Essex 3 Litre V6 misfiring

[Jukebag]

I wonder if anyone could help with a problem I am currently having with a Ford Essex 3 litre V6 engine. The engine is originally from my old Reliant Scimitar, which is now housed in a replica E-Type Jag. It's abit of an explanation, but here goes:

Ever since I fitted the engine in the car, there has always been a constant misfiring at low revs. I always put this down to the inlet manifold gasket, which I renewed a few weeks ago, this I did according to the manual after numbering al the spark plug leads. On re-assembly, and on starting the engine up, it sounds as thought it is only firing on 2 cylinders (it sounds very rough and noisy). I've no idea what I could've done wrong, though I'm suspecting something could've gone wrong with the electronic ignition, although I cannot see any wires out of place and all wiring seems OK.

Does anyone know what could be causing this?

Thanks

[Jukebag]

Steve_D said:

It was working before you took it apart so the most logical is you have gone wrong somewhere in the reassembly.
On that basis there is very little we can guess at.

Back to basics....do you have a spark at all plugs? Do you have a temperature laser gun you can point at each manifold branch and see which one(s) are not getting hot enough? Have you touched the timing? have you had the dizzy out and put it back 180 degrees out.

Etc etc etc

Steve

Hi Steve, thanks for the advice.

I have not disturbed the distrubtor as there is no need to because the inlet manifold goes around it. The inlet manifold new gasket, which I fitted, can only fit one way. I fitted this with sealing compound on the new gasket; the manifold head was reinstalled, gently, and tightened down as per sequence from the manual. With the carburetor installed, and all the other fittings included, including the plug leads (which I numbered one to six and fitted in the correct order), I was expecting the engine to fire up and start gently, nice and quiet. However, it started and sounded exactly as though I had put the leads on wrong, firing on one or two cylinders only. As I said, I have no idea what it could be. Is there any way of checking the electronic ignition (but why should it fail when the engine has not been running?)?. There is power getting to the two terminals on the coil and the high tension lead.

A friend gave me a plug testing device, which fits between the plug lead and the spark plug. On trying this device, on each cylinder, I couldnt get any response from it, but yet, the engine is firing on one or two cylinders. To me this is a mystery. Everything with this car seems to be going wrong, ever since I put the Essex engine in and gearbox; problem after problem.

Any solution would be gratefully appareciated.

Edited by Jukebag on Monday 3rd August 21:20