staffychance1

Hi Guys, newbie here, hope ya can help.

Long story short, i got a 1.8 zetec escort with dead engine to compete in autocross championship.Bought a so called good engine but after a few months of slow work putting it in and so on, i then found the headgasket has gone, so got the head skimmed and new gasket, oils, etc.

Took it out on saturday and i revs whilst idle all throught the rev range sounding fine, put it in drive and she moves but it very sluggish and will not pull over 45mph, and sounds like a bag of shit.

Dropped the front pipe thugh it might be a blocked cat, nope
Checked plug gaps 1.3mm ok

When i dropped the front pipe to try and allow some flow if cat was blocked a massive sparked jumped from the exhaust manifold into the top of the front pipe when i manually opened the throttle, is this normal, not come across this before.

Also any ideas please im at a loss.

RichieST

iTrader: (2)

Earthing problem? Make sure you've connected all earth straps. Have you checked the timing?

staffychance1

earth strap could check yeah, where are they on the escorts.

The timing seemed correct when we put cams back in, cams were locked in line and the marks the crank seemed correct. But i could check it out though, double check, just didnt think it could be that as i starts first time perfect, runs sweet at idle, doesnt hunt or try to stall, no run on when turning off?

staffychance1

After the other night my old fella went to the unit with a list of things to check,

He removed No1 spark plug( where the head gasket popped) and the spark from the HT lead was all over the place (maybe water damage), swapped the plug lead for another we had and it now works.

Not seen it myself or heard it but i have been informed all is well.