what is the chance of a bad batch of fuel that has small amount of water in it causing the rusted plugs? BTW, there is a very few number of mechnaics in canberra to take your Zed to. I can only think of 1 i would take my car to drop it off and leave it there and come back to it done properly.
Rob from endurance automotive. hes on endurance ave QBN. He isnt the cheapest mech in the world, but you get quality work and no half a$$ed crap. I can PM you his number if you like.
Please do mate, that would be greatly appreciated. Already gotten 2 opinions and both point to the same diagnosis. Does Rob have experience with Z's? Cheers Sean
I think you may be onto something, the original owner's family may not have used 98RON the last time they filled up, and instead opted for 92. Common mistake for the uninformed. There was still half a tank of the old fuel when I passed the zed onto Sean! On an NA this probably wouldn't cause too many problems, but when you're pushing 16psi I don't think zed motors take too kindly to lower grade fuel . Can anyone elaborate on this?
I filled up with BP Ultimate before driving home. I also have filled the tank twice since then after flushing to eliminate that possibility (using BP Ultimate) Sean
Brown stained plugs that sort of look rusty is classic indication of running lean. Look for boost leaks or more likely crook injectors partially blocked. Is it using any coolant? If not prob isnt head gasket. OverheatedA clean, white insulator firing tip and/or excessive electrode erosion indicates this spark plug condition. k This is often caused by over advanced ignition, timing, poor engine cooling system efficiency (scale, stoppages, low level), a very lean air/fuel mixture, or a leaking intake manifold. When these conditions prevail, even a plug of the correct heat range will overheat.
Yeah he helped out another memeber with his Zed, who had massive problems. Has helped out with mine. he also has a wide band O2 Sensor that can show mixtures while you drive along. PM sent.
You beat me to it Gra. That reddish-brown deposit that comes from running lean, could easily be mistaken as rust. If it's getting coolant in the combustion chambers, it has to be losing a fair amount from the radiator(particularly on a drive from Sydney to Canberra)and yet there hasn't been any mention of this so far.
Coolant Not to mention the fact that I would hope your coolant has a good (> 40%) mix of concentrated anti-freeze. This stuff is meant to do a very good job at preventing rust....
Ok Compression (as tested) 1 - 135 2 - 135 3 - 130 4 - 100 5 - 120 6 - 110 Did not take AFR reading, but they fixed the cold start issue (starts fine first thing in the morning now.. thats a bonus) Pulled plugs myself - not rust, it is most likely a reaction to the octane booster added. It is a tan covering that is also on the insulator - easily wiped away by fingers. Car is not using coolant (Tectalloy btw) and the oil seems fine from the dipstick and filler with no visible sludge. Now here's the interesting part, bearing in mind my car is running a Microtech ECU (LT-12S). I tested the TPS and found voltage to be up around the 1.0-1.1V on idle. No matter what I did I could not get it to read anywhere near 0.44-0.46. When the TPS was rotated to obtain a more negative value, the car hesitated and stalled. I cleaned and inspected the temp sensor as well. The lowest I could get was 0.9V. Interestingly - for the first minute I took the car out this morning to test (after some TPS changes) the car was smooth with no missing, rose through boost fine (half throttle to ~8psi) and did not hesitate apart from initially dropping revs when planting foot (which to my understanding is a TPS issue). Then all of a sudden the issues came back; rough idle, missing and stuttering on load. All I can say is WTF Sean
Maybe you need to invest in a Microtech Laptop Adaptor and Software? Was the compression test done on a warm engine?
I have the cable and adaptor but I don't have the software! Coupled with the fact that I don't have a window's laptop either Sean
Ok - so did some more tweaking Finally got my laptop reformatted to Windows and did a read of the Microtech at idle. See attached pictures. Also, it turns out the ECU is a LT-8S, not an LT-12 See anything wrong in there? It came up with two errors under BATTERY and AIR (pic 2) although I'm not sure what these mean? I assume its because the AFM may be faulty? *Edit* its running in MAP - see pic 2 I had just fiddled a bit with the TPS before these screenshots were taken, the TPS load got down to about 4/5 on idle. Correct me if I'm wrong but TPS load on idle shouldn't read as high as 22% no? Shed any light so far? I haven't worked out how to use the software and didn't want to further damage the car so thought I'd leave it at that for now. Also Sean - stumped as all hell
Just for your info, My MicroTech is an LTX-12S using the MAP. It doesn't use the AFM or O2's. Cheers Lloyd
sorry double checked. I dont know how the tune is set. but timing is slightly advanced, stock is 15 Idle is a bit high, tps could be slightly out. i dont know what % is in volts.
