Just as I decide to start learn and do my own basic maintenance on the BA, it decides not to start.
Anyway, the night before, I had it out on the driveway most of the evening and went to start her up to get her back in the garage. It starts but was idling as lumpy as chunder and shaking quite a bit like it was running on 4 or 5 only. It didn't stall though.
I then shut it down and tried starting her again, hoping that it would idle normally (not sure if this is a good thing to do??). It started up just the same lumpy as before, so I just thought f**k it and parked her back into the garage, hoping that it would sort itself out overnight (sometimes it does I swear )

Tried to start it the next morning but it only cranks and doesn't fire. Well... during cranking, I could feel the odd fire from a cylinder but it was very weak.

I was planning to buy new plugs and coils that day as the car has done 145,000 kms (yes, quite overdue) and according to my service records, Ford has never changed them, nor the fuel filter, nor any other fluid except my engine oil. Actually they are quite good at charging me for an hours labour to 'fix my handbrake for a few weeks' when I ask them to fix my handbrake.... f**k

Anyway, after all the cranking I open the bonnet to have a look and I smell a burning smell (not a fuel smell). I take off the engine cover and had a look at the coils and plugs. They physically seem ok other than a s**t of carbon buildup on just about all the plugs (except no.6 as I cant get the f**k out yet with the tools I have).

So now its sitting there with the plugs out of the car. As I was going to change the plugs and coils, I was hoping that this would fix my problem.. But I don't know enough to be certain its the old plugs/coils or something else like a rancid fuel filter or pump?

Any help would be greatly appreciated


On a side note, this is a photo I took, looking down into spark plug hole number 1. Should I be concerned about the build up of black s**t down in the chamber?

 

 

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File comment: Looking into the plug hole Plug hole.jpg [ 248.21 KiB | Viewed 196 times ]

happens all the time with the wifes
when you try cranking hold the accelerator flat that will cut the injectors and it will start
there will be a fair bit of black smoke once it sarts and it will chug for bout a min
i have been told by a few people that the early ba's have an issue with the cam phasers and this is aggravated by say if you move the car from ur carport to the lawn ,if you start and only need to move a very short distance leave her runningfor bout 5 min and its all good

I held the pedal to the floor during cranking to cut off the injectors, but noticed no change even after 10 seconds of cranking. Still the same effects as before with a very weak 'firing' feeling from maybe a single cylinder every couple of seconds, then it was all crank.

I'm waiting on new replacement coils to arrive but would have thought that unlikely that more than half the coils all suddenly gave up. Unless its flooded from all the cranking the night before?

Disconnected the battery to reset ECU, tried to start again. It almost wanted to start again but all I got were a few hollow pops that were heard coming from the front of the car (not the exhaust).
I can also hear the fuel pump pressurize before attempting to start the car.

sounds like ur not getting spark mate, have u checked if the leads are getting spark?
not sure about the B series as i have an E series but the coil is a common problem with my series and once thats replaced is usually all sweet.

BA's dont have leads and have an individual coil on spark plug arrangement......

Blocked fuel filter perhaps???

Yup, I plan to change the fuel filter as well as its never been done.
Seems like I've been waiting forever for the coils to arrive even though its been only 3 working days + weekend. So, since I've got new plugs in the thing, I thought it be a good idea do the fuel filter and run some injector cleaner through the system.

Engine oil was done a few weeks ago.

Is there anything else that I could do to further clean the fuel system? as I'm not sure whether all that black s**t in the combustion chamber (see above photo) is normal for a car thats done 145,000 kms.

That is quite normal... If it was clean I would be worried....

Its called carbon.... byproduct of the internal combustion process..
If it was clean, you would be burning a crap load of oil as thats what tends to clean it off...

Back in the old days we used to clean out our engines with upper cylinder lube...
Neighbours used to come out and there would be a humungas smoke cloud.... fun times

Cheers for the info AU99.

As soon as I complained about waiting forever to receive my coils, they got delivered within the hour.
Got them home and plugged them all in, and with a bit or right foot finessing, got the car started I was so glad she's running again because I had my dad's '86 E280 Merc for the last week, and god was it painful to drive

Anyhoo, I'll get onto the fuel filter soon. Heres some pics I took of my old coils and plugs.

wow they are some bad looking plugs have they been changed before,i pulled the ones out of the wifes car at 150k and they still looked good

Nope, they've never been changed. All 6 of them were in a similar condition.