Saxo only appears to be running on 3 cylinders after head job ?

10th September 2012, 14:44

Dear All.
Well this appears to be not something I was planning on having to say.
I did check the head surface with a straight edge and feelers, prior to
rebuilding the head. I have tightened the head down with new gasket/s and
new stretchbolts, reiftted the cambelt etc etc., I have adjusted the tappets
at 8 thou inlets and 16 thou exhausts etc. I have put new engine oil and new
filter and turned the engine over by hand 20 times to get the oil circulated.
The only jobs I have to do left, is to refit the cambelt cover and the eng-
ine mounting and fill and bleed the cooling system.
I was expecting the car to start first turn of the key and be idling correctly
too, after all of the head work and with the new crank sensor etc etc.
But she runs not to bad but appears to be only running on 3 cylinders. I
have rechecked that all the spark plugs and thier leads ( they appear to be
sparking ok ) and I have rechecked the compressions again ( although they
aren,t all 170 psi, but this maybe because I haven,t managed to run the car
upto temperature to seal the head gasket, due the lack of coolant in the
engine at present.
At the moment I have remove the inlet manifold, to gain access to the
four injectors, what I wanted to do, is to check that all of the injectors are
working correctly,
The cars battery was disconnected throughout, the head job, and there
is no engine management warning lights on the car at present.
Another thing I am concerned about is, if I were to remove the 4 injectors
and I was to " turn the engine " over on the starter, would this make the
engine management light " to come on " and therefore, would the car then
have to go to a dealer, to have the " codes " removed to stop the engine
management warning light being on. ?
Any help or advice would be very very gratefully received indeed,
Vince.

10th September 2012, 15:00

You should be fine removing the injectors,double check that you`ve timed it up correctly & that nothing is loose like the cranksensor etc.

10th September 2012, 16:24

It sometimes takes a while for engines to settle down after a rebuild like this. Remember, engines are very specific to fuel/air - 14.7:1 ... so any work that could let water / air / oil / bits of old gaskets / anything else in to mess up the mixture could affect running and cause a misfire.

If I were you, id top up the coolant before trying it again, and take the car out. It may just need to burn off / adjust to the new gasket.

ECU fault codes can be cleared by disconnecting the battery for a while, so dont worry about that

10th September 2012, 17:11

Dear Stevo.
Firstly thank-you so very much indeed, your kindness is always amazing

Secondly, I have just found out what is wrong with her Stevo, The elec-
trical plug on no. 2 cylinder injector harness, was not conneted to the inj-
ector.
I have since checked the complete harness, and it has 2 of the thin metal
retaining clips missing. I have managed to locate one spare metal clip, from a
spare unused wiring connector down by the alternator Stevo. But that still
leaves me one short still. I have contacted our nice Citroen Dealer, however
the harness has to come complete, but is sadly NLA.
So that is the state of play at the moment Stevo

I will keep you posted on how she gets on Stevo

Vince.

10th September 2012, 17:25

Dear Outrage uk.
Firstly thank-you so very very much indeed aswell, it is really very very
kind indeed

I certainly didn,t know that you can cancel the trouble codes by discon-
neting the battery

Thank-you both so much I am deeply indebted This info will make my job
a lot easier to get to grips with these things

Vince.

13th September 2012, 17:31

Dear All.
Luckilly we have managed to source 3 brand spanking new " clips ", so we
have snapped them all up, and are just awaiting arrival by post

So fingers crossed now everything should be alright now. I will keep every-
one posted on the forum as to how she is progressing

Vince.

15th September 2012, 20:02

Dear All.
The " new " metal clips to hold the wiring loom to all of the injectors,
arrived this morning.
So I have spent this morning and this afternoon, fitting all said clips, and
they are all now a nice tight fit onto the injectors. I have also refitted the
inlet manifold etc etc.
However, embarrassingly it has made no difference, and the car is still
appearing to be only running on three cylinders.
Any advice or guidance would be very very gratefully received, many
thanks indeed

Vince.

15th September 2012, 20:09

ok mate...

it could be your coilpack..as ive had this happen before..my head has been off more times then i care to post

for starters...does it idle? just really rough?

secondly... did you check the timing to make sure it defo was all correct?

thirdly..did you remove the valves when you had the head off?

id fill it with coolant and run it for a bit..try taking it for a drive if possible..ive had a few dodgey coilpacks that run like this in the past...then holding it at about 3k for a few seconds and knocking it off then back on usually clears them...sometimes get condensation in the pack

16th September 2012, 13:21

Dear Blackie 2k5.
Firstly, THANK-YOU you are most kind

The car won,t start with the first turn of the key and without any throttle
being used ( which is how I like all of my cars to start. ) The Saxo, at the
moment you have to use a light throttle and allow the engine a little while,
about 30 sec. just to warm up a bit, and then she will idle just about. The
coilpack is " Sagem " ? 4 wire one ( I looked to use the coilpack off my BX, but this is " Bosch " 3 wire one. )
Personally Blackie, I havn,t had any coilpack problems, so this is new
territory for me

As to the timimg my haynes manual told me that no 1 cylinder is nearest
to the flywheel end of the engine ( so no. 1 is nearest to the coilpack ? ) so
I used no 4 cylinders valves both " on rock ", so that it is then " firing " on
no 1 cylinder. Marked the crank pulley and the cambelt, and did the same to
the cam sprocket and marked it, the belt and a " direction of rotation " mark
aswell.

Valve wise, I removed all the valves and put them in my drill and cleaned
them all with emery paper ( like new ) I fitted new stem seals, lapped the
exhausts with " coarse " and then did all the inlets and the exhausts again
with " fine " The very kind people who skimmed the head for me as it was
bowed 7 thou. between the middle 2 cylinders, they said my valves and seats
had all been gas tested and the valve seats were very very clean. They also
supplied me with the head set and the headbolts aswell.
I have tightened the head to 20 n/m and then plus 120 degrees and plus
another 120 degrees. Tappets were done 8 thou inlets 16 thou exhausts.
I hope I have done a good job upto now Blackie, I was expecting it to
start and purr like a said kitten

I hope this helps, and thank-you once again for your very kind assistance.
Vince.