ok, so after replacing the head on my CA18DET the car has thrown a wobbly. Basically, it was running on Wednesday and Thursday until 5pm, then the revs dropped and it just died.Tried to start it again and it wouldnt fire up. The engine turns over, but it backfires all the time. Myself and Mighty_mini spent a good few hours down the workshop trying to identify the problem, but no such luck. Theres, spark, compression, fuel getting into the cylinders and the cambelt and timing is cock on. We think its more along the electrical side of things now. Any suggestions?? Below is a video, not a great one, but still a video of how the thing trys to start. As I said, it turns over, and trys to start, but it just wont. Ignore the diesel engine in the background, and just to say, the noise that sounds like its knocking, is infact the car backfiring. Any help will be great, cheers.
check the ecu and see if your getting any codes. why was the head replaced? new headgasket fitted? if your getting spark fuel and compression it should at least run a bit. im guessing a sensor somewhere is playing up or has come unplugged check the ecu codes!!
head was replaced due to HG failure. New head was sourced, and fitted along with new gaskets. ecu says 55 - alls fine. knock sensor isnt plugged in, but it wasnt in when it was running before
Check your CAS, are lights just dimming while turning over or is it more severe? That is pretty normal for stock AMP Alternators and 20 year old wiring.
sounds like a head problem to me. what happened when the hg failed? did you just notice creamy oil or no compression?
Head is a reconditioned one. We are thinking more along the lines of electrical, or CAS as there is fuel, spark and compression, why do you think it would be a head problem if all of them are present? When the head gasket went I lost all power, so compression. Drained the oil, and there was no water/mayo ti be found, or seen. Fullboost - will let you know later.
Just to clarify a few things just incase they were missed out.... The cam timing is spot on, it was redone just for the sake of it and i have even taken the rocker covers off to make sure the valve are opening when they should and close when they shoud. I have a fuel pressure gauge and the fuel rail is getting 3Bar as expected. The injectors are clicking and with the plugs out vapour can be seen coming out from the plug holes. There is spark as they are new plugs now and have had the packs out and turned it over to see all are sparking ok. the cas is working , altho im under the impression the wiring might be tempremental, or too much play in the input shaft. Ive fiddled with it so much but it still works (injectors clicking regularly etc but sometimes if not fully inserted it will click intermittantly. if bolted into the head it works everytime.) The ecu is returning code 55, its assuming all is a-ok. The knock sensor was broken by myself i believe, upon head removal originally. this was not plugged back in and the car started and ran. Could this really stop it from running at all? and now for what i have discovered.... IF i turn the cas upside down, effectively making it fire 180 degree's out, it will fire. The most nearest to starting again ive heard it all day. The car is being constantly charged off my van during cranking so power should not be an issue. With regards to the lights, which is what i asked pie to check was the following : Upon cranking should the ecu lights (red and green) go out? I had thought about getting the injector wires the wrong way around but cant really see its that possible with the wires being as short as they are, i could only assume the two i could mix up are cylinders 2 and 3. Pouring petrol in the bore or easy start in the intake seems to make little to no difference. Thats about it for the moment. im trying to source a CAS to test asap as were off to the ring in 10 days and cant afford to be buying more parts for it unless nessacery.
After the battery relocation i have also considered earthing to be an issue so i ran grounds from the body to battery negative and also from the plenum to the ecu ground... no change.
You say you can turn the CAS upside down? In relation to the cam? That shouldnt be possible the CAS can only be fitted on the cam one way because of the semicircle shaped locating peg on the end of the cam that fits in the CAS.
Yes steve technically I shouldn't be able to. But to satisfy my curiosity I made it so I could rotate it 180 degrees. Something madee wonder if it were 180 degrees out but I can't see hpw that would be possible with ECCS
my half moon thing on the CAS broke once, wouldnt start, and it took forever to figure that out. tired that?
Not a CA mind but my mates rb26 snapped the wee dome in the end if the cam and snapped the CAS spindle too. New cam and CAS it started, just chucked over and over before... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That's what I thought too but both half moons are present and the splines are ok too. Cheers for all the suggestions so far guys. Much appreciated so far as I'm tearing my hair out.
Just had a call from Dave (mighty_mini), he's sorted it, we hope anyway. Basically the peg had snapped off inside the CAS so we weren't able to see it, BUT it seems like it had been like it for a long time as the peg had smoothed itself. It had just got to the point where it had smoothed itself so much, there was no longer any contact. I'm sure Dave will post pics or something up on here later. So we are now looking for a CA18DET CAS. Cheers for all the help and advice fellas.
No problem, It looked like a CAS problem from the video and no codes just sealed the deal. Hope it all works out and you get it sideways soon!
