So I get a call from an old friend who happens to be a Ph.D. and he's got a 1990 Nissan Maxima that he commutes with. He had trouble getting it started over the recent cold blast where it got down to zero. Since then, he's charged the battery and it turns over fine, but will not fire.
Quite by accident, while checking for spark, I presume, he observes that the engine will start with one of the spark plugs out. Put it back in it will not start.
What the heck? Anybody?
Bad engine ground? Weak Coil?
Bad plug is shorting. If it's wasted spark, that's two cylinders not firing.
Maybe even an ECU smart enough not to fire into a short? That seems like a reach, but might keep any from firing at all...
Okay, that's my guess used up 
Its a Nissan, so that means its flooded. The one plug out got it to turn a bit faster, so it lit. Shut it off right away, which made the flooding worse.
Pull the plugs, dry them with a torch, compressed air to dry the cylinders, if possible a small shot of oil in each hole, dry plugs back in, then put your foot to the floor and crank it til its running. Do not let go of the key just because it fires- make sure its at 2000 rpm before letting go of the key.
We call that "Raping to life" up here in the cold north.
In reply to 1988RedT2:
You will let us know what it turns out to be, right?
In reply to Ransom:
But of course! I called him last night, but he has yet to return my call.
Sounds like a plugged exhaust to me.
The missing spark plug provided enough exhaust outlet to allow the other cylinders to draw in fresh mixture.
I bet if he pulls the o2 sensor from the manifold it will run with all the plugs installed.
1988RedT2 wrote: In reply to Ransom: But of course! I called him last night, but he has yet to return my call.
What was the problem?
Enquiring minds want to know.
We've waited another week to find out what it was! You know we're not going to drop this
Streetwiseguy wrote: We call that "Raping to life" up here in the cold north.
"Safesearch" is giving me problems trying to Google that procedure.
This sounds like a weird problem Nissan V6s could get when the battery to drivetrain ground would get bad. No spark unless you disconnected one (any one) of the coils.
Much hair was lost while trying to figure that one out the first time. You ended up seeing weird things when scoping the crank sensor. Clean/relocate the ground and all is well.
For some reason, Nissan saw fit to bolt the big, fat cable to a thin sheetmetal bracket on the affected vehicles. Grounding the cable the correct way solves the issue.
Incurable curiosity bump...
I'm all sorts of curious about this, too.
In reply to Streetwiseguy:
My 85.5 200sx after a rain wouldn't start but depressing the gas pedal for 5-10 secs if I remember somewhat correctly then cranking would start it right up. Unless it was parked not in shade and in the hot sun it wouldn't be a problem. 
Most common no start issue for a Maxima is the starter. It will crank over just fine but not start, it just draws a little too much and the voltage drops to the CPS. More power or less draw and they start. I almost wired my crank position sensor to a relay off the battery, but it only takes 15 minutes to change a starter. I changes 4 in the ten years and 95k miles that I ran that car. It ran great until it returned to the earth.
I feel we're entering the part of the sequence where it's no longer funny when I bring this thread up. I trust, based on what I learned from a former boss, that it will eventually be funny again if I keep it up long enough.
Either way, my curiosity remains unquenched!
LOL. I didn't see that this was getting bumped. Believe it or not, I still haven't had the opportunity to talk to the guy. I do understand that he got it started, so I'm thinking the flooded suggestion was on the right track. I promise I'll call him tomorrow and get a better answer.
Okay, I finally got a call back from this guy, who called me from his car on his way back from the pistol range. He never did figure out exactly what the trouble was, but after hearing some weird noises from the distributor, he tried replacing that to no avail. A friend of his wife's was trading a Honda Civic with 270,000 miles on a new car and they were going to give her like $250 for it. He bought the Civic from her, and sold the Maxima to a guy that had the same year Maxima in the same color as his. Guy didn't care about the engine, he wanted the body. So my friend got rid of a car that didn't run, got a sweet-running old Civic, and pocketed some extra cash in the process.
So that's as close as I can come to offering you folks closure. Thanks for playing!
TELL ME ABOUT THE BERKELEYING GOLF SHOES!!!
Aaaaaauuugh! The football has been yanked away!
But seriously, that's going to bug me for a while. I'm pretty sure I lose on Occam's Razor, but I was so curious...
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