Lack Of Power - Ke70 4K Motor

[altezzaclub]

Don't forget to put a touch of grease on the rubbing block. If it gets dry it wears very quickly and the points close up.

[WA_TRD_83]

ok... so maybe its NOT the points :bash:

 

not a good way to spend your Saturday night / early hours of Sunday morning stuck on the side of the highway

 

had to leave it overnight on the side of the road and get a tow truck the next day.

 

 

didn't matter how much I adjusted the points or rechecked them - the hesitation / lack of power under load is still there. :(

 

mind you, once it got home and rolled off the tow truck, I started it up, ran fine, drove it up and down the front yard (not wanting to go further than I could push it) and it seemed to drive fine! :hmm:

 

Wondering now if its some crud in the fuel tank / fuel pickup that is getting blocked after a bit of driving and then just causes the carbie to lean out

gives it just enough fuel to run/idle - but as soon as you step on the go pedal it chokes and hesitates

then you leave it for a while, and the crap floats away / unblocks whatever

 

Looks like I might have to drop the fuel tank and clean it out. but still has half a tank of fuel in it!

fun fun fun

[towe001]

There should be a drain plug underneath the tank so you should be able to save most of the fuel.

Just make sure you have something with a fine mesh (eg your mums kitchen strainer) between the tank and container. Or decanter it through a strainer into something else afterwards. That way you'll be able to save as much of the fuel as possible and it'll be fairly clean.

 

Do you know if E10's ever been used ? Cause it can eat through the rubber fuel lines etc if the stuff hasn't been updated.

What you could do is after you've dropped the tank and cleaned it out, make sure the car runs good on the fuel you have left and at the next fill up grab a tank of e10 and at the next fill up its back to the really stuff and change the fuel filter. It'll give the tank and lines from the tank to the filter a good clean out.

[neil]

i had the same happen years ago on a well tuned stock 4k. turned out to be water in the fuel and lots of it.

 

try emptying out the filter onto the hot cement to find the fuel evaporate and the water stay behind. I'm sure there is another method but this was the tell tail sign for me. i found the filter half full no shit! if you find any water then follow what i did to solve the problem.

 

i drained all the fuel in to a couple of buckets, blew compressed air through the fuel lines, changed the filter, put 500mL of metho in then put the fuel back in. without the water of course which is heavier than fuel and will stay together in the bottom of your bucket.

 

this should get you going well but not perfect until the metho does its work on whats still in the system, still in the tank and more importantly in the bowl of the carby! i would keep a spare filter on hand for a couple of weeks and a little metho

 

turns out i had about a liter from the dodgy fuel station. six months later they dug the tanks out, funny about that..

 

good luck

neil

[WA_TRD_83]

Thanks Neil

 

you are the second or third person to suggest blowing compressed air through the fuel system. its next on my list to try. Will let you all know how I go with that

 

Damo

[WA_TRD_83]

Corolla has been sitting for a while - but its at the stage now that I NEED it running!!..

 

I even purchased a compressor for the above suggestions.

Also, to eliminate mechanical fuel pump problems all together, I bought a universal electric fuel pump for carby cars.

 

 

blown back fuel line with compressor

fitted new fuel filter

fitted new electric fuel pump

upgraded to 8mm fuel hose

 

 

problem still exists!!

car still misses/hesitates - and it just stalls and dies after about 20sec of idling :mad:

its like I did nothing at all, but just spent all my cash

 

next suggestions please!! need to get this sorted asap!! :(

 

cheers

Damo

[Twinky]

Have you checked the float bowl in the carby? If this is set too high the engine will generally idle but die as soon as you put your foot on the pedal.

Depending on how bad it is it might not even idle. If you have checked everything else I would suggest checking the carby for faults.

[ke70dave]

ive got nothin, very difficult to diagnose with text.

 

got RACQ? or equivelent to your state?

 

park it on the street and call them if you do.

[WA_TRD_83]

Have you checked the float bowl in the carby? If this is set too high the engine will generally idle but die as soon as you put your foot on the pedal.

Depending on how bad it is it might not even idle. If you have checked everything else I would suggest checking the carby for faults.

 

Unfortunately you have seen the level of my expertise with everything I have tried. I'm not a mechanic, so I'm not confident to pull apart the carby.

If I can find another carby to simply swap over though, I might try that.

[Twinky]

Getting a different carby could be costly and may not solve the problem, a bit of a gamble.

[altezzaclub]

Well, now you've got the compressor you can clean the carby.

 

Its basically in three parts, the top (which contains the float) the main bit in the middle (which has the jets in & the float chamber) and the throttle body. (the black bit at the base with the throttles in)

 

You should check the float level & clean the needle & seat in the top, and take out the idle jet and blow compressed air through it and its drilling in the main body at least. That will eliminate two possible problems.

 

If you PM me your email address I'll scan those pages from my manual for you. If you can find a 4K manual they are very good for learning how all the systems work. I've never been trained as a mechanic, all my knowledge is self-taught or picked up from mates.

Edited February 23, 2012 by altezzaclub

[WA_TRD_83]

Well problem after problem - I THINK has been resolved... but I'm not counting my chickens just yet until I get a few days worth of reliable driving.

 

Finally had someone with some mechanical knowledge look under the hood (YAY for mechanic friends!)

 

several problems found while going through the engine bay:

 

1. (probably the major one) still not getting enough fuel! despite installing an electric fuel pump, I wired it up all professionally to the ignition, the pump wasn't getting enough power and hence, engine/carby not getting enough fuel.

to test this, connected positive straight to the battery and the fuel pump came to life clunking and pumping away a lot louder. suction and fuel delivery are now good.

2. spark from coil was also a problem. swapped over with a spare coil, but to no avail.

turned out that the wire from the condensor and the wire to the points were old and oily and generally not getting a good connection/earth.

that was all cleaned up with some oil & grease remover and put back together.

3. also turns out when I bought the new dizzy cap I put it on 180deg the wrong way, so it wasn't seated properly. FAIL.

turned that around so the dizzy cap had a nice tight seal again and the rotor can make nice clean connections.

 

took a bit of trouble shooting, but seems to have got it running good now at least at idle and with a bit of revvs. Havent had a chance to take it for a test lap just yet.

theres a bit of blockage is the carby jets which can sometimes cause a very fine miss... but not really enough to worry about at the moment.

 

now to tidy it all up and put the car back together for a test drive!!

 

:dance:

 

Damo

Edited February 23, 2012 by WA_TRD_83

[towe001]

1. (probably the major one) still not getting enough fuel! despite installing an electric fuel pump, I wired it up all professionally to the ignition, the pump wasn't getting enough power and hence, engine/carby not getting enough fuel.

to test this, connected positive straight to the battery and the fuel pump came to life clunking and pumping away a lot louder. suction and fuel delivery are now good.

Make sure you wire in a relay between the pump and battery and use the ignition to switch the relay on and off.

That way if something happens to the ignition and it stops sparking, the pump will stop pushing fuel into the carby.

[love ke70]

what towe said, relays are your friends, and one for an electric fuel pump should actually have one thats triggered by a tachometric relay, like LPG lock offs etc.

 

that way when you crash and split a fuel line, the engine stops and so does the pump, instead of hosing fuel everywhere, ive even got one in my diesel, and diesel doesnt burn like petrol ;)

 

also, mechanical pump should have no issues keeping up...

 

cheers, andy

[WA_TRD_83]

Make sure you wire in a relay between the pump and battery and use the ignition to switch the relay on and off.

That way if something happens to the ignition and it stops sparking, the pump will stop pushing fuel into the carby.

 

yeah I was thinking I might wire in a relay. Don't worry, I wasn't gonna wire it directly from the battery :no2:

wiring it directly to the battery to get a constant 12v was just for diagnostic purposes

 

Damo