Car stalled and now fails to start again
 

Hey there,

Ran into a bit of trouble today with my EA... I was just about home and coming off the gas and slowing down for the driveway when the beast decided to conk out. I tried to restart it (neutral and park) but it didnt want to start. The engine still turns over (although not freely) and I hear a click/clunk every so often.

Volt gauge reads just about 12 and drops down to the 10 when I am trying to start the car.

I'm not quite sure what the problem could be? I have suspected altenator or battery but havent ran a voltmeter over them yet.

Anyone else got any ideas.

Re: Car stalled and now fails to start again
 

Could be battery, though it shouldn't be able to turn the motor if it won't run the computer.
Try that first, otherwise the usual suspects, fuel pump, spark? computer power....

Re: Car stalled and now fails to start again
 

TFI maybe gave up

Re: Car stalled and now fails to start again
 

yeah dude sounds like a similar problem i have had once before it may be that your starter motor has almost died. what its doing is winding up and it needs to be on its downward motion to wind the car over to start your best bet is to replace it i think that if you can get the car on a downhill slant that you are able to have the car in drive and it will turn on you wont necesarily here it winding over it will just start ok let us know how u go with it dude

Re: Car stalled and now fails to start again
 

Well guys.. The news is bloody nasty. Found the culpret today in broad daylight. The timing chain let go and rip a nice hole right through the front cover of the engine.

Looks like i'm going to be without a ride for a while. A nice process of taking the head off and replacing broken parts. New gasket kit and crap again. This really eats it as I only did the head gasket September 03..

What can i say. It happens..

Re: Car stalled and now fails to start again
 

Well I dont think anyone saw that one coming.

Bad luck, hope you the damage is minimal to none

Re: Car stalled and now fails to start again
 

I'd take it as god's way of saying "upgrade your head / cam" ;)
Well, its a good excuse to anyway :)

Hope you can get it fixed up quickly...

Re: Car stalled and now fails to start again
 

From what I've heard the heads in em flow pretty shit and theres not alot that can be done to fix it. I am toying with the idea of doing the rocker rollers but I am pretty strapped for cash. The head has already been shaved once. I am also contemplating a complete engine rebuild as the poor old gerl has 270,000 on the clock and has never been rebuilt so I am feeling that the time is right. Might be a good time to slap some pacemakers on it too as the exhaust manifold will have to be removed anyways. We'll see what happens..

Re: Car stalled and now fails to start again
 

Bloody hell, I know I never saw it coming! :P Why not use an EF or AU motor? It's a fairly common and easy thing to do, even if you stick with your old wiring/computer.

Bear in mind that these already have roller rockers, being an OHC. The heads can easily be made to flow fairly well but I question whether the motor will be worth saving - the broken-off valves will have chewed up the head and pistons a bit!

Re: Car stalled and now fails to start again
 

True that. I have been toying with the idea of an EF XR6 engine but it is just a matter of locating one at the right price. I guess I'll find how nasty things are when the head comes off. The engine was still full of oil so I am assuming that it konked as soon as the timing chain blew or else she would have spat the oil all over the place and could have caused some serious problems.

Has anyone got any idea of the price that I would be looking at for an EF engine in reasonable condition? Also if i went this way I would have to upgrade to the appropriate ecu to handle the differences between the engines wouldnt I?