hi all, im really starting to get the umph with my s2 now and was hoping some more experienced people would help. first off, the car starts sometimes and sometimes not, but when it does start it will idle really low and lumpy and ocassionally stall. i thought it might be overfuelling as i put another meter head on, but its spitting out white smoke, so i thought headgasket but the header tank is clean. the thing is its been sitting for a few months and started every now and then but now its f!#ked! any help would be more than helpful as im losing my mind!

 

White smoke normally indicates head gasket im affraid, have you checked ur oil to make sure its not creamy? have u let the car get up to temprature to see if the smoke clears as may just be condensation?

 

thats a problem because the car never can idle long enough to get warm, oh forgot to say she cant rev above 1500rpm either. i hope it is something like the head gasket, at least i know whats wrong with it and can fix it!

 

If you hold the revs at say 1000rpm is it still running lumpy/missfiring?

 

yeh it is, then if i let the revs drop itll die.

 

yeah white smoke is water mate, only 2 places you get steam from:

1 Head Gasket leaking water into combustion chambers
2 Condesation in the exhaust (but only for a few mins from start up)

 

could that be causing the car to idle poor, the header tank looks pretty clean and theres no sludge on the dipstick?

 

pull head off mate

 

yeh its lookin that way, also its a 1.8 zvh so what headgasket and head bolts would i need? anything else i should look at or worry about? thanks for the input everyone.

 

Have you ever had the car running right or did you buy the car as it is?

 

zvh
that explanes it!


head gasket it is zvh bottom end an cvh top they not meant to be together some use group a gaskets wich are shit even if it was a cvh bottom end, you need a proper one for it that tuners have specially made, dig deep!

 

the car was running fine when i bought it, but fords being fords they dont stay like that for long! gonna have another look when the weathers nice, i hate winter!

 

use an st170 head gasket under 30 pounds from fords but get some one to look at the car 1st imo