Soul crushed and seeking advice on starting problems

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Why do you say that? I am researching one of these as well, and kind of was partial to the ones w/o the pump as reading online that's the usual fail point (the built in pump).

The ones with the built-in pump, you don’t need anything special, just fill it with smoke fluid and connect it to the battery.

The ones without the pump require you to use an air compressor and a special regulator. Wouldn’t be a big deal if I had a garage to work on stuff in and shop air, but a hassle for working outside with little consistency as to where. My air tools have been collecting dust for years because of that, I’ve gone to being more mobile in my tooling ever since Milwaukee came out with the 1/2” high-torque M18 impact.

 

[holyford86]

Alright…

Little slow with my response because I’m working on cooking dinner…

Starter and bolts look better than I expected from that first pic. Unless the bolts are working loose it seems odd that it’s eating flywheels. Does it sound like it engages/disengages cleanly with no grinding?

Grounds can cause all sorts of issues even with cranking speed being ok. The normal place for the block ground is on the side of the block above the motor mount on these. Newer trucks take the block ground to the starter but anywhere block/starter/heads works. Normal configuration was a wire that went from the negative terminal to the frame and then over to the block. I usually run separate 4 gauge wires. That one you have on there all taped up concerns me about how well it’s doing its job.

The “dinky” ground wire is by the battery, just a short bit of 10 or 8 gauge running from the negative terminal over to the core support.

That is a super crusty pump! Yikes!

Wonder if the TPS (throttle position sensor) is acting up. More a curiosity thing.

Unplugging the IAC and it idles right tells me there’s a vacuum leak most likely.

That delayed spark sounds fishy…

@holyford86 , you have any suggestions?

I've seen missing engine to teansmission dowel pins or loose bolts cause issues like you've been having chew up ring gears.

Check your cranking voltage at the pcm and edis module to see if it's dropping very low during cranking.

Vacuum leaks shouldn't cause an issue during cranking unless they're giant leaks, which should be obvious.

As previously mentioned, it wouldn't be a bad idea to give the inside of the pcm a good look over for leaking capacitors or other corrosion damage. I had a couple failed or failing capacitors inside mine, it didn't cause anything super noticeable as far as driveability but the electrolyte is conductive and corrosive, which will short things out and cause issues or turn your pcm into a brick. It's best to catch them first. If you're reasonably good with soldering, a cheap soldering iron, a desoldering braid and vacuum kit, and some lead bearing electronics solder will suffice, and you can get it all at harbor freight. Digikey or similar has all the components you need from high quality manufacturers for reasonable prices as well.