Hey everyone owned my RST for just over a month now joined RSOC a while ago so thought i'd sign up and here and expand my horizons after it being recommended by a friend.

My name is Lee which you may of guessed, 27 years old and live down near Portsmouth mainly where I am based with the Royal Navy (cue hello sailor jokes) although home for me is back up north in Lincs.

Picked up my escort towards end of last month for £1k, needs some work as you would expect for that price but I am happy with it, at least now I have may foot in the door so to speak and the continuous drain of funds can now begin!

It is on an 88 plate and I already have a 90 spec interior lined up for it, the colour is mercury grey (the best one :P ), will try to get some pics up shortly. I have no real desire to go crazy with this car want to keep it relatively standard looking (I have a R5 GTT to go stupid on).

Now I already have my first problem with the car hopefully it isn't a start of a trend! I was having issues when it randomly wouldn't start and no fuel was getting to the injectors. Having removed the fuel distributor and freeing off the plunger it now seems to send stupid amounts of fuel through to the engine, please see the video below...



That high pitch noise prior and after trying to start never used to be there, air lock perhaps? either way I think the fuel metering unit is fubar!
Oh and I was cranking over with a plug removed to illustrate just how much fuel is going into the engine.

 

welcome mate!thats a qualitly noise!!!!can u locate where the noise is coming from?u tried bleeding the injectors?

 

I have no idea it happens initially when you would normally hear the fuel pump prime but you see how much fuel was coming out of the bore when it was cranking over! no wonder the plugs are soaked.

 

welcome hope ya sort ya motor

 

Sounds like a metering unit problem, if you bridge the fuel pump relay to make the pump run constantly and then press down on the metering flap gently, you can hear the same noise, it is fuel going through the injectors.
I dont know why it goes through the injectors when the pump primes and why it's so much, possibly the electrical part at the top of the metering unit is pumped?

 

I am unable to create a wanted add yet, has anyone got a working mechanical fuel distributor/metering unit with the little black solenoid on the side they are willing to part with?

I have bought a couple of metering units off ebay but the guy is dragging his backside giving me an address for collection and I need one sharpish.

 

i have a metering unit that came off my series one.my car run great.only changed it due to going efi.will do it for £35 posted to your door.can get it in the post first class tommorow as im posting other stuff also.

 

Ok fitted a replacement metering head/fuel distributor today and the car kept starting idling for a few seconds then cutting out. Tried starting with and without the cold start valve plugged in, pushing the air flap down neither of which appeared to make much of a difference.
Removed all the plugs cleaned them up and it started struggled to hold the revs and unless I opened the throttle it would again just cut out.

Eventually it started to idle correctly and was ok, now I'm not sure if it was being problematic due to being stood over the last week and the fuel system not being primed/bled but I do have my doubts as to whether or not the metering head was the true cause of my problems prior to me breaking the old one.

Hopefully it will start again fine this afternoon and give me no more trouble otherwise it is going to require looking into further to find the true fault.

 

I forgot to add on the side of the airbox there is a sensor which has 3 wires going to it, I would of thought that normally there is a proper 3 pin plug? however mine has 3 separate wires with spade connectors .
The colours of the wires are, brown, brown/green and brown/yellow.
From bottom pin to top pin my wires are connected b, b/y, b/g could anyone confirm if this is correct or not?

 

Ok went back to it this afternoon and surprise surprise wouldn't start or run properly.
I can get it started but fails to idle by itself but will run if I hold the throttle open although there does appear to be some sporadic misfiring.
The dizzy cap appears to be a terrible fit not sure if thats the norm but even with the locating lug on the cap in place on the head there is still about 10 degrees rotation adv/retard and it can move about quite a bit.
Going to get a new dizzy from halfrauds see if that helps...

 

Ok an update to this drama, finally got car running again! turned out the reason it would start then shortly cut out was it was trying to run just off the cold start injector as with it removed it would not even start.
While turning over the metering flap would move slightly but not enough to push the plunger sending fuel to the injectors had someone give it a little extra nudge and car started but as soon as they stopped holding the flap it cut out.
Originally I only changed the fuel distributor so I then changed the airbox/metering flap assembly as well and it started first time everytime!

However I now have a misfire which wasn't present before, oh the joy.

 

Good look mate id go and get a set-up whilst its running then that should iron out your misfire and check to make sure everything else is up to scratch

 

Yeah definitely want it setup that was on the cards when I first bought it prior to all my recent troubles!
To adjust the mixture is the small screw between air filter and the fuel distributor?

 

Yeah but it does take alot of movement to adjust it either way an 8th of a turn could see you with a melted engine its best left to the profesionals so they can check whilst they adjust it

 

I know what you're saying I might get another downpipe and fit a boss for my LC-1 wideband controller, somehow I don't think that all is right with the mixture adjustment.
On my R5 GT Turbo the instant you adjust the mixture you can hear a difference, when adjusting it on my RS (taking note of how many turns which way) there is no difference whether fully wound in or out!?

 

welcome and gd luck with your car. when i got mine i had a simular problem turned out it was just a dodgy cold start.

 

Yes thats the idle mixture screw (IIRC 3mm Allen key), clockwise to enrichen, anticlockwise to lean out.

It has no effect on anything other than idle mixture so no worries of melting the engine.

 

On mine it is just a slot headed screw and adjusting appears to make no difference hhmm

 

Thats just a 'bung' mate otherwise there would be a constant air leak, remove it then underneath is the idle mixture screw

 

Thats just a bung!? wow now I feel a plonker!

It's just a little confusing as looking in haynes and on the net I have seen several variations of what it looks like, some have a red rubber tube on others have a long tube covering it mine has neither it is pretty much flush with the airbox.

 

yeah there was 2 versions, but a lot of them end up with just a screw in to stop the air leak.

 

Cheers mate, I found in under the screw although kind of pissing into the wind without my wideband rigged up.

Definitely need to get in on a RR misfire is pretty bad, I can take the plug lead off cylinder 2 and it runs the same with or without.

 

It only effects the idle mixture so has nothing to do with your misfire!

 

I realise that I was only asking about that as it was a replacement metering unit and it was way way too rich.

 

oh ok cool!

 

Welcome mate

i was told if you chage your metering unit you will have to have it set up as it will not run so i would to it to your local tunner for a set up.

 

Yeah a setup is on the cards. So if adjusting the mixture screw only effects the mixture on idle what controls the mixture when on boost/load?

 

not 100% but i think its the black box on the side of the metering unit but i wouldnt mess with it

 

Yup your right rstel1, it's the Electro Magnetic Fuel Pressure Actuator but as you said dont mess with it cos if you get it wrong then you risk your engine
Although according to Stu's article it's a Electro Hydraulic Pressure Actuator (I've always heard people refer to it as a EMFPA), either way here is what it does and how it works

 

i need a good s2 metering unit for my rs turbo please