Hello all!

been having problems with my zvh well its been sat in my mk3 escort cab for about 5 months and i got bored of it! this is the story so far - got the motor build for me using standed pistons and got block modified with all 1.8 sump and stuff la la la got it fitted in to the car and it would never fire off the key ! never ever ! but it bumps off after about 30secs of beening pulled down the road!! once it fires it runs fine! but then u switch it off and try fire it up by the key and nothing again! is this anything to do with compression and if it is what can i do to put it right? (im using a 1.9cvh headjoint)

please help im so close of getting rid of the lot and i dont wanna

please help!!

 

you dont say wether it turns over and how well it turns over?

Has the engine been set up by someone in the know?

could be:

Ignition timing
compression?
fuel (supply/pressure good enough?)
cam timing?
not enough power to turn it over?
is it EFI/MFI??? cossie management?

some things that would be of help to diagnose the fault!

 

Ignition timing (dont know what that is)
compression? (thats what im saying is it wrong?)
fuel (supply/pressure good enough?) (enuff fuel presser been tested)
cam timing? (cam timing is right)
not enough power to turn it over? (yes)
is it EFI/MFI??? cossie management? (MFI)

any help would be great thanks

 

does the starter motor actually turn? or does it just click and then nothing.
if the starter doest turn then you could try the following;
you could clean the connections on the starter and battery, if this doesnt work then you could get a new starter motor (i got one for Ł20 of ebay).

hope this helps

 

no it does spin it over and quick enuff to fire it up as well ? which i think is strange but i have NOT skimed the pistons and using a 1.9cvh head gasket? will this make a massive difference to compression ?

 

can anyone hlep as ive got to get it done today ? any numbers to phone or guys that will no whats wrong

 

forgot to mention its poping oil cap off over about 2000rpm loads of back pressure and no breathers are blocked,

i went to take head off today and went to removed head bolts and found they was not as tight as they should be! would this cause this problem ?

 

sure i seen tyhat van driving through norton a while ago mate,is that were ya live or is that went when ya sold it....

CheRS
Craig
NYRSOC

 

If the head bolts werent tight then this could be the prob. or a factor in it.

ignition timing, why you have a distributor with adjustment on it, can Advance ignition (turn dizzy clockwise) Retard Ignition (turn dizzy anti-clockwise) if your facing the distributor from pass side.

If this is wrong then it will be difficult to start.

All earth straps connected up, gearbox, head-inner wing?

 

dont know where ing timing should be ? ive torqued head bolts back down and gunna have another go at starting it in the morning i will also check earths tomora
i shall let yo uknow

 

yes m8 i live in stockton as well! always use to be round billingham and norton and t-park and that lol

its gone over to sheffield now like on with my mk3 cab and got a 2.5v6 corsa as well which will be kicking about soon

 

seen the van on norton road months ago now like! thought it looked familer...

CheeRS
Craig
NYRSOC

 

set it to std cvh turbo. 12degree's btdc or 11 degrees btdc with vacuum blocked, it prob wont be right but might help it start til u get it to a tuner.

 

yes i had it for about a year had a S1 b4 that and now driving a yellow 406 coupe, and waiting to get my cab on the road !!!
its depressing me lol ive never seen your s2 like

 

i have had two cases where the key couldn't start the car, one was when the ignition lock developed an internal fault which meant it would crank the engine but not actually connect to the ignition system. the other was when i first installed my aftermarket ecu, i initially used the power to the heater blower as the source for the ecu. of course the heater blower along with various other things is cutout when you put the key to start position.

for this kind of non start case most of the tests you need to do apply equally to modified and non modified cars. should be something in the haynes manual to work through - cranking or not, do you have a spark, is the fuel pump running etc.

 

just put a new startamotor on it cos earth was very close to live, put a charged battery on it and still no good, even when im cracking it over still canny bit of smoke/stem coming out of the filler cap :S any ideas guys b4 i pull the head of it lol

 

your cranking it with the oil cap off? well it wont work then if it has a std breather system without the oil cap on!

 

oil cap is on! but smoke leaking out seal of it

 

If the oil cap blows itself off or has lots of pressure behind it,your head gasket has gone.

 

If you've been trying to start it/run it and the head wasn't torqued down correctly obviously the oil+water have passed through the seal (gasket)
and now know amount of torqueing it down will cure it.
The fact that you say steam is coming out of the oil filler means that water
is comming out of where there should only be oil in therefore
the head gasket is U.S. Also the fact that you've run it like this means that
before putting it back together again the head should be skimmed as it's
almost certainly warped by now.

 

so they easyest thing to do it take haed of get it skimmed and do it all again ?

 

If it is blowing the cap off and the breathers are not blocked and piped up correctly then there is something internally wrong. As you have said that the head bolts were not tight, I would be looking in that area (head gasket).

 

it is blowing cap off yeah, all breathers are clear, and im gonig to take the head of it now ill let u know the outcome

thanks guys.

 

just took head off nothing wrong! no spits in the head gastet no oil or water sat on top of pistons no movement in pistons im really confused!

 

any ideas guys ?

 

try turning the crank with a spanner on the buttom pully and see how far the pistons come up in the block

it maybe you've got to much compresion

 

so that would mean ive gotta take 40thou off the top of the pistons ?
how will i know if i have to much compression ?

 

Take a look at this site mate. It's pretty good for working out your compression ratio. /www.turbofast.com.au/Tfcomp.html

 

any joy?

 

not really m8, im fucked i dont know how to work all that shit out on that site about stroke and all that so thats no good and theres nothing wrong with head, or gasket, no rings have gone or no cracks in the pistons ? what is it ? im really just gunna give up and drop a standed motor bk in it, seems a shafwe after spending 500quid on zvh