I'm so close to being either finished and driving the car home for the first time, or throwing in the towel (ok maybe not). Over the past month I've been enveloped in an odessey of head removal, then head gasket removal, then cracked head disassembly, then replacement, then assembly, then reattaching everything. For the past 10 hours (over the past week) I've been trying to get it started. Yesterday I finally did, but it was VERY hard to do. If it weren't for a piece of advice I saw on the brickboard, I wouldn't have started it at all.

The only way I could get it to start is by (with fuel pumps switched on manually) lifting the airflow sensor plate to force fuel into the engine. Then I put the boot back on over the airflow sensor, crank the car for like 10-15 seconds while flooring it, then it will kick back like its compressing an overly rich mixture, then kick back a couple more times, then if I'm lucky, it'll sputter to life, then run pretty well, no smoke, no steam, though it won't idle, and dies if I let it below 1,200 revs or so. Once it dies, even if I ran it until warm, it will not start again unless I redo the whole procedure again. Its always an identical amount of cranking time, cold or hot. As an odd extra problem, it will go from cold to overheating in about 30 seconds of 2-3,000 rpm running, even with no thermostat in at all. This could be because of a loose distributor (too advanced = heat?) which isn't timed up right yet, though it starts with just as much difficulty no matter where the distributor is rotated, so I don't think its causing the hard start.

Here's whats been checked: Timing is almost certainly correct. I checked it in various positions 1 tooth off in either direction on all pulleys just to be sure. Spark tester shows spark on all cylinders. Fuel vapor comes out of turbo while its cranking. Compression is good all around. Valve clearance fine on all cylinders.

Here's whats uncertain: Vacuum leaks. Manifold leaks. Faulty parts. Accidentally connected plugs in different places (possible?). Don't know if any sensors have gone bad. Don't know if spark is not possible in high pressure environment. Possible bad cold start injector.

I have no idea what to do at this point. It ran great before I changed the head out, even with the blown head gasket and cracked head leaking water into the oil (makes me wonder why I changed it eh?). Just in case its an issue, the 'B' cam is what I'm using right now, and I have not yet drilled a cam gear 4 degrees advanced for it yet. So does anyone have any ideas? I really appreciate any help I can get on this subject, as I've come so far (150 hours at least) on this project, and am so close to finishing that its ridiculous.
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Isaac Babcock - '83 245DL 'Borkie' and '83 244 turbo project