Club 80-90 Forums

Bit of a novice mechanic and would welcome some advice regarding the following problem with a 1.9L replacement DG engine fitted to my 'early' van (Pierburg 2e3 carb).

I've recently had a stainless exhaust fitted and discovered that no.2 cylinder pipe was no where near as hot as the others. After a bit of reading on this forum, I put it down to an air leak at the inlet manifold (sprayed WD40 & noticed the revs change) so I've just replaced both inlet manifold gaskets. Tried to start the van for the first time this evening and it really struggled to start, smelt strongly of petrol & only no. 1 cylinder exhaust pipe was getting hot (it was running reasonably well on the way home from having the exhaust fitted even with a manifold leak). Eventually it did start, sounded terrible & again only no.1 cylinder pipe was hot. I noticed some petrol had leaked out from under one of the new gaskets, so I retightened the manifold bolts (anybody know the correct torque setting?) but again it would only run on one cylinder when started. Any advice welcome as it seems I've made things a lot worse?

OK where did you spray the WD40 and noticed the rpm increase?

Did any of the ignition components get changed when you noticed one pot was down?

Hi,

I sprayed WD40 where the manifold joins the head (i.e.on the old manifold gasket) & no, I haven't changed any of the ignition components.

Is there a spark on the cold pots?

Told you I was a novice - will check tomorrow and post back. Thanks!

Can these engines run on one cylinder?

Did you put the spark plug leads back onto the correct spark plugs

I've checked the HT leads to make sure they're going to the correct plugs and when cranking I'm getting a visible spark on all cold cylinders. The only other thing I can think of is to re-seat the new gaskets, as a small amount of petrol leaked out of the new gasket on 3&4 last night when trying to start which probably means it's not air tight. Do the new gaskets need any sort of compound to seal them or should they be fitted dry? Also, please can anyone advise regarding the torque setting for the manifold bolts as Haynes isn't helpful here?

Just for the record, all now sorted. Thoroughly cleaned all remnants of the old gaskets off each manifold before re-assembling which obviously made a better seal as it's now running on all 4 cylinders & no more engine wobble at idle. Thanks!