ABF on K-jet - setting up & troubleshooting? Fixed and MOT'd!!!

Hi
When you say the dizzy, do you mean just the distributor cap and rotor arm, or do you mean together with the gear.

 

Thanks for the reply Matt. On the fuel pump voltage, I would expect some drop but not that much, plus I'm sure there is an earth fault with it which can't be helping. I doubt this is the cause of all the problems but at this stage just have to check and double check everything!

No, haven't tried swapping the dizzy from my other car but I have tested the hall sender, TCI-H unit and replaced the rotor arm, cap, leads and coil. Looks like an injector test is coming up soon then, plus I think I'll check the pump voltage on my other 16v and see what kind of drop that has.

I suppose the thing that baffles me with this is that the car ran very well on the KR engine with only an occasional cold start problem using all the original fuel injection and ignition components. In the course of this troubleshooting we've replaced a lot of parts, checked and fixed a lot of possible issues and yet with the ABF engine in, it still won't run anything like as good as it used to!

Could there be a problem with the engine itself? We haven't had the head off but have checked all the tappets move freely, cam timing is correct, bottom end turns ok and there appears to be good compression though not tested each cylinder individually yet. Everything looked in order when we fitted the windage tray and sump, cleaned out the oil pump etc.

I'm clutching at straws but the law of averages suggests that as we introduced one new component to the car (albeit an engine, one BIG component) and it won't run properly since then that could be the fault? Everything else stayed the same, or it did until we started repacing suspect parts.

Quite frustating to say the least but hopefully when (not if!) it does go properly, we will know the car inside out!

Any more ideas appreciated as always

 

Stu, I would say a volatge drop of upto 1 volt probably isn't far off. But if there is lots of dodgy wiring anywhere I would sort it just for peace of mind.

 

I wouldnt want to fit something made for a different car, i would check out the genuine 16v injectors on ebay for less than the 18.50 quoted. didnt get the item no.

 

Ok, thanks Jamie

Cheers - will probably order a set. Where can you get the new seals, from GSF?
Do they have the little ones for the ends as well as the larger ones higher up?

Do you know where we could get new injector lines? This car as the older type braided ones and they are a little crusty at the ends so may well fall to pieces when undone. Will the later harder rubber coated type lines fit as on my '91 car?

Thanks but aren't these Bosch ones genuine OEM spec anyway? I'm sure I've read on here before that a lot of people have tried them and had good results?

 

Afaik these are actually made for mercedes or similiar and were not an option on the mk2 golf. they may even have the same part no for all i know but were not oem. i suspect people obtain good results because the ones being removed are obviously not right. i would prefer the correct part although of course its your car.

 

Bosch made the OEM ones for sure, but these ones are brass, and from a merc/ferrari spec.

I've got them in my 2.0 16v and they seem to go just fine. Run them without the 'top hat' on the end of the injector.

 

Hi All,

Good new / bad news kind of day today.

Firstly the bad news, someone shunted into the back of my lovely '91 oak green 16v this morning and folded the lovely original back panel in. Gutted doesn't begin to describe it, I love that car. Not sure what'll happen yet as can't phone the insurance company 'til Tuesday. [:^(]

Thread here: http://www.clubgti.com/forum/showthread.php?t=165645

Good news - we have worked out what's up with the red track car!
Guess what - it wasn't anything that we'd already thought of or mentioned on this thread!

Tested the injectors and they are all fine, spray a nice strong mist out when you lift the metering flap. So then we began head scratching but luckily a friend of mine who is something of a car guru turned up for a visit. He's recently installed a Vauxhall engine on EFI into an old RWD Lada so knows a thing or two about fault finding on engine swaps!

Within about 30 mins of listening to/ feeling / smelling (!) various parts of the engine and related parts and fluids he diagnosed it as a failed head gasket between cylinders 3 and 4!

We didn't believe him but he persuaded us to remove the head, thought we had nothing to lose so thought we might as well... guess what - he was exactly right!

Pics to follow. Hopefully a head gasket and a setup and we're in business! The car certainly has a lot of new parts anyway when it finally does go!

 

Porsche? The injectors on my 911 are about an inch longer than the golf ones. Do you mean 924 ones?

 

c20xe in the Lada

Just glad its not sorted as i know how depressing it is when you cant find a fault with an engine. about 6 months i could not find my missfire on the Lada motor.


Guru, i like that

 

Here's some pics from yesterday:

Can you spot the problem...?




This is between cyl's 3 & 4...




Engine bay now looks like this whilst waiting to order new headgasket and head bolts..,




Head looks fine, I cleaned it up after these pics but all seems to be in order...






So, regarding parts to put it back together. When I did my 6A in the other car I used a different head gasket, a metal one, to the usual gasket as I recall. For the ABF is the standard gasket listed by GSF a metal one?

11144A CYLINDER HEAD GASKET G3 2.0 16V ABF Engine 8/92 >12/97 21.50


What's included in the 'set' as below, does it have the head bolts in too? Anything else included?

11491A CYLINDER HEAD GASKET SET G3 2.0 16V ABF Engine 92>97 56.00


I notice the head bolts seem to be sold individually, whereas on my other cars in the past the KR / 6A head bolts have come in a full set? Are they different to the KR ones?

01160A CYLINDER HEAD BOLT G3 2.0 16V ABF Engine 8/92 >12/97 2.00


Any tips on which parts to order much appreciated from those who've done an ABF head gasket before!

 

The set is just gaskets - doesn't include head bolts.

Head, Manifolds, stem seals, flanges, rocker cover gaskets, and dizzy seal.

Have you checked the head for flatness around that bore wall? I'm guessing the blown gasket was caused by detonation when it was running very lean, but best to check.

 

Getting the head skimmed i assume.

 

Like Matt said, have a REALLY close look at where it has blown, as if it's tracked the head surface your next gasket will go in no time. If you are a tightwad idiot like me you can do it with one of those huge carbide sharpening stones that everyone's dad has in the garage - but it's not exactly the reccomended route...

 

Easy to say now but tbh, if an engine is seriously unhappy a compression test can save you days of head scratching.

For example, with Fords under warranty, we have to get 'prior approval' to replace certain engine parts , so even if we want to replace a fuel injector, one of the first questions the guy at 'prior' will ask is for the compression test results.

If the HG has failed between a cylinder you would have had low comp on both the adjacent cylinders.

 

Had exactly the same on my brothers valver between 1 and 2 cylinders. I never thought to ask about it on this thread as his was running very badly. Sure enough i did a compression test and found the problem straight away.
I hadn't long built the engine either but i never thought to have the head checked/skimmed. If i was to build another 16v i would get the head lightly skimmed to clean it off as a precaution before fitting it.

 

Absolutely Matt - I have and still do waste hours at work chasing faults and it's very easy to be clever once you've finally found it.

I would definitely get the head lightly skimmed to check it's square. ... and hope the block is flat too.