S1 Rebuild(s)

[Dave Adams]

some pics of the rebuild process,

the top trailing arm bracket is broke......

the diff is sloping back a little (looking up) so that will need sorting.......

As you can see there isn't a lot of bracing in an S1 chassis, that will be sorted.

[Dave Adams]

The O2 sensor forms part of a closed loop. After a period of warming.  It uses the feed back to adjust injector puse width to weaken or richer fuel.

[Dave Adams]

MAF replaced.......no effect.
TPS also seems OK

fuel pressure is 2.9 to 3 bar when running.....but only 1 bar on prime (when i turn on the key)
STFT (short term fuel trim) 0+/-1 at tick over
LTFT over 25%! but it will drop to about 8% when revved hard.....odd that the ECU hasn't given me a fault code for this..

the ecu gives me a fault code for the O2 sensor (heater inop).....but when warm it goes into closed loop ?

so.......fuel pump seems OK, might be an air leak to inlet manifold but i would have thought that the STFT would be all wrong at tick over if i have an air leak

i do have a 4-1 and weed burner exhaust fitted (41mm primaries and 50mm tail) and an inlet plenum with short equal length inlet runners.......could the engine be delivering more power from standard? therefore needing uprated injectors? i would expect the STFT to be low at tickover and the LTFT to be high if this were the case but do i have that right?

so........

i added redex injector cleaner to my car fuel tank and run it up.......almost immediately it coughed and spluttered and cut out.

so out came the fuel pump........and lo and behold empty fuel tank 180 miles and 10 gallon!

now i suspected it was running rich but 18mpg rich!

[Dave Adams]

oh and my new fuel gauge doesn't work........it reads full when empty........

it seems it works inversely to the gauge.......(Full when empty empty when full)

may need to look at bodging an after market sender onto the ford fuel pump assy.....

[Steve and Matt Pegrum]

We have that reverse fuel situation on the Phaeton (ford tank Peugeot/Citroen guage). I wish I was a bit more of an electronics designer as I'm positive it would be easy to reverse the sensor  input to the gauge with a simple 1 transistor circuit

[Dave Adams]

i am looking into reversing the output.....

[Steve and Matt Pegrum]

That - could be even simpler 

[James Doulton]

I wonder whether it might be that it needs to be fitted in parallel rather than in series, or vice versa?

[Dave Adams]

might look at fitting a separate sender.....

easiest solution i think.

[Steve and Matt Pegrum]

I have a single lambda sensor on the Eagle RV setup. I've often suspected high fuel consumption but never gone to the lengths of a proper test, esp as I had fuel filler / leakage problems until recently - and it would help if the speedo worked (need a converter box....)

However it runs flawlessly - albeit with a warning light from the ECU about that missing plug.

Could it be 2 separate problems (one of them being an air leak)?

[Dave Adams]

stripped off the inlet manifold. there is obvious signs of over fuelling ( as if i didnt know....) there was also signs that the inlet manifold gasket had failed. so i bought some 0.8mm rubberised paper gasket, that should sort it especially if i also use an instant gasket as well.

Lambda sensor seems to have a short on it, further checks needed but in any case i have ordered a new one, the information i have been looking at and down loading seems to suggest that it is a good idea to replace them at 60,000 miles anyway.

also fitting my Mondeo injector rail, it has a Schroeder valve on one end for easier fuel pressure checking....it also has different injectors and pressure regulator.......so hopefully ruling out lots of issues in one fell swoop.

[Steve and Matt Pegrum]

When we used this plenum which needs part of the original ford inlet, for the injector connection, we did initially have some air leak problems near some edges where the original must have been very thin. These have been sorted not by gasket material but by car body filler, thickening a few bits as well as smoothing some rough bits.

Has lasted so far and (in principle) means standard gaskets can be used in future.

Not sure whether air leaks could account for over fuelling? Both Phaeton and Eagle have the same setup with no Cat and only one Lambda although only the Phaeton has the non-standard inlet. If the lack of second Lambda is a serious problem then it must affect both cars - not to say that it definitely isn't....

Fix the air leaks and see what happens.

[Dave Adams]

My home made plenum looks very similar.....