Looking for some diagnostic equipment

[singlecoil]

I am involved with kit cars, and sometimes I need to get an ill-running engine running properly. There are mobile tuners in my area but they tend to be booked up a week ahead, so have been considering investing in some equipment of my own. I'm prepared to spend a few hundred at least, maybe more.

It's usually the older engines I'm looking at- Pintos, RV8s, usually with electronic ignition and carburettors. Something that would tell me what was going on with mixture and ignition would be good. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[stevieturbo]

A simple multimeter and experience would cover most aspects on old engines like that.

You could buy a cheap wideband too for AFR monitoring, provided you can interpret their readings.

[singlecoil]

Anybody have anything useful to say?

[CNHSS1]

sounded sensible to me. Wideband would tell you what the fuelling was doing and decent multimeter would help with fault finding. After that maybe a more expensive automotive style meter that has spark lead clamp etc and a decent timing light with digi readout (snap on ones are nice with aint cheap)

[stevieturbo]

singlecoil said:

Anybody have anything useful to say?

OK, go buy an OBD scanner off ebay


Timing light is a given for any old engine....although saying that, so is a multimeter.

What sort of answer were you looking for ? There arent any magic self diagnostic tools for such things other than the very basic stuff

[350zwelgje]

As mentioned before a timing light, multimeter and would add something like a gunson gastester (simple but it works especially on non-cat engines). No experience with lambda stuff for tuning, but if you have it a gastester (for the road or MOT) would still be required. Nice to haves: a compression tester and something for fuel pressure if it has injection (RV8?).... Hopefully the list is not getting too long already.

Rob

[singlecoil]

I don't know why people are assuming I don't already have the basic stuff, I've already said I'm prepared to pay a few hundred, maybe more, and yet people are assuming I don't even have multimeter and a timing light.

Are you telling me there is nothing better out there?

[CNHSS1]

if the info peeps have offered isnt to your liking or not helpful enough , i suggest you ask the mobile tuners what they have if thats what youre trying to replicate

[rev-erend]

stevieturbo said:

singlecoil said:

Anybody have anything useful to say?

OK, go buy an OBD scanner off ebay


Timing light is a given for any old engine....although saying that, so is a multimeter.

What sort of answer were you looking for ? There arent any magic self diagnostic tools for such things other than the very basic stuff

I though it was a bit of a rude rebuff to your reasonable reply.

I'd only add - go buy a mobile hand held 4 gas analyser
and perhaps a fault code reader if the cars you look at have one available.

[stevieturbo]

singlecoil said:

I don't know why people are assuming I don't already have the basic stuff, I've already said I'm prepared to pay a few hundred, maybe more, and yet people are assuming I don't even have multimeter and a timing light.

Are you telling me there is nothing better out there?

better for what ??

These are simple engines, with little by the way of electronics.

What sort of problems are you having, that you think there may be some stuff to help with ?

Even with modern engines....basic diagnostic stuff still applies.

Compression tester/Leakdown
Vacuum gauge
Carb balancing tools if required.
Timing light
Multimeter/Scope
Ex Gas analyser or failing that a wideband.
Spark jumper/tester

Really...its just an engine ! If there arent a load of modern electronics, there really is very little to them

[Pigeon]

Exactly what problem(s) are you trying to solve and in what way does your existing equipment fail to help?

[TDIPLC]

We have a couple of surplus to requirements analysers for sale on eBay at the moment:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

No reasonable offer refused

[singlecoil]

TDIPLC said:

We have a couple of surplus to requirements analysers for sale on eBay at the moment:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

No reasonable offer refused

Thanks for drawing those to my attention. I like the first one particularly, but will need to look into what would be involved in having it serviced first.

[Incorrigible]

Assuming you don't have a rolling road, you'll be needing something that you can use on a road test

WB lamda and a knock sensor, a decent scope to check you've got accurate cps pulses, high rev spark etc ??

As said before, what sort of problems are you having trouble solving ? and what have you got already ?

FWIW I bought a Vantage hand held scope the other day for £250. Snap-on list was over a grand and it's helped me solve a few (albeit much more modern) dilemas

[blitzracing]

These little data loggers are good enough for looking at lambda signals, throttle pots, ignition triggers (with a bit of extra voltage protection) and the like but you need a laptop and USB port to read and store the data, but for the price they are fantastic. They will give a wave form or direct voltage measurement. If you are looking at RV8 engines fitted with the 14cux injection systems, you can get a specilist ECU fault code reader for about £45, as they are not OBD complient.

http://www.esr.co.uk/velleman/pcs10.htm

http://www.shengltd.com/catalog/

A couple of traces of ignition primary and lambda signal on an RV8.

[url]

|http://thumbsnap.com/wLuFh3wx[/url]

Edited by blitzracing on Friday 9th April 20:58

Edited by blitzracing on Friday 9th April 20:59