Injector seal leak

 

It's not adding any fuel though on the fuel trims.

Anyway it seems to be getting better now the more its used. Idle is getting better and better.

 

Cool, I'm glad you fixed it

 

Still going to check the FPR, see if its sucking fuel in through the Vac hose.

 

Didn't check the FPR, fuel corrections at idle are 0 +/- 1% so looks good, long term trims are about -5 so its a bit rich, IAM is 16.

No further misfires since changing the coil, slight, very slight, imperfections at idle, can't hear them, just feel it every now and then through the seat, no affect on rpm. I think that maybe the spark plug could be a bit fouled up running with the misfire so might pull it out and have a look.

 

Drove down to Bournemouth today and met up with Duncan. Got the map on the car sorted finally, its running very well and is plenty quick enough at the moment

Making about 275 Bhp at the wheels (340 fly). Huge fun as I've not been able to drive it hard for months now, and its all finally finished!! .

 

Bet your enjoying finally being able to put your foot down

 

That's good news, what did he say about your misfire?

 

It seems fine, runs very well. Its not had a misfire since I changed the coil pack.

 

Have had a bit of a brake problem appear...



Too much heat methinks

I'm just going to stick a set of standard (Pagid) discs and pads on for a month then get some Brembo's I think.

I've never had a problem with stopping power on the 4 pots with the Hawk HP+ pads, the main issue is heat, or getting rid of it, with some ducting etc they'd probably be ok. Easier just to fit bigger discs though.

 

Cracker

 

New discs and pads bought for the front, 2x Pagid discs and pads, £85.32 all in. Standard stuff is so cheap!

Going to run these until the end of the month or so then look at getting some Brembo's, and Eibach 10mm spacers so I can keep my wheels. Might paint the Brembos a less offensive colour too so they don't stand out so much.

 

Can't beat good brakes, I'm just too tight to buy them! I bought new discs and pads all round this time last year and I'm now looking at front pads again, discs are far from new now too!
Maybe skim my front discs and treat them to some new pads shortly.

 

Don't need great brakes on the dragstrip though!

Mine likes a good B road blast so stopping power is quite important.

 

My thoughts exactly 👍

 

Another oil change tomorrow, going for some Millers CFS 10w50, will also be replacing the front brakes at the same time so the car is useable again

And I'll also be replacing my ****ty rear fog light LED with something far more powerful with thanks to Modrich!

 

Did the oil and replaced all the bits this weekend. New fog light LED is MUCH better!!

But the car is arsing about again... Its surging about on WOT, comes onto boost strong, then has a think for a bit and backs the power down, then lumps the power back in again. It's not smooth through boost, although sometimes it'll pull all the way through without a problem, for instance it can feel a bit iffy in 2nd, change to 3rd and it pulls hard all the way through.

Also noticing at constant throttle at say 30mph in 3rd the car feels like its rocking back and forth slightly, like its bouncing on the transmission a bit is the only way I can describe it.

It's been there a while just starting to notice it a bit more now. I might try changing the plugs, the other thing I thought it could be is the MAF?

 

That's a strange one, do you have a boost gauge?

 

I do indeed, and I have noticed it moving a bit odd, It'll pull up to 1 bar pretty quickly, then suddenly jump or just ping to 1.5.

Things i'm going to do are new plugs, and clean the boost solenoid. It's a 3 port from a classic.

 

Cleaned the boost solenoid and got some brown crap out of it. Seems a little better but still takes off like a rocket at 6k rpm, so next job its to replace the plugs I think.

On another note the idle is a damn sight better now randomly

 

So car popped another misfire yesterday for Cylinder 1 again. Felt like an ignition misfire again as sometimes it would idle on 4, sometimes on 3, driving would be on 4 until you loaded the engine up and it would stutter.

I've replaced the coil already so I pulled the plug and it was very worn, gap had opened up to 0.035" from 0.028", replaced it with a new NGK iridium and it ran fine. I didn't have time to do the other 3 today so that's next weekends job.

I think when I cleaned the heads and gave the valves etc a good scrub I've taken the coating off of the plugs which has probably been the cause of pretty much all my issues

 

I always run about 20thou gaps on my turbo cars, they don't like the big gaps

 

Changed the other 3 plugs today, gaps were just as bad. Took it for a spin and all felt well until I headed home and was getting a tip in stutter, then occasional miss which got worse. Plugged it in and my little friend the cylinder 1 misfire is back again...

Its coming and going. Misses at idle a lot and clears up with revs, weirdly it runs a lot better with the evap solenoid unplugged but I don't think this is the cause, I'm 99% sure it's an exhaust valve. Whilst its missing you can hear it in the exhaust and its also sucking in paper at the tail pipe.

So now it's a choice of what to do next... I've put a lot of time and effort into the engine and I'm pretty gutted to be honest. I'm not sure I've got the love anymore to pull the engine and redo the heads. I could break it as the short block is worth a fair bit on its own, or sell it on as it is for someone to fix, or stick a set of STI heads on etc. Short block is a good spec. Car has done 81k miles in total, short block has done 6k, heads are original to the car.

 

Did you check the valve clearances?

 

I've seen this a couple of times with poor connections on the coil pack multi plug. Replaced the plug with a new one from Tim @ JTI and problem solved.

 

I've replaced the coil, and the spark plug, both times this cured the misfire for a decent period of time. I haven't replaced the plug though.

It sounds like a valve to me. I need to compression test it really. The car will start up on all 4 and idle fine for a couple of minutes or so, then starts slightly missing which progressively gets worse, a few revs clears it out again.

I didn't check the clearances on the valves when the engine was built because at the time I thought that you couldn't adjust the blobeye as they're shimless buckets, realise now that you can get the buckets in various thicknesses. I didn't think they'd be out of spec with 74k miles either.

 

I just checked the clearances on mine (early ej205 with shims)
One exhaust was .0015"!
Thou and a half.
So I have the shim to my mate to surface grind into spec. The rest were ok.
Does sound like an exhaust valve heating up causing it.

 

Whip the cam covers off and confirm your suspicions before removing the engine

 

Whip.... Lol

I'll compression test it and see what that comes back with. Its a daily driver so it's a complete pain in the ****. It's run fine today apparently too, although I've left the evap purge solenoid unplugged. I have no idea why that has any effect at all but it runs better with it unplugged!

I guess it could be a valve hanging open slightly if the clearance is out and adjusting it could resolve it? But if it's been like it a while then the damage could already be done?

 

OK, so if it was a burnt valve then I would loose some Vac at idle? As that cylinder would be drawing through the intake valves and the knackered exhaust valve at the same time?

The Vac is the same as it's always been, needle doesn't bounce around etc. ****ing car, just going to burn it!!