had a small problem just come up that ive never had before.

ive got an el with the au heads on it (post 2-98). just after i've started it and head off down the road the engine feels like its missing or stuck between gears or something. almost like one or two spark plugs arn't firing. theres no unusual noises or vibrations, just a breaf chug as it gets about 100m from home. if i give it a bit of a boot it seems to come good. never had any problems with it.

could it be when it changes up a gear and the engines cold that it doesn't have enough oomph to keep going and stalls or something? because im not to hard on the throttle till the engine gets some temp.

not sure if it may be part of it, but i know the battery is just about a gonna (holds about 12v after the engine is off and first thing in the morning it has a slow crank) and needs replacing. but usually the altenator puts out about 13.8 volts, less to about 13.2 if i come off the throttle. today it stayed up around 14 all the time, and came back to normal after i restarted the engine a few times.

Cheers guys

im guessing that its your battery, thats wat i wuld look at if uve had problems with it.

leads did that to my ef! i doubt highly the battery would do that. we've ran our 'mont off a honda civic before, had to leave it running idling for 2/3 mins after the stereo, a/c ect had been turned off for it to turn it over! also, run it on a totally f**k battery. so if your leads are due, do them. cheap fix hopefully

Head Gasket.

GOOD GOD MAN! dont scare me. its only an issue for about 3 seconds. and the engine still has pleanty of power. plus it's only done 76,500k, head gaskit shouldn't be needed that soon.

im thinking more like a cylinder drops out for a second or something.

but i'll check the oil, god forbid

Funny that my first headgasket in my Ghia shat itself at 75,000km (hybrid too - 3/98) and had the exact same symptons of a slight stutter for 3 to 5 seconds after I drove out of the driveway and hit the accelerator.

Went away after that and never happened for the rest of the day, until the next morning.

Figured that when the engine was cold, there was a small leak somewhere, and as it warmed up, everything expended and sealed properly.

New head gasket, and all was good... Until it went 15,000km later, with the same symptoms.

lol, just cold man


my old EF always did it, and my new AU TE50 does it. couple of corners (or restarts) and she's fine. just put a brand new battery in it last week

im used to it....just warm it up in the shed first

why its only just started who knows....maybe your injectors clog up a bit at night....who knows

mate this sucks. i had a look at the top of the cylinders and the dipstick and both are a nice brown oily colour, no white, no foam. im starting to think H-G but im remaining optimistic.

maybe the leak might be on the cylinder side and leak in to the cylinder at night?
maybe water or condensation on the spark leads? dodgy leads? (plugs replaced about 4000k ago and oxy sensor the day after this started, but not because it happened. and two leads got replaced with ones that had done 5000ks)
ive noticed that there is a bit less water in the res but its only a smidge less, i put it down to the weather* and the rad hose on the thermo has always leaked a bit, need to sand it flat again but an adventure for another day.

this still doesn't explain why it hasn't done it before or why the voltage is higher after ive started it in the morning.

i'll give it a good hard rev before i pull out and see if it does it tomorrow.
fingers crossed.

*just on that, was talking to a radiator guy a while back and he said that ford thermos are too high and the pressure cap is too agressive. by going to an 81c thermo and the next highest pressure cap he said the i6 doesn't labor as much and enjoys life a bit more. would lower rated pressure caps stop so many gaskets going?

Head gaskets can blow many ways. Water in the oil would be a rarish occurence. Usually it leaks down the side of the block. Sometimes between cylinders. Sometimes has a slight break between the water jacket and the cylinder.

Look into each cylinder and at the piston. If one seems a bit cleaner than the others, it may be evidence of water in the cylinders.

As for thermostats, there are lots of arguments either way. But I think Ford got it right with their selection of thermostat, etc, etc. They got test these cars harder than we ever can, and they dont have problems. If you have a decently maintained cooling system, there should never be a problem.

The only time I had a problem was when Ford did my head gasket. When I did it properly with care, I never had one problem.

Imagine towing a boat on a 42 deg day with 4 people in the car and the aircon pumping as hard as it can. Engine temp never went above 96deg. 3deg higher than it normally runs in winter. All this with the original hoses and radiator that came out on the car when it was made. Makes a joke of all the suggestions of a 81deg thermostat and running the thermos all the time, etc, etc.

As for voltage changes. ELs in general (specially hybrids) have s**t wiring. The circuit that the dash gauge runs off runs alot of the cars accessories... As the wire heats up, the voltage starts to drop. Both my EL's sit on 14v at startup, and slowly loose 1 volt as the car warms up. Been chasing the reason for ages, still havent found it. But the battery still charges at 14v.

arm79 im going to call you the angel of death from now on. this is s**t news.

whats the skinny on the parts i'll need and prices im looking at?

I wouldn't worry... It will go for months without a worry. Just deal with the stutter in the morning, and it will be fine.

yeah, it'd probably be fine, but im off to uni out of town next month and im quitting my job here. so if it needs doing it has to be now.

im going to check the spark plugs for yellow or brown rust, get a hydrocarbon test done on the coolent and keep an eye on the res for a while to see if im loosing any.

im going to get a pressure cap thats rated a little less than stock too. might stop it happening in the future.

and i had a talk to my neighbour that has an ED, gasket has blown twice and at 300.000k it went again. was told that the head couldn't be shaved anymore and was going to cost $1400 or something for the full speal. after more talking to the reco guy, he said 'not that *I* would do it seeings i deal with this stuff for a living, but theres a chemical (can't remember) that you can put in after draining the coolant and boil. flush it and refill' he gave it a shot and it fixed it. he also works with a guy that had the coolant leaking in to the cylinder and it fixed that too.

only thing he said was there are a few brands, use brand X. reguardless of what you guys will say, i might give it ago, i'd have to pull the head off anyway so why not.

I assume he would be talking about Chemiweld or something similar.

If it is, its not really a good idea as it has the potential to block more than any leaks in the headgasket.

Sorry this is a bit off topic...

But what's with everyone blowing head gaskets at the moment!?!

its a common problem with i6's.

i think i found the problem, also explains my high voltage. august i put in a new set of iridium spark plugs and a fuel filter.

on saturday after the rain i put in a new oxy sensor, taking proactive steps to keep the car running good. a few hours after i put it in i went for a drive down the highway at 100k's and the roads where still a bit wet.

next morning i came out and saw the bonnet was popped. shut it and drove it and noticed the problem started to happen. anyway, i checked the plugs again today and the 3 cylinder plug was cracked. might have been like that for a while i think. $16.50 for a new iridium and i'll see what its like in the morning. no hydrocarbons in the coolant and no milk s**t in the oil.