Well I finally finished installing the rebuilt 102 engine in my 88 190e today. The moment of truth ....checked and double checked all connections, vacuum lines, etc. Turned the key on, heard the fuel pump come on briefly (normally)...good. Tried to start the engine and it ran GREAT...for 5 seconds. Turned the key off...waited another minute...runs great for 5 seconds...well at least I know the igniotn/timing is OK.

I suspect that the car runs OK for 5 seconds due to the cold start valve dumping a bit of raw fuel into the intake manifold. This tells me that I'm getting fuel into the fuel distributor OK...so what next? I cracked one of the lines on the fuel distributor going to the injectors...and cranked engine again....NO fuel...dry as a bone.

This is strange. The engine was getting fuel before the rebuild (it was rebuilt due to a burned piston of #4 cyl...whole other story)..and all I did was take the intake manifold off the head before I took the head to the machine shop. The intake manifold, complete with the fuel distributor was stored in the shop. I DID remove all the injectors and replace the seals ..and the lines were removed from the fuel distributor for that time. Is it possible that dust or dirt entered the outlets of the fuel distributor and now it won't "distribute"?

Any ideas why I'm not getting any fuel out to the injectors, but the cold start valve works? BTW I can get the engine to run a little longer if I dump a little gas in the intake, but holding the air flap (is that what it's called) down does not make any difference..it still dies after that fuel is gone.

Help! This is the only thing standing between my wife and her car.


Thanks