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Only running on 3 cylinders ?! 

 

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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:07 pm 
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snap0964 wrote:
if you can, plug your original ECU into another EF manual car to test if it's okay or not.


I don't know of anyone around my area with an EF manual :(
Do you know if an EF auto will run a manual ECU ? I only need to hear it idling in neutral to tell if its working or not.

 

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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:45 pm 
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Hyena wrote:
I don't know of anyone around my area with an EF manual :(
But it wouldn't hurt to post a thread asking if any of the Sydney forum members can help you out.

Hyena wrote:
Do you know if an EF auto will run a manual ECU ? I only need to hear it idling in neutral to tell if its working or not.
Off the top of my head, for engine running, I can't see a problem - the only thing you'll need to do is pull the two pin plug (plug and clip look like the injector ones) off the inhibitor switch, and short it out to simulate the T5 neutral switch being closed in neutral, although you can try it as is, the idle will be higher, but might suit what you're doing.
Just plug it in and try it - shouldn't damage the ECU.

 

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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:07 pm 
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OK, I've just picked up the car and bought it home (been at my parents place while I've been away)

I tested all injectors and all are reading around 17 ohms. I also tested the pulses coming from the computer and all are firing in what I assume is a normal fashion (fast flickering globe) Unplugging injectors 1-3 (and even all 3 together) had little effect on the idle but unplugging 4-6 made it run rough as guts then stall.

I also tried unplugging the MAP sensor and aside from raising the idle it didn't make the car run any worse. I dunno if that's normal or may be helpful in the diagnosis.

It's pouring a rediculous amount of fuel into the engine - driving up a grade in 2nd its constantly backfiring under acceleration and is completely gutless. Going by the trip computer the instant fuel consumption rolling along at around 2300rpm is ~40 l/100ks and around 70-80 when accelerating. Could it be something like the fuel pressure reg has died and is allowing too much fuel to come through ? Or does the ECU usually sort that out ? (Obviously I know SFA about engine management... :oops: ) Fuel aside, I still don't know how that relates to the really weak spare on the first 3 cylinders

*sigh*
I :(

 

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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:42 pm 
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Hyena wrote:

I also tried unplugging the MAP sensor and aside from raising the idle it didn't make the car run any worse. I dunno if that's normal or may be helpful in the diagnosis.


when i plug my MAP the car splutters and will blow black smoke cause of all the extra fuel

 

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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:42 pm 
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Just a thought but have you tried to swap/change any fuses in the engine bay? I think one of them has got to do with idle. Dont know about the rest. Worth a try. Just letting u know again this is a wild guess.

 

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 Post subject: Re: Only running on 3 cylinders ?!
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 1:21 pm 
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Hyena wrote:
edit: see below posts - bizzare symptoms no one can work out

My EF suddenly died a few days ago and is only running on 3 cylinders. Going by the symptoms it shouldn't be the coil pack but there is a chance it could be something fishy like a problem in the circuitry rather than the coil itself. I've tried everything else bar the ECU, which I suspect it may be, but I wanna rule out the coil first. If it is the ECU I'll ditch this one and fit a megasquirt.

Now the hard part, I'm getting married this saturday and wanted to use my car as one of the wedding cars. If its the ECU then tough luck as I wont be able to get the MS going in time, but if I can borrow a coil and it turns out to be that I'll happily buy a new one.

Any one got one laying around ?
make sure its not a wiring fault, in particular the loom that feeds the injectors, like vl's they come in bunches, same thing happened to me in my dunnydoor, so i used very heavy gauge cable, fitting and ran a 1 to 6 loom, 1 main power and 1 each lighter lead to the injectors, if wrong sorry, if right happy days.
hannibal :?: feel if the injectors clicking as its running, if 3 are not, its wiring, if 6 are then i'm afraid its sparks

 

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Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:37 pm 
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greenmachine came over today and gave me a hand, huge thanks mate :)
We swapped over the ECU, crank angle sensor and map sensor into his car - all ran perfectly. We also checked for leaks in the intake manifold and the toothed wheel is also clean as a whistle. Interestingly comparing the spark with his it seems mine is actually fairly similar, so apparently its fairly normal to run a weaker spark on the first 3 cylinders.

So that's pretty much everything we can check, unless it's a damaged loom somewhere or a faulty fuel pressure reg causing massive amounts of fuel to be dumped in (which shouldn't cause it to run THIS rough) I guess the only other option is a mechanical fault ? :(

If it is a mechanical fault though something the mechanics fiddled while trouble shooting made it ALOT worse. This vid ( http://www.coresworld.net/hyena/bustedengine.wmv ) was taken when it first started playing up, it now barely idles without stalling and can hardly make it up 60ks.

Any other ideas ?

 

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Last edited by Hyena on Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:46 pm 
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Hyena wrote:
greenmachine came over today and gave me a hand, huge thanks mate :)
We swapped over the ECU, crank angle sensor and map sensor into his car - all ran perfectly. We also checked for leaks in the intake manifold and the toothed wheel is also clean as a whistle. Interestingly comparing the spark with his it seems mine is actually fairly similar, so apparently its fairly normal to run a weaker spark on the first 3 cylinders.

So that's pretty much everything we can check, unless it's a damaged loom somewhere or a faulty fuel pressure reg causing massive amounts of fuel to be dumped in (which shouldn't cause it to run THIS rough) I guess the only other option is a mechanical fault ? :(

Any other ideas ?
faulty lifters

 

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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:48 am 
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Hey no probs! It's just a pitty we couldn't sort out some of the issues! well at least we can cross some things off the list,it's got me a little stumped as to whatt it could be? will ask a couple of mate's that are mec's by trade and see what they think it could be!

 

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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:50 pm 
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I reckon it'd pay to get it to Joe at Crescent or Spiro at Autotech to sort out. They can put it on the dyno, check AFR's and go nuts with it. You'll be replacing things left right and centre otherwise (it'll be something real simple too)

 

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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:24 pm 
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OK, who wants to know the final solution ?
My last line of thinking was fuel related coz it was dumping massive amounts out the back, but after having the reg pressure tested and all the injectors flow tested everything came back fine (as I'd have expected after hte motor was fully rebuilt not that long ago)

After several weeks, 3 mechanics and 2 autoelectricians, $350 in wasted labour and replacing everything minus the engine itself I finally know what's wrong with it. Turns out the first guy I had it to doesn't know how to do a compression test properly :roll:

That was one of the first things I asked but he said the compression was really good. I dunno if he only tested a few cylinders but it turns out there no compression on number 3.

I took the rocker cover off and found this:

Image

So it was a dud valve spring all along! I was only crawling along in traffic when it suddenly went so I'm a bit suprised but I guess stranger things have happened...

I don't know much about valve springs but I can see a bit has snapped off (no idea where it is :shock: ) and the spring itself is fairly freely moving around so I'm hoping that's the only problem. If it's just the spring that's let go there shouldn't be any damage to the valve should there ? I'm hoping not, I really don't want to have to take the head off!

 

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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:56 pm 
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hmmm have they been upgraded?

 

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Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:11 am 
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They're supposed to be! :?

 

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Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 5:21 pm 
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Hyena wrote:
They're supposed to be! :?


I snapped 4 of JMM's "heavy duty" springs over the course of a couple of years...

 

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Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 5:29 pm 
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Waggin wrote:
Hyena wrote:
They're supposed to be! :?


I snapped 4 of JMM's "heavy duty" springs over the course of a couple of years...

Yeah mocks old springs were known to break, they use a different spring now.

It hasnt dropped the valve Hyena, so it "shouldn't" have had any piston to valve man love, should be alright to leave the head on and just replace spring.
If one has broken though, I'd replace the whole lot, better to be safe then sorry.

 

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