Got a tune up guy in and the general diagnosis was a huge leak on the inlet side of the engine. So after much application of blue hylomar, a reasonable running engine was produced.
Tonight I checked the compression on all of the cylinders, all seemed to be OK, I then checked for fuel, all cylinders getting a good spray and finally checked spark. My brain hurts, got spark, timing, fuel and compression (?????). I think I will have to resort to getting a tune up guy in to look at it and read the Ford ECU fault codes, do a compression, vacuum, and fuel pressure check to see if that puts any light on the matter. I have emailed Ian at LL with this info but he is out of the country for a couple of weeks so the starting with the key and the light/wiper problem will have to wait.
Checked the cam position relative to TDA, relatively simple on the Zetec, all OK. I then took off the inlet manifold and re-hylamared it to make sure it sealed. Sill it didn't tick over (?). Final brain wave, I removed the vacuum hoses to the crank and brake servo and tried again. Success, the engine now ticked over but quite lumpily.
Filled the water up with 3:1 water:anti freeze (took 10 pints? 5.7l?) and let her rip one more time, this time I held it for a few minutes a reasonable revs. The fuel and temperature guages seemed to be OK but nothing on the tacho, need to ask about that one. The engine seemed very lumpy so I will have to check the cam timing tomorrow night (need a 5mmx225mm piece of ally bar to lock down the camshafts). Hopefully the timing is slightly out following the fitting of the water pump a while ago. We'll see.
Sent an email off to Ian re sparks, ignition and lights/wiper. Went and got a new fuel pump form Camberley Autofactors, this time a Calibra 20l 16v injection, inline with spade connectors like the Astra GTE one I am using. Suddenly had a brain wave on the way home, had I got the connections to the pump the wrong way round. Checked this when I got home and, you guessed it, I had. These were changed and the fuel pump installed the correct way round and hey presto a good fuel flow. So, in went the plugs, out came Lynda with a fire extinguisher, on went the ignition and the starter was setup to be connected direct to the battery. Contact, it tried to fire, second time I gave it a bit of gas on the throttle and YEEHAA, there she blows. It struck up, ran for a few seconds and die when the throttle was let go. No bad for an engine that had been dormant for five years.
So the great day arrived. I had had the starter turning over, I had significant oil pressure and there were no funny noises that indicated pistons hitting valves (Cam replacement seemed OK). The only problem was that the starter motor had to be hot wired as opposed to using the key. I then found that the two fuel pumps that I had (one form a 2.0l granada, the second from an Astra GTE) were both defunct, the Granada one seized, the Astra one was not moving liquid, suspect valve. So no start up today. In the evening I found the problem with the starter, so it now starts from the key but have found another problem, I get sparks from the plugs when hot wiring the starter but no sparks when using the key, also the wipers interfere with the lights when both are on. Time for another email to Ian.
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October 2010
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