Help on the engine
Help on the engine
Author
Discussion

wedget

Original Poster:

467 posts

262 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
Can anyone help me. I have a 280i wedge with a 2.8 v6 engine. No body on the wedge forum seems to be able to help.. i have been advised that we share the same engine from the capri.

What seemed to be happening was at very high revs in higher gears the car hesitated but ran perfectly in every other way, i was advised to change the fuel filter but this did not help.. I then changed the spark plugs and that sorted the problem. But now the car hesitates when driving at a constant speed like its missing, If you accelerate its all fine again until you settle to a constant speed again

So the problem is now i have to drive everywhere accelerating, also the car does not idle well, the leads all look ok and are good quality and fairly new.

Now this could be a coincidence but all my problems seemed to start when i switched to unleaded with additive from LRP, i switched back to lrp for a couple of tanks but did not cure it. so i went back to optimax. PLEASE HELP as this is my daily runner



>>> Edited by wedget on Tuesday 29th June 10:40

Colin Blues2

2,541 posts

280 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
If it was a 2.9 then I would say Throttle Pot but as you don't have one (do you?).....

It sounds like a timing type problem or possibly the idle valve. Maybe it is sticking and upsetting the fuel misture at idle and holding a constant speed.

Has the distributor been touched recently? The fact that it is OK accelerating would indicate that it is advancing OK but maybe it's not retarding fully for cruising and idling.

tricky one

Colin

z_chromozone

1,436 posts

272 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
Huuum, if it were a timing issue then I would expect the problem to get worse under load not better. Timing issues are usually progressive and usually rear their heads as a lack of power, or the dreaded pinging.

I would look at two areas, firstly the fueling. I am not familiar with the 2.8, but most injection (and carb for that matter), engines have an enrichment valve. This is used to increase fuel supply under acceleration, but not used under normal running. It may be that the sensor that detects the level of fuel to be supplied under normal load is not working properly (the pot that colin mentioned). There must be an equivalent on your car. As the enrichment valve is still working, so the car is ok under acceleration. This I think is most likely.

The only other thing I can think of is the ignition, so check the coil, at high rpm these can begin to break down (but I would expect this to also occur under acceleration).

I would also check all sensors and connections as a precaution.


Hope that helps,

Z

>> Edited by z_chromozone on Tuesday 29th June 13:12

Le TVR

3,097 posts

274 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
If its misfiring at idle as well then you can try pulling the plug leads one at a time. If one makes almost no difference to the misfire then check that plug/lead and the distributor.

If the misfire is totally random then check coil/ignition amp connections/ballast resistor.

After that I'd give the airflow meter a clean/spray WD40 etc.

wedget

Original Poster:

467 posts

262 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
The plot thickens co2 meter and the stink of fuel has confirmed the car is definately overfueling but only intermitently. When the throttle is open it pops a occasionally

rev-erend

21,603 posts

307 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
With intermittent problems - it can be really hard to trace.. I personally would recommend taking the car to someone who really knows what they are looking for - you could end up replacing loads of stuff just by guess work.

When my 'ecu' went (V8) the fueling got really rich - so much so that it made your eyes water to follow the car !

Swapped the ecu with a friend (same model) and problem disappeared.

Don't know wnough about the 2.8 to comment - but I would say give Big Paul a call at Austec.

wedget

Original Poster:

467 posts

262 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
Thanks rev, I dont have an ECU, but i think i will pop down to Richard Moore as he lives a couple of miles away, Just so poor at the moment due to house move, did not want to spend any money...Nearly had to sell the car but just managing to keep it

rev-erend

21,603 posts

307 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
TVR - with no XS budget can be tough especially if it's your everyday car !

Talking to Richard Moore sounds like the best thing you can do .. advice is always free..

Pies

13,116 posts

279 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
Sounds very similar to the probs M@H had a few weeks back.

Might be worth dropping him a line if he doesn't see this thread

This is the thread it might help

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?p=1&f=11&t=101392&h=0

>> Edited by Pies on Tuesday 29th June 17:46

M@H

11,298 posts

295 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
Indeed sounds just like my problem.... In my case it was mainly an air leak on induction.. the hose between the Airflow Meter and the Throttle Butterfly had small splits in it in places, accordingly when trying to get the engine idling, the car was drawing air through the splits enough to mean that it wasn't raising the air plate in the Meter, therefore the engine wasn't fueling enough... in all cases the fueling was wrong.. also check all the vacuum hoses as, for example, the vacuum feed to the warm up regulator is vital... if this hose has come off you will also get the symptoms you describe too.

Cheers,
Matt.



>> Edited by M@H on Tuesday 29th June 19:18

M@H

11,298 posts

295 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
PS: I have a whole spare 2.8 induction setup in the shed for emergencies so l.m.k. if you need any bits.... I'm at pistonfest so we can even "trial and error" some of them there if you are going..?

Cheers
Matt.

rev-erend

21,603 posts

307 months

Tuesday 29th June 2004
quotequote all
Top posts guys .. I think you have cracked it ..

Le TVR

3,097 posts

274 months

Wednesday 30th June 2004
quotequote all
wedget said:
the car is definately overfueling but only intermitently.


If its overfuelling then check the airflow meter. It wont overfuel if the hose is leaking. Does happen that the control valve and airflow plate pivots get dirty and stick, would give these symptoms.
While youre there check that the airflow plate closes centrally in the bore.

wedget

Original Poster:

467 posts

262 months

Wednesday 30th June 2004
quotequote all
Wow i am very impressed with the feed back here, I think it may be the thing that all the fuel lines come from, I think it is called a Kollector, I have been told that they sometimes need a clean up as there is a valve inside that sticks, Unfortunately i cant go to pistonfest due to lack of funds. I am going to take off the Kollector and clean things up and hope that works....The finances are only a temporary thing and i am now walking to work, I think the school kids on my route will miss the wedge as much as me

Le TVR

3,097 posts

274 months

Wednesday 30th June 2004
quotequote all
wedget said:
I am going to take off the Kollector and clean things up and hope that works....


The airflow meter/fuel distributor are actually 'one-piece'. It will probably be enough (and a lot quicker)just to remove the hose from the airfilter from the airflow meter and spray WD40 up into the body of the airflow meter. This should clean up the pivots and joints between the sensor plate and the fuel distributor valve.

A good check list of possible faults is here www.forparts.com/techbosKjectronic.htm

wedget

Original Poster:

467 posts

262 months

Wednesday 30th June 2004
quotequote all
Is that the rubber bit that sits next to the kollector and is about the size of mike tysons fist

Le TVR

3,097 posts

274 months

Wednesday 30th June 2004
quotequote all
No, the big round rubber bit ontop of the meter is the outlet to the throttle valve unit.
The inlet is underneath.

andyf007

863 posts

281 months

Wednesday 30th June 2004
quotequote all
I know some people who got on ok with using unleaded and additives and others that didn't. I don't believe that the additives neccessarily mix correctly, or in the right concentrations to be reliable, resulting in either to much or too little coating. My first action would have been to change the plugs, as they would be the first to suffer (which you did). The problem could now lie with the fuel system, as has been said, or the valve seats. At this point I would be tempted to run some fuel injector cleaner through the system. Possibly for the next 3 or 4 tankfuls of lrp, this should clean things up a bit (you could use one bottle per half tank to increase the strength a bit) . I find the STP stuff is good, generally I put one bottle in about once a month or so to keep things ok too. You may want to avoid the optimax for a while too, as this does not always enhance performance and as things are a bit off with your engine, it may actually make it worse.

Andy

wedget

Original Poster:

467 posts

262 months

Wednesday 30th June 2004
quotequote all
Funny enough i put some of that Stp injector cleaner in it about a month ago and it made no difference, But i do highly recommend it myself as it has done wonders in the past. I do notice quite a difference with optimax but i will try normal unleaded for a while my car runs fine on both(no pinking) or would you sudgest i revert back to LRP. the reason i went from LRP was i heard it was not good quality. and i stupidly ran my car for about 2k with no additive on optimax this may have caused the problem to start with as it was around this time i noticed the first problem.

andyf007

863 posts

281 months

Wednesday 30th June 2004
quotequote all
I'm assuming that the wedge doesn't have the unleaded heads and should therefore be running on leaded or lrp as standard. Running on unleaded (optimax, super unleaded or standard) even for 2k miles may have damaged the valve seats. If the seats are damaged you could get unburnt fuel in the exhaust causing the popping and very lumpy running. It needs further investigation with a pressure gauge to rule that out. Hoping it is nothing more than gunked up, use the STP regularly for a while, as it takes more than one to do the job.

Andy