I6 running on 3cyl - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

uteman · 06-30-2002, 01:55

I need some more help guys. My ute is now running on 3 cylinders!

It has only just happend while I was driving to work the other day. The ute stalled at a set of lights and then didnt want to start. As I drove down the road it kept popping/backfiring out the exhaust. Sounds cool like a rally car but there is something seriously wrong.

I pulled up at a car park and it lacked power in 1st and was really hard to take off. The next day (after driving home after work that night) I pulled the spark plug leads off while it was running. The back 3 cylinders appear to be getting no spark as when the lead was pulled off there was no difference in idle. The ute is also idling a little higher than normal.

I have checked the distributor cap and that seems ok. Have checked plugs, no dramas. Has no points as its electronic ignition. I found a broken wire coming off of the +ve side of the coil which I assume was supposed to have the condesor connected to it. Put another condesor on, no change.

When driving the ute it lacks a lot of power under load and at low revs. When giving the ute some revs it seems to have all 6cyl's. It doesnt appear to lack any power at high revs either as it still goes sideways. But when backing off or changing gears there is a lot of popping from the exhuast, I assume this is unburnt fuel from the cylinders not firing.

Whats going on??? I need some help!

Cheers

Simon

P.S. This maybe unrelated (as I think the above problem is something electrical), but my Weber carb does this sneezing thing. When trying to start the motor when cold sometimes it kinda backfires un thru the carb. Wisps of smoke come out from the carb also. Whats the deal here? It doesnt crack or bang but more likes sneezes or choofs.

Grunt51 · 06-30-2002, 02:08

Hi there,

Seems your ute is not running well at all.....

For a basic test.......disconect the power to the coil and wind over the engine......Does is sound like the compression is even in all cylinders? if so, it should be electrical.....

strange for it to be on three back cylinders....

if idle is high, u may hace a vacumme leak or something, so check all your hoses.....carb, PCV to rocker cover, and the damn EGR hose......

Just some quickies......

I8AHSV · 06-30-2002, 03:45

Mate it sounds like an electrical problem....First what I would sugest is to see how strong the spark is on your cylinders...Do this by disconecting one spark plug cable at a time (spark plug side). Stick a screwdriver in the plug & get someone to start cranking the engine over while you are holding (earthing) the screwdriver on a shocker tower (hold it about 5mm or so away from the clean metal surface) or a metal surface on the car (it has to be bare with no paint otherwise it will not work). Check the intensity of the spark comming from the spark plug cable/screwdriver as there is supposed to be lots of spark jumping from the cable/screwdriver to the metal object.. Do this to all the cylinders one at a time starting from the front and working your way to the back cylinders....If you find that there is less spark comming on some cylinders it means that the cable(s) are stuffed (considering that you said that you checked the sparkplugs & said that they are ok). To be 100% sure get a multimeter on to the cables & measure them for resistance by setting your multimetar to check the ohms. Anything between 100ohms & 1500 ohm is good anything more is bad & needs replacing (the less ohms the better the spark as there is less resistance for the spark to travel to the sparkplugs in the engine & more power you will get) Get the cables replaced if you find that they are foulty ...
If it's not then you need to check your distributor for the spark scater...to do this all u need is needed is a timing light and a clear marking on the crank pulley. Just mark the crank pulley usualy with liquid paper or something that is visable then turn the motor up to about 3500-4000 rpm. If the spark jumps around by more than 3-4 degrees, something is amiss and it's most likely worn distributor shaft bearings and/or gear. Get the distributor replaced....

Hope that helps

ebxr8240 · 06-30-2002, 05:09

Agree with above. Also check your connections on the wire harness to your injectors etc. They are bank fire, 3 at a time. Leads seem to cause these troubles if oldish replace as well as rotor ,cap..First off I thought head gasget? But that won't cause no spark...

uteman · 06-30-2002, 05:27

Cheers for the help guys. Spark plug leads are almost brand new jobbies. Good quality ones aswell. Distributor and cap are second hand ones from an XF (not sure).

Its not running EFI, only carb. $$ was the only thing stopping me from running EFI.

Can anyone explain why at higher revs (tacho doesnt work, say about 2500+rpm, Im guessing) the motor seems to fire on all 6. The power is there in higher rpm but not low down, so its like 3 cylinders drop off at low rpm.

It shouldnt be the coil as it delivers the charge to the dizzy at one point. Then the dizzy decides what cylinder it goes to. So it sounds kinda like the dizzy. I cleaned up the contact points in the distributor cap as they looked a little rough but that did nothing.

I just hope that Im not doing any damage to the motor while still driving the ute, I have no other transport. And as I said it runs alright when accelerating with the revs up a bit. Find myself riding the clutch to take off tho, other wise the motor farts and splutters.

ebxr8240 · 06-30-2002, 06:53

Have you lost any coolant? Check under you oil filler cap for foamy white oil meaning water in oil. Check along side of block under exhaust to see if there are signs of coolant leaking from head gasget..Water in combustion chamber will foul plug until revs increase..Try spraying w.d40 around inlet manifold gasget to check for inlet leaks any light oil will do, even cooking oil..

The rotors are longer on latter model six's check that out also.You may have short rotor in the wider cap??

B.t.w why don't you have an electronis dist? We got an electronic dist and fitted it to a 250 2V T.C Cortina works great!Out of XF.. But make sure it has the mechanical advance and oil drive at bottom for pump..Pick em up cheap from wreckers and usually in good nick..I bet you won't take it to the mech that fitted it ah??

I8AHSV · 06-30-2002, 07:21

I also forgot to ask. Have you checked the spark plug gap? If not check the spark plug gap because even when you buy them brand new you should check them because sometimes the spark plug gap is not set properly. This could also cause your problem because at low speed the intensity of the spark is not as agresive as it is at high revs. If the gap is way too closed or too open the spark will have trouble jumping over & igniting the mixture.

uteman · 06-30-2002, 16:28

I doubt it is the spark plugs as they have been running fine for a while now, and they are new and were gapped correctly when installed. This problem has just happend.

The distributor is probably from an XF with the wide cap. It doesnt have a points system.

No coolant lost, and there is no foamy, milky oil about, so its not the headgasket. All pipes and connections are fine eg. PCV and Vacuum Advance.

There is no way that I will go back to the mechanic that installed this stuff even if it is his fault that things are a little dodgy. I would like to find the problem myself before going to fork out $$$ for a mechanic to fix it.

uteman · 06-30-2002, 18:16

I think Ive fixed it guys. As Grunt51 said it was some sort of vacuum leak. Im running an EA carb manifold and it has all these OE pipes etc coming off of it. There is one little outlet coming off the inlet manifold (just below the carb) and I dont know where it goes. I found a hose just hanging down doing nothing, connected to this plastic piece with other hose outlets at the rear of the manifold (part of the PCV or vacuum system I assume). Connected them together and the idle dropped down and the idled nice and smooth. Took her for a quick blat down the road and had no dramas!!! YAY!!! Since doing this conversion with an EFI motor to carb and having all the pollution crap on there I have a few hoses with clamps on the end blocking them off as they are not needed. I assume this one just fell off, but not anymore, I have put a nice new hose clamp on.

Thanks for your help guys, much appreciated! Beats going to pay a mechanic which my g/f reckoned I should do!

uteman · 06-30-2002, 18:25

Could explain to me what exactly was happening to the motor when this hose came off? I have found the problem but would like to understand how it effected the engine. I assume the inlet manifold was sucking in extra air, becasue the little outlet under the carb was sucking when the motor was running (I put my finger over it). By looking at the design of the inlet manifold it could have leaned out the back 3 cylinders, by sucking in more air. It wasnt as noticable at higher revs because I was feeding in more fuel. Does this sound reasonale??