Zed wont start

Discussion in 'Technical' started by Gazza, May 16, 2010.

  1. Gazza

    Gazza Active Member

    I did a little bit of work on the zed last week because it was starting to idle a little rough. Cleaned the air filter and replaced the fuel filter, cleaned the MAF sensor and throttle bodies and cleaned some of the electrical plugs. Tried to start the engine after and there was no go, after a few cranking sessions the engine started to sound different so I started trouble shooting and ended up pulling the spark plugs and tested the compression, the results are not good;

    1: 80 PSI
    2: 140 PSI
    3: 90 PSI
    4: 120 PSI
    5: 90 PSI
    6: 180 PSI

    So the drivers side bank has suffered some kind of catastophic loss of compression and the other side is looking very odd. Im suspecting it was from spaying carby cleaner into the plenum and this has fouled the valves somehow. Anybody got any ideas as to whats going on or a possible quick remedy?
     
  2. Chrispy

    Chrispy Pretentious Upstart

    Carby cleaner won't hurt anything in the engine.

    $10 on a slipped timing belt or the inlet cam locating pin for the VVT sprocket has sheared.
     
    Gazza likes this.
  3. Gazza

    Gazza Active Member

    Thanks mate
     
  4. A-Bris-Z

    A-Bris-Z Carcraze

    Hmmm......$10....not very confident :D
     
  5. Chrispy

    Chrispy Pretentious Upstart

    I'm a poor uni student for the next 2 months, then I can raise the stakes :p
     
  6. zed4life (zedcare.com)

    zed4life (zedcare.com) Ω vicarious zedder Ω

    Seconded but I'd bet $20...

    this is quite a common occurrence. Easily checked by removing passenger side timing belt cover and cranking engine over. Reasonably easily fixed

     
  7. Gazza

    Gazza Active Member

    Thanks for the reassurance guys, was preparing for the worst when I first took the pressure readings.
     
  8. black baz

    black baz black 'n blue Bazemy

    .. you may not finish Uni in two months if you continue to spend 110% of your time on this godamn Forum .... now, knick off, skinny boy .... lol.... !!!!!

    eekkk .. forgot to tick the Chrispy box .....
     
  9. Chrispy

    Chrispy Pretentious Upstart

    Hehehe, I know Baz... But nearly done :D

    Forgot to tell you, got my old job back too :cool:
     
  10. r33k

    r33k 'I reek of Englishness'

    my car was 2 teeth out on both inlet and exhaust cam on drivers side bank when I bought it, passenger bank was 150-155... drivers side 120. $3000 it's something to do with the timing belt/cams gears/ or the car in general. :rolleyes:
     
  11. Red-Z

    Red-Z Red-Z

    Agree with other that the compression drop will be cam related - assuming compression was good beforehand.
    I'd also check that the AFM is Ok. The fine wire there is easy to damage and it will stop you starting the engine if the filament is broken. Note - AFM won't have caused the compression loss directly but it could have been the cause of some misfires/ backfires while trying to start it which in turn could have slipped the cam belt or sheared the pin.
     
  12. Gazza

    Gazza Active Member

    Well it wasnt a slipped belt, looks like I need to delve further into the engine
     
  13. Gazza

    Gazza Active Member

    Car still isnt running, locating pin on the intake sprocket isnt broken:( If this car doesnt get up and running soon I'll be forced to get rid of it:(
     
  14. Gazza

    Gazza Active Member

    Well I finally got the bitch running today, thanks to a new battery, new sparkplugs and a can of startyabastard. Idles rough and threatens to stall without a bit of accelerator, has a huge air leak at the back of the engine somewhere and the alternator light is weakly lit. So still needs more attention to solve the problem but Im slowly getting there.
     
  15. Gazza

    Gazza Active Member

    Finally got a day to work on the basket case, I seem to have a bad case of baby brain and todays efforts only proved it. Started out working on the nasty squeal at the front of the engine, deciding that it was probably the air con idler pulley bearing, I removed offending part and in my stupid condition I chucked it in my press and squashed the pulley by not supporting it correctly:bash: I tried starting the car after to see if it really was the problem, but the squeal was still there![TIS]

    Pissed off at myself I packed up all my tools and was heading off when I thought Id have one more look with a torch to see if I could get a better idea of what might be causing the squeal. It was the alternator belt completely loose.... that would explain the alternator light:rolleyes:

    Next on the agenda was the huge air leak at the back of the engine. Spent a while searching for anything amiss, had come to the conclusion it was a missing o-ring on the balance pipe when by chance I spotted some shiney metal under the engine harness. It was a hose not connected.

    Was feeling pretty positive about the day, even when I dropped a socket down the side of the engine and had to retreave it right when I was about to take the zed for a test drive. I finally climbed in, started her up, allowed the engine to warm for a minute then went to put it in gear, GRIND!! The friggen clutch hose let go.......... AAAHHHH!!![TIS][TIS][TIS][TIS]

    I locked the car up and walked away in disgust.
     
  16. black baz

    black baz black 'n blue Bazemy

    ... jeez, gazza, you are not winning too many .... !!!!
     
  17. stumagoo

    stumagoo Active Member

    the sub 100 psi compression is very likely to be causing those 3 cylinders to not get combustion, (on average a culinder needs 100+ for this) this will cause the engine to run on 3 cylinders and be very hard to idle and with the low compression in 2 others almost impossible to start

    I would have bet money on a cam shaft out as well but it is only a guess from here, if not the cams out of timing I am picking either oil pressure failure causing a blown engine or over heating again I am sure you would have noticed something like this happening.

    I say go back to the cam timing because unless it was a major engine blow out (read lots of revs, smoke and a big bang etc) I find it hard to see that you could run an engine to this sort of condition without other symptoms. you should of been having starting and performance issues long before you got 5 pistons with a compression of 120 and lower and especially with 3 below 100.
     

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