I have very limited experience with cars and am currently undergoing pre-apprenticeship at tafe. SO bear with me, I have tried searching the forums but cant really come up with my problem.

The problem i have had now for over a few months that has been on/off, When i would go to start the car it would cough and splutter so i would turn it back off and wait anywhere between 30mins to hours and eventually it would crank over fine and i could drive perfectly.

Also sometimes when i would go to take off it would lack the power to even make it to 50km in under 10 seconds. This would mostly happen when i would try and start the car and it would splutter and cough but actually start.

Over time this has gotten worse to the point where i cannot start or drive the car,I got some advice of a friend working for nrma, I put some lifter free in and the car ran fine for a couple of days and then again now it fails to run.

I was learning about spark plugs at tafe so i decided to check mine out and found that everyone had black wet petrol fouling on it.

I replaced all the plugs and it now starts alot better but still coughs and splutters and i can now hear a loud ticking noise.

Car is a Ef Futura has done roughly 230,000k And had a cam upgrade when i bought it aswell as extractors, not sure if that matters

Is there anything i can do myself to diagnose what may be wrong with the car i own a gregorys workshop manual as well as i have collected some technical documents of here and downloaded and extra workshop manual, Except i dont really have any idea where to start looking for the problem.

Any help much appreciated.





EDIT: The wet plugs, could that mean that my engine is getting to much petrol and not enough air failing to make combustion properly.

I would be checking the Coil Pack and the Crank Angle sensor. Check your getting a strong blue spark from lead 1 while cranking.

I checked my leads the other day i am getting nice blue sparks from all of them.

What exactly am i checking the Coil Pack and Crank Angle Sensor for just wear or damage, Check the connecting pins are clean and crud free?

Edit: Both are relatively cheap should i replace them regardless?

I would say not just yet with the Coil Pack if you are getting good spark. Crank Angle sensor I'm not sure off so I will let someone else feed you proper information.

You could also check your fuel filter to make sure it isn't blocked or even dirty injectors. I'd personally would replace the filter and see if that makes a difference since it is one of the few cheap items that may cause an issue.

Are you blowing black smoke out the exhaust? Might want to check the MAP sensor to see if the vacuum hose is connected properly without any holes/cracks as well as the sensor plug...might have fallen off for some odd reason.

Work your way from cheap stuff to the more expensive stuff, and if you have enough patience, do one at a time so you can pin point the actual cause.

The problem i have is i have limited funding as im only at tafe and have no job, But i have all the time in the world haha.

There is no black smoke blowing out of the exhaust but there is some liquid that spits when i try and start that smells alot like fuel but isnt more like watered down fuel.

So far

-Crank Angle Sensor
-Fuel Filter - Replace - check fuel lines
-Injectors
-MAP Sensor - Vaccum hose leaks/cracks


It doesn't bother me how long it will take to fix i have owned it for over a year and only driven it for about 4-5 months of that time. I have the patience.

Managed to get my hands down and check the Crank Angle Sensor it is pretty worn the layer protecting the wire is missing at the end and it is all up fairly grimey so i will be replacing that.

i'd say coil pack or fuel filter/system. i thought my spark was good to but underload the spark was weak, it coughed etc etc. changed the pack and all is good

Clean the cas first and also the tone wheel that sits behing the harmonic balancer before replacing it. The gregory's manual will tell you how to test the CAS(You just check the resistance of the sensor)

Yeah i have been reading the gregorys manual a fair bit to get an idea of what i have to do.

I can get a new Crank Angle Sensor and Coil Pack in about 2-3 weeks. So i shall see if it makes a difference.

Would it be possible with my current experience to fully rebuild my engine, it would probably take me about 12 months or more. Only asking because i have feelings that its completely rooted.

She burnin oil or coolant?
What's ya head gasket like.

May need the injectors done....they may be leaking????