure is building up and blowing out the rubber ring on the oil filter seal. Also the tappets are not quieting down, they are very rattly. There is a strange noise just prior to the seal blowing out too, but it is very hard to describe as I did not want to keep on running the car to hear it.

Any thoughts as to what this one might be??

Who did the rebuild? Something seriously wrong, if the pressure relief valve on the oil pump is working, there is no way the oil filter seal can blow out. Maybe it got twisted when you put the filter on? Did you put the filter on tight enough? Did you clean out the oil passages on the motor when you overhauled it? Tappets can take a while to pump up, especially if they were not primed properly, but you can look in the oil filler hole while the engine is running to see if oil is getting to the top end.

mine started pissing oil out of the oil filter seal when i first started the new engine up. still did it when i tightened the filter it up so i belted the block and timing cover around allot and that stopped it. i assume because the motor sat around for 6 months unused outside (under a tarp) the relief valve stuck closed. i cant see how belting it freed it when it would have had massive pressure against it but meh its a magna for go sake lol.

when i drained the oil it was dirty and had lost viscosity after 200ks but replaced it and its stayed crystal clear since. its odd. but hasn't been a problem and she has done 20,000 since the manual conversion and motor swap. so ide be assuming down the same lines as mad max.

Well it certainly looks like the PRV is the problem. Not sure about belting it around. ;) might enjoy that too much and not stop lol. Going to have to wait a bit again now cause I'm back in hospital once more, unless I can convince the guy to come to my place and change it there. Otherwise it is all good to go, still liking the belting idea right now :hmm:

sounds like the oil block offs have been installed incorrectly when you removed the counter balance shafts

:wtf: Mechanic did that part, I would hope it was right but you never know! How can you tell if this is the case? :censored: