Hi looking for some help on my 89 escort cab 1.6 cvh mfi. Took on as a project and to learn and got it through its mot but still have a load more problems / work to be done.

It starts up then cuts out straight away , when i put my foot on the accelerator it bogs out worse but if i keep turning the key about 10-15 times it starts up then once its warm runs great and starts first time.
I have done or tried -fuel distributor ( i swapped that no difference ) the cold start valve (was black) warm up regulator ( blocked green gunk ).
What else could i try? Thanks.

 

Has the car been stood for a while ?

sounds like its running on the cold start injector only.

is there definitely fuel too the banjo bolts on top of the metering unit ? try cracking them off too see if there's fuel pressure there.

Could be a few things, I've had the same before on my rs but cant remember exactly what i did. I'd start with the basics first , fresh fuel..does the gauge work ? is the tank actually empty ? fuel filter blocked? are the injectors gunked up ?

in a nut shell , if you're getting fuel and a spark it has too go bang.

 

Hi mate Thanks for the reply and help.
Yea it had stood for years when i bought it then i mot`d it but cant get the engine sorted.
Just do them one at a time? loosen them off and squirt it into a bottle , same as checking cold start valve? I am going to put my original metering head back on today anyway.
And no the fuel gauge dont work but last week i had a vapour lock in fuel tank(first time its happened in a year since i bought it ) so had to release fuel hose so i know whats in it , also mechanic had changed it few weeks ago same with filter he said i had water in it from sitting a while so he drained it , no difference. Also before i bought it some dafty jacked the fuel tank up lol. And also he was ment to have my injectors sent away to be cleaned few month back.
Going to try clean auto choke ( no idea if its got anything to do with it ) and run it about town see if the warm up reg blocks back up :/
It runs great once it actually starts...
cheers again paul

 

ill try and remember what i was doing after i rebuilt my engine .. bare in mind its an rs not too sure about the xr3i..

Yeh take the little holding in plates off the inlet manifold and pull the injectors and stick each one in a pot or plastic bottle. On the rs i bridged the fuel relay from memory then take off the air filter and push the flap of the metering unit down and it should squirt fuel out the injectors.

Another one that seems to help to get them started is bump starting it down the road ( not ideal in your case ) .

sounds like there,s a few other potential issues down the line .

Do they xr3i's have the white coolant temp sender in the manifold like the rs ? that tells the ECU the temperature / enrichment whatever and can cause poor starting. i changed mine back years ago.

Be cool to see it in person and have a tinker..bit hard to think now without having it in front of me.

 

Hi mate tried to reply the other day but it wouldnt let me.. Was working away on it when my mate strolled by pure luck lol anyways he was saying it was running rich and thinks the thermo time switch in the cold start valve is fucked.. no turning off so trying to get a used one, hard one to get hold off. cheers.

 

Disconnect the CSV - that'll quickly test it.
BTW the thermo time switch is not part of the CSV, its on the back of the inlet - completely seperate switch. The CSV is just a simple electro-magnetic injector.

 

Thanks, it didnt start at all when i disconected it , whats next to try?
Lol that shows my experience but thats why im here and got the car... to learn. cheers.

 

Hi mate havnt got around to checking them yet but will do it tomorrow , and not sure about white coolant sender another one il check but its the mfi engine , i might be wrong but they dont have ecu? cheers.

 

That says its only firing/running off the CSV. So the injectors aren't firing. Realistically you need to check the fuel pressure but chances are you wont have the kit for this (nobody ever does for K-JET - i ended up making my own years back). You could either crank open the 4 injector banjos at the metering unit and see if you are getting pressure there - or you could pull the injectors out the inlet and place in jars, crank the engine and see what, if anything they are doing. The latter being a far safer/meaningful option, just 10mins more hassle

If the WUR was gunked up, then my bets are the metering unit is equally gunked and this will be your issue, but unfortunately its a case of working backwards to find where the blockage lie.

As with any high pressure fuel system, for the love of god make sure youve got no open flames etc and an extinguisher to hand when doing these tests

 

wow your up early. ahh i see am i going to have to release the pressure for each one before i take it off or can i just take them off one by one?
Also when i first got it there was a load of water in tank had to drain , is there a chance this has fucked everything from fuel pump upto the engine?
And recently had vapour locks in fuel tank could this also maybe be part of the problem?
Thanks.

 

Water could have easily corroded the metering unit head. Unless you've primed it recently/cranked it over it'll be fine to undo at this point, its only over a hot engine i'd be concerned by.

 

[QUOTE=haz87;6797799]Water could have easily corroded the metering unit head. Unless you've primed it recently/cranked it over it'll be fine to undo at this point, its only over a hot engine i'd be concerned by.[/QUOTE

Just tried to pull the them out the inlet and they just kept turning.. theres also a retaining clip on each one doesnt seem to be holding the bolt , will i just pull them off with pliers and use 2 spanners , 1 on the bolt on the inlet and the other on the fuel banjo? cheers.

 

Are you trying to pull the injectors out still connected to the lines? It wont happen, the lines will foul the inlet and you wont be able to angle them out. You need to split the lines/injectors first and then you can pull the injectors out the inlet itself.

If the injectors are rotating inside the clams, then the best bet - and its fiddly -
Undo the tiny (8mm) bolts holding the clamps down, pull them up onto the injector so they are as out the way as you can get them
You'll then need 2 spanners, i think a 13mm and a 9/16" (its been a while!), one on the fuel pipe hex that screws onto the injector, the other goes just under it on the injector itself (this is v. difficult to see/angle the spanner onto).

The above probably makes naff all sense, its one of those things that nigh on impossible to explain without being there.

 

Yes it makes sense , and also very difficult with the round plastic cover whats its purpose anyway? i took a picture , wondering if i could cut it but then i realised you had wrote to angle it so i willl give it a go also i am going to have to take a part the wur and bracket to get to the 2 underneath what a pain lol.

 

 

You have to try and push the sleeve down slightly, but you can just see the lower hex (this is the injector). One spanner on there, the other on the actual fuel line hex, then you can split the two

 

Fuck knows what happened there!

 

whats wrong with it? i thought it was normal lol mind this is my first project. Its defo those 2 bolts you have arrowed i am splitting yea?

 

My whole screen went mental so i ended up with triple posts.
Yes split those two and you'll have the injector and fuel line seperate. You can then move the line out the way, and more importantly have the room to then pull the injector out (including the sleeve (yellow/brown thing) plus an o-ring that is underneath it.

 

Hi mate finally got the first one off , theres a dribble coming out, so i took the injector back off and squirted the fuel line into bottle still nowt. There is pressure in the csv(no sure how much but enough to start the car) so is it possible the pressure valve in the fuel pumps away? Also when i took the fuel lines off the fuel distributor ( metering head ) there was only a small amount off petrol coming out , not a big squirt or pressure.
Also fuel pumps really loud.cheers.

 

Pressure will be dependant on how long ago you primed and/or ran the fuel pump. Overnight would be enough to depressurise so a dribble would be expected.

The CSV gets its fuel supply directly (well not quite - but trying to keep it simple), where as the injectors rely on the internal vale opening up the fuel ports inside the metering unit. If the valve (aka plunger) is stuck/sticking or those ports are gunked up, pressure will be naff.

The best test is to get all 4 injectors out of the inlet, then screw them back into the fuel lines,
Tighten everything back down on the metering unit.
Disconnect the CSV (electrical plug)
Place the 4 injectors into some kind of container (a pint glass each or something).
Then crank the engine and observe the spray patterns.

If nothing, or a dribble, then lift the metering unit plate slowly (and carefully) - found under the rubber boot. Again, see what happens at the injector end - pressure should rise rapidly if the MU plunger/ports are working as expected.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, is it possible to try lifting the metering unit with just the one injector out? just tried the one injector with the csv disconected and still nothing. Also taking all 4 out would take me a while like u said there hard lol and also would have to remove warm up reg and bracket. cheers.

I tried it with just the one out but still nothing, my plates already stuck up and when i press down it sounds like a tin can being scrunched up.

 

with 3 still in youll flood the bores , i`d refit and try this,

being fine after getting going sounds like leak-back or poor/ restricted fuel supply,,

bypass fuel relay for the amount of time you usually have to crank, then try to start,, obv make sure you re-fitted everything first,

then at least you can go for a drive tonight

 

The plungers stuck, and that sounds like you've probably just scratched the fook out of the internal bore
This will definitely be the issue, the plate should be horizontal/flat and happily lift up then naturally drop back down into position.

I thought you'd already swapped metering units? Perhaps your original was actually ok - theres equally every chance youve got 2 knackered ones - they dont like sitting!

They can be opened up and sometimes salvaged if its just grime or fuel varnish, but if the bore is scratched its as good as fit for the bin, they are machined with the plunger to have an exact fit, you can't switch them about, it wont seal

If you were closer I would have just come and had a look - i hate diagnosing/explaining K-Jet over the internet, its an arse of a system to describe

 

Your doing a good job of explaining , learning me loads lol. Your no gonna believe this though.. i put the original back on and sold the other yesterday , it ran a little worse with it.
I didnt push it all the way down just about a cm , theres defo pressure making it not go down though and when i watched it it didnt move a mm.
Had a wee read about how it works in the haynes book , how do i get it to stay back down though? also il need to pick up a gasket for it.

 

You need to remove the metering unit from the base (3 x torx bolts on top - will need to remove all lines first).
You can then turn it over and you'll see the plunger in the middle - if its proper stuck which it sounds like it is, it will be sticking out which works in your favour - you can then try and get it pulled out - id try and get something like a small amount of lead and then put this round the plunger then use some grips on that to try and wriggle it free (the lead will take the pressure and hopefully avoid marking the plunger).

There is a spring behind the plunger so keep an eye out for that in case it disappears into the abyss

Once its out, you can review the bore, and try clean it out using fresh petrol and gentle agitation with a brush or similar.
The end result you want is for that plunger to move up and down with minimal resistance and no manual force.

Plunger:



Bore where the plunger will be stuck:

 

Just done it and the plungers not stuck it moves freely gave the tip sticking out a wee clean though. whats next boss lol?

 

So with the metering unit removed, is the plate still sticking up?
If so then it sounds like the hinges have seized up - not something I've seen before but not impossible - thankfully something that could probably be cleaned up/re-oiled and sorted fairly painlessly.

 

My plates fine it goes up and down no prob dont know what i was thinking

 

You really need to get all 4 injectors out and into jars. It can be done without removing the WUR/bracket - just takes some time on #4

 

Ok man will get it done and let you know.got my astra to sort the morra dpf blocked gonna power wash it nothing but hassle cars lol

 

Finally got them all out and jar`d. theres still no fuel coming out the injectors but when i lift the plunger WOOHOO they all work. so where do we go from here? cheers.

 

Put the boot back on top of the metering unit etc and put everything back together EXCEPT for the injectors and leave the CSV electric connector disconnected.

Now crank the engine and view the injectors - what are they doing?

 

there doing nowt mate nothing coming out.

 

Can you take the boot off and get a picture of the plate level please?

 

 

Thats far too low, the plate should line up with the top of bit its flush with



If you split the airbox and lift the top half, there should be a spring clip - you need to move this along the bar (iirc) and it will raise (or lower if your going the wrong way) the disc. Basically keep tweaking until its bang flush with the top of that hole that my naff arrows are highlighting.

 

aw mate am excited lol do it the now

 

a look from underneath , i pressume its the gold s looking clip i move?

 

Yup the gold spring clip - thats the one