One of those days

[Ian Fulton]

Well as at 5:00 p.m. 26th which is ANZAC day in Australia I had timed number 4 piston etc, installed cam cover and cam lines, engine tin, exhaust (except muffler) inlet manifold and injectors. Total time now at 138.5 hours. My goal is starting to appear to be out of reach now. A couple of photos are attached showing progress.

[Flieger]

Please inform the ignorant masses (including me ) what ANZAC day is.

I take it is Australia + New Zealand A___?__ Commonwealth

[Don Settergren]

You still ahve 2 days until the deadline - right? Assembly goes quickly from here, but I'm guessing you have a day job as well. Don't rush it, just get her done.

Wikipedia explains ANZAC pretty well as a Veterans Day for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Salute!

[Flieger]

Ah, thanks. My best regards to the vets.

[Ian Fulton]

I am now at 145 hours of time spent on this engine. I got nothing done the weekend just past as had a christening in the family. However everything is now assembled including clutch, gearbox, plugs, sensors, muffler etc and I am ready to install it all back into the car. With winter rapidly approaching I will try and get something done after work each night this week; it is almost too cold to work in the garage now of a night time. It would be good to finish installation and have at least one test run next weekend if at all possible.

[Ian Fulton]

This weekend I installed the engine and all went well. Added running in oil and with the DME relay disconnected and spark plugs pulled, I cranked the engine over until I saw good oil pressure. Then installed the plugs, reconnected the relay and attempted a start. It almost brought tears to my eyes. It started almost immediately and after a couple of minutes of about 1200 R.P.M it settled down to a normal idle. There was some initial smoke on start up, but it soon cleared. I checked all under the engine for oil leaks and all was fine apart from the fumes that come off a rebuilt engine. After about 10 minutes of idling and checking, it was good for my first test drive. This consisted of 15 minutes of on/off throttle, including 3 small hill climbs with power on going up and engine braking coming down. My first impressions was the engine felt "crisp." Finally after about 30 minutes parked the car and dropped the oil for an oil change. I am stoked I have no oil leaks.

[Don Settergren]

Yee, friggen haw! Congratulations for a job well done. It'll take a couple of months of listening for odd sounds (usually from the car next to you), but after a while you'll be back to just driving.

[Ian Fulton]

After work tonight and following the oil change yesterday I couldn't wait for another test drive to put some more miles (kilometers) on the engine. All started well with runs up to 3500 R.P.M followed by engine braking and including more hills to load and brake the engine. After about 15 minutes I came to a traffic light and the engine started idling at about 2000 R.P.M and started hunting. On take off it was slow off the mark and it lacked power. I headed for home. About 10 minutes later going around a 90 degree bend at 20 M.P.H the engine just died. I tried cranking it over for up to 10 minutes but it refused to start. Called the wife to come and get me. While she was on the way it eventually fired and I headed straight for home and put it away. In the garage it idled again at 2000 revs very erratically. There appeared to be black smoke from the exausht almost like unburnt fuel. Any ideas anyone. What a disappointment all of a sudden. I knew something would have to come and haunt me.

[lindy 911]

I went back and looked for the year of your car and could not find it so I'm making some assumptions here; CIS can develop vacuum leaks after a rebuild. Check all the rubber between the air box and intake tube plus the gaskets at the head. It sounds like you have an air leak somewhere and if it does it all the time now it shouldn't be too hard to find.

[Ian Fulton]

Don, firstly thank you for the wise comments, and I don't know about strange noises, but I certainly have something amiss with the way its running. The strangest thing is after the first start it went perfect. Almost too perfect.
Lindy, my car is a motronic 1987 model if that is any help. I tried to be careful with all the hose installation etc.
Tonight I will study Bentley to see if that sheds any light on my problem. I am still having trouble coming to grips why it ran well one day and part of the next and then all turned bad.

[Ian Fulton]

Well I have now followed Bentley to the tee and checked the following. Volume air flow sensor, intake air temp sensor, cylinder head temp sensor, and idle speed C.V. resistance. All these items check out within the resistance range provided by Bentley. I have check all the fuses, changed the main fuel relay, checked the injector resistance and no issues found. The car still idles high and hunts, and appears to me to be running very rich, and in fact last night after checking all these components it stopped altogether and I could not restart it. The only thing I haven't checked is the oxygen sensor, but I doubt it is this.
OK all you Pelicans what is going on here? I cannot believe that what appeared to be a successful rebuild all of a sudden turns to sh** and this car does not now want to run properly after firstly starting up fine. Any suggestions welcome.

[lindy 911]

Did you re-check the ignition timing?

[lindy 911]

Originally Posted by lindy 911

Did you re-check the ignition timing?

Sometimes the distributor will move because the nut was not secured well enough...
Maybe?

[Ian Fulton]

After much testing I finally read the italics in Bentley which stated "An open break in the temperature sensor will cause the DME system to run rich". But the temperature sensor tested fine. It turned out to be the stationary plug. When the temp. sensor was plugged into the stationary plug it pushed one of the connecting wires back barely or not making contact. I had this apart 3 times for testing and finally I was able to solve the issue. It is amazing how such a simple thing caused so much heart ache.
I am finally enjoying my rebuilt engine. Lots of throttle on and off, up and down hills. Put 300 kms on the engine over the weekend.

[Don Settergren]

I see this all the time on cheap chinese IDE hard drive power cables. I would never have thought a German connector would do the same thing. Nice diagnostics and final repair.

[dshepp806]

+1 there!!!!!!

Doyle

[Ian Fulton]

I have just returned from 5 weeks annual leave during which time I clocked up 5000 kilometres on my rebuilt engine. It runs strong with no oil leaks and uses virtually no oil.
In one in 5 cold starts I occasionally see a puff of smoke on start up so hopefully it will stay like that. My conclusion is that to date re-ringing Alusils has been successful. Only time and further kilometres will confirm that.
Are there other Pelicans out there who have now clocked up 10-20000 miles on their re-ringed Alusils, who can comment on their success or otherwise

[j911brick]

I have done a couple re-ring jobs on alusil. One was in a race car.