ford 1.8 n/a diesel, black smoke and lack of power

[stvieboy308]

hi all,

i've got a 98 fiesta with the 1.8 non turbo'd diesel engine, it's got the plastic inlet manifold, so no egr as i understand it.

when i accelerate there's a lack of power and a fair bit of black smoke. if you keep accelerating and get the revs up it clears, pulls pretty hard for what it is and the smoke disappears. with quick gear changes you can keep it pulling, but if you lift off it needs to be cleared again. i pulled the pipe off the air box to rule out the air filter.

i'm leaning towards a dodgy injector, but i'm not that clued up, any ideas?


cheers, steve

[Sardonicus]

Have you changed the fuel filter yet?

[stvieboy308]

not yet, only got the car last night

[Mr2Mike]

stvieboy308 said:

when i accelerate there's a lack of power and a fair bit of black smoke.

Sounds like perfectly normal behaviour for the Ford 1.8D to be honest.

Have you checked the pump/cam timing? Some monkey may have replaced the timing belts (separate belts for pump and cam) and got it wrong.

Also if your engine has an EGR valve (IIRC only on the ones with alloy inlet manifolds) then it could be sticking open.

[stvieboy308]

Mr2Mike said:

stvieboy308 said:

when i accelerate there's a lack of power and a fair bit of black smoke.

Sounds like perfectly normal behaviour for the Ford 1.8D to be honest.

Have you checked the pump/cam timing? Some monkey may have replaced the timing belts (separate belts for pump and cam) and got it wrong.

Also if your engine has an EGR valve (IIRC only on the ones with alloy inlet manifolds) then it could be sticking open.

i'm on the plastic inlet, so no egr

not checked the pump timing yet, but i did read that last night while doing some research

[stvieboy308]

Sardonicus said:

Have you changed the fuel filter yet?

just checked, it's new

[stvieboy308]

update



turns out it does have an egr, but it's now got a siliconed up bean tin in between it and the inlet manifold and the fesbo is fixed

[Nighthawk]

might be worth checking the valve clearances, 99% of the 1.8's i see have never had the lid off until the belt is changed.

the clearance is altered by replacing shims between the cam and the valve so not exactly a quick or cheap job if you need to buy shims to reach the tolerance.