Warpman909

Hello everyone.
I've been a longtime lurker on this website, utilising it for important knowledge and experience to help with any problems I've ran into. The amount of expertise here is staggering and the fact that there is so much documentation and help in the form of DIY Guides, document references, factory specifications, hallowed information passed down through generations... It's amazing. I couldn't love it more, and it shows just how much support and love there still is for this esoteric-a** engine and all its quirks.

So a bit of back story..
I own a Series I 2004 Titanium Grey (UK-Spec with the 6-port high power engine and the 6-speed manual.). I've owned it for almost two years, and it's given me plenty of trouble (most of which was remedied with solutions found on these forums). I picked the car up from a friend who was PCS'ing and needed to offload the car fast. He said one day it wouldn't start and he had trouble getting it to start again, and just gave up. I challenged him and said that if I could get it started, I'd take it from him, but only if I could keep it. He agreed, and after swapping out the battery for a new one and cranking it for about 30 seconds, it started up with a puff of smoke and idled smoothly (I had suspected that he had flooded it, and got too frustrated trying to fix it. Maybe he never found this site? It sat still and dead for about 7 months prior to my intervention, so I figured the fuel had evaporated by now and the battery would be dead from starting attempts, and I was right on the money. Free car for me!).
The car had 78,000 miles and came with the classic foibles the car's known for, such as the coolant sensor and sluggish but reliable starts and of course drug-out hot starts. Of course, its a high milage engine and spotty owner history meant poor upkeep, so I knew a failure was coming. I tended to the oil at every fill up and used premium only, made sure to rev it out every time I drove it for longer than an hour each day. The OMP had phantom failures and I got a replacement from a junked car, cleaned it, and installed that for a fix, the cat plugged up and we punched it out, I premixed for a while there, made sure to use only mineral oil.. I swapped the thermostat for a Mishimoto lower-temp one for longevity purposes and ended up with an overheating car, thinking it was just summer heat. A new Koyorad radiator and Mishimoto fans didn't help, turns out the thermostat was the main issue; it wasn't opening at all. Swapped it for a new cheapo (functioning, I checked this time) replacement and that solved it, but the damage had been done. It started eating coolant and mixing oil and water, and eventually at the beginning of this year the engine gave out (along with the starter) at 82,000 miles. About 3 months after, I found an identical engine with 42,000 miles on auction on eBay that came from a running example. A rear-end crash rendered the car totaled and the owner wanted to part out. I won that auction and the engine was shipped. Recently (after many months, and with a lot of help from this site) we finally managed to complete a swap. The replacement engine is in and everything is installed, and over the past week I've managed to get it to turn over; however only running on one rotor. I tried gently rev it and it just sputtered and died. I tried to start it again, this time flooding it. I preformed a deflood procedure and let it air out for awhile, and after lots of coaxing and adjustment of the gas pedal it fired up again, still on one rotor with a rough idle. I let it warm up to temp (to open up the thermostat to continue coolant filling and cycle the new oil through the system) and tried to gently rev it once more, wondering if it just needed to "clear its throat." No dice, sputtered and died, wouldn't start again. I gave up and threw in the towel.

Now, I'm going to be frank; it was a very amateur engine swap done in a family member's shop. We weren't super thorough, we didn't replace any parts (other than a new starter), we reused all the old peripherals and parts, as they weren't what failed, everything else was working fine before the old engine went kaput. I know I should have swapped out parts, and replaced a lot of things, but we were cost oriented and replacing parts that still functioned didn't make financial sense.

As far as I'm aware, the engine still has the original factory coils on it. The leads and plugs are new (only maybe 2000-3000 miles?), both from NKG, Iridium plugs. I know that I should really change those coils out but I've seen too much conflicting information to be sure of what out to take. I've also heard that dirty sensors (a define possibility thanks to the engine swap) can cause issues, such as a fouled or dirty MAF, the ESS, oil in the intake accordian tube, that kind of thing. I also have seen that am the immobilizer and saftey functions could be behind it, but I doubt that since it did start twice and the key fob still registers with the car. I intend on checking all of those small things and trying to find better, concrete information on what route to take regarding ignition parts, most likely replacing the leads and plugs too to be safe. There's also a definite possibility of the engine I bought being bad and having no compression. But I don't own a tester, no one I know does, specialist shops are far away and cost big money for a trip to come test it for me, and purchasing one doesn't make sense as apparently delivery for online purchases (regardless of the site) can take over a month, which is time I don't have.


What I'm asking is if there's a chance that the problems I'm facing are ignition related and could be solved with some properly strong spark or if it's a bad engine. I want to know if maybe it's something as innocuous as my leads are routed wrong, or if it sounds like the engine I bought is toast as well. If it sounds like my problem might be from fried ignition components and the answer to my problem is new coils, plugs, and wires, then I'd happily buy the parts.

I guess I'm just looking for some guidance and experience on what step to take next. I'd hate to waste money solving problems that don't need it or find out that all my effort was for naught with a bad engine. One thing I can say, is that if the answer is simple, it'd be way easier and less costly to drive the car to a shop for a compression test.

I appreciate any outreach you guys have on the matter. I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can.