Hello, I have a 1999 2.5L 4 Cylinder. Dakota that will not start. I have spent all weekend on this and have not realy made any progress. It was running but it had a water leak and to get it home the driver stopped every so often and added water to the overflow. The last time they stopped it was getting hot (still not in the red zone on the guage they said) so they turned the engine off and refilled the overflow. They also thought they could cool off the engine by pouring some water over the engine. Now we are here... It won't start. The check engine light is not on but I don't have a way to check for any stored codes at this time. Here is what I have done.

*It was slow to crank so I charged the battery and tested it, it tested bad so I replaced the battery.
*Checked fuel system, good fuel and fuel system pressure (48 PSI).
*Checked coil, primary resistance at coil harnes was 1.6 ohms. The haynes manual says .92 to 1.2 ohms. Secondary resistance was 12.9K ohms and manual says 11.3K to 15.3K ohms. Secondary was good, primary was just outside the range, should this still be replaced?
*Checked spark at two of the cylenders, good spark.
*Replaced spark plugs. (they were old and needed to be replaced anyway.)
*Checked voltage at MAP sensor, good.
*Tested Auto Shut Down relay, functions as normal.
*Tested fuses in under hood fuse box. All good.

It turns over and sounds like it wants to start, it just won't.


I don't know what else to check. Any suggestions here?

Thank you in advance.

-James

 

well it sounds like you need to check compression or timing not real familiar with the 4 banger if it got hot that much for that long it might have burnt the rings or you might have a head gasket totally gone if you have fuel and spark the only think you are lacking is compression good luck if the motor is bad check car-part.com a search of salvage yards