Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all

So thought I finally had my engine in and bus repaired, but went to pick it up today from the Mechanic friend with whom I fitted the engine with and it still has some issues.

Engine shakes and runs poor but is drivable. Seems that cylinder 1 doesn't fire every time.
Cylinder 1 has black deposits on Spark plug
All other cylinders pale brown.
back firing on lifting off accelerator mostly

https://vimeo.com/105382454

Changed HT leads around
Changed spark plugs around
Changed the injector for a rusty one from my old engine
Changed the distributer cap
Change the distributer itself
strobe showed a spark coming through on the main LT lead
cleaned off the earth connections near the ignition coil
new Cat & lambda sensor
New ignition coil

done compression test on warm engine and got all 4 around 120 PSI mark, only 8 bar, seems a little low? It is a cheap tester from ebay though!?

a video of cylinder 1 compressing, its first crank is only a 5bar jump, is that right?
https://vimeo.com/105382455

German book says then that ECU is the last thing. It is a ECU from my old SS engine, but SS/MV are the same and then why the issues with cylinder 1 only?

this engine is "supposed" to have the following done to it, hope I haven't been done here:
1. Crankshaft planed and finely balanced
2. New Pistons und Cylinders
3. Used Camshaft with 5000 km
4. New Oil Pump
5. New Alternator
6. Water pump almost new with 1000 km
7. Head Worked over
8. Con rod worked over and balanced
9. Case, Head, Ventil lid painted
10. Used exhaust system without Cat (Now added)
11. New Fly Wheel

my mechanic did say, that the fuel pump might be a bit dodgy as he needed to put the battery across it one time to get it working. But how would that effect 1 cylinder?

I have fitted an oil cooler too, don't think Ive got up to temperature yet, cos the radiator is not very hot. Does it bleed itself though the oil breather?
cheers, Rich

Going back to basics...
You have compression
Fuel
and a spark

So everything is there on number 1 however, it isn't contributing to the engine...is that correct?

Air leak perhaps?

Martin

tried the old - spray some WD40/Brake Cleaner around the engine bay, couldn't see any leak around the air intake.

Took it to a garage now, where they have the tools to perform better diagnostics. Lets see what they find.

But I think we have done so much diagnostics ourselves, it must be either an air leak, the ECU, or really something mechanical with that cylinder

The drive to the garage was much worse than yesterday, had quite some shaking at the start of the journey. But then got better towards the end. But I couldn't place any pattern, seems quite intermittent.

On a good note, the Oil Temperature gauge works, stayed just below 90 deg while on the motorway.

We had a similar problem. Then I was working on the van in the dark (no garage) using a torch on an unrelated issue and when I put the torch on the ground I saw blue sparks all around number one spark plug where the cap goes over the plug/porcelain. I'd put new leads on but not changed the plugs. A new set of plugs and back to firing on all cylinders. Check yours out in the dark?

so to E D I T my original post.

The explanation for Engine issues were infact due to problems with cylinder 4, the injector cable was broken. While cylinder 1 was then running too rich to over compensate this imbalance in the engine.

So they fixed that, but was then told it failed its MOT - apart from a few blown bulbs (side lights, numberplate), which I could have looked into beforehand, but was a bit pre-occupied with the engine running issues. The main thing it failed on was, incorrect wheels!

The 205/65R15 Project Zwo alloys which ive had on the last 2 passed MOTs, for some reason failed this time. So I will simply put on my steel rimmed R14 wheels, which are allowed! MOT again next week, lets see.



Now is running as expected, lovely.

juhuuuu! MOT passed! now im 3 weeks on holiday in the US and Canada and can't play with my bus

ok, im looking forward to the holiday too!

Bus now safely back in my loving arms, ran like a dream yesterday, even got up to 75 mph down hill at one point

now for some comfort and cosmetic changes starting with a new floor