I posted on other forums and realize that most of the members here are one in the same but I had to give it a shot...
My 03D2 is not spitting out any codes, so what could be wrong? I drove it a mile home from work and when I went to start it the next morning it wouldn't fire off.
I've shot the wires, replaced the fuel pump and the CkPS, and verified all grounds. Everything is fine. But...
Today, after replacing the CkPS for the second time it finally fired off ONLY if I pumped the gas. It got up to around 3K RPM and would choke around as long as I pumped the gas. Once I let off it would diesel out and die. After doing this a few times there is a noticeable plastic smell. Not chemical but more plastic than anything. It emits primarily from the drivers side and when I went under the truck to inspect there I noticed that the cats were extremely hot; not discolored though.
I'm out of ideas aside from removing the intake and inspecting behind there and looking at the wires. When I spray carb cleaner down the throat it fires and burns, the engine turns over, fuel pressure gets to the rail with enough pressure to spray everything (40 PSI, I don't know for certain). It seems as if the fuel isn't being metered sufficiently from the rail into the chamber. I'm lost, I need some better ideas than "replace the CkPS" or "have you checked the wiper fluid?"
My dream car is rapidly becoming more of a nuisance than pride.

 

Send me your number and I'll call and walk you thru what to check.

 

Shot in the dark but did you install the crank position sensor and then the bushings followed by the nuts?

 

My guess is you either have plugged catalytic converters or too much raw fuel being dumped into the exhaust causing the converters to overheat. You might try disconnecting the exhaust at the manifolds and seeing if it will run. Be advised that it will be quite loud as use precaution so as not to start a fire.

 

I DID triple check the CkPS and its installed correctly. Running rich may not be too far off but I wouldn't guess plugged cats. I tried starting it before reconnecting the pipes after reinstalling the CkPS, same effect. Mike, we've spoken before so you should have my number still; it starts with 813-443-. Thanks for the input so far. I really need the unbiased ideas.

 

Well you shouldn't need to pump the gas to start of course. Have you pulled the plugs to see if your getting fuel at start without pumping the gas? I'd pull the ignition coil fuse will doing this for safety. The smell of fuel should be very evident. I'd then pull the fuel pump and injector fuse and confirm spark at each plug. I don't know the interaction of the Cam sensor but this would be my next item to troubleshoot.

 

Throttle position sensor bad/not plugged in? Scanner should show a min position of around 9% and that should smoothly change as you press the gas pedal.

 

Looking across the intake gasket from front to back

Same, but zoomed in

This is the underside of the intake sitting on its end. The rear-most are towards the bottom.

Zoomed-in on the aft-most vehicle cylinder, again the intake side.

 

Obviously I've delved into this a bit more. There was certainly fuel coming out because after cranking it the other day the smell of fuel was almost overwhelming. Not "I have a leak" overwhelming, just more pronounced. I looked for burnt wires, grounding out somewhere across the back and saw nothing. What I did see is in the photos above though. Looks to be a film of oil, I'm not sure what cylinders off the top of my head though. I think the dark soot I saw (not photographed) on the block side of the intake was from my disconnected O2 sensor though. It was soot-y and not slimy like a burned oil. However, the oil seen in the photos has me worried. Especially since it's an un-even coating. There is not so much as a trace of oil on the outside of the block anywhere so if it's a leak, it's all internal. My only fear/thought is that the warm engine (remember I cranked it and drove it home) swelled the seal enough to "plug" a leak. After it cooled off (remember an engine gets hotter after shutting down before cooling off) it released the oil into a leak and now I have a full blown leaky head gasket? Again, I work on aircraft, not cars, so these are my best guesses. Don't fuel my fears, think on your own. YOU are the experts here, I'm just trying to fill ALL of your blanks. Thanks for your help, hopefully!

 

IF I have a slipped sleeve or bad seal (which it didn't sound like when it was sputtering along) then I have a TON of "like new" parts to sell. We'll see what this weekend brings.