27 replies to this topic

[ChrisL]

Good to hear the engine is back in. You have to set the angle of the missing tooth from the sensor when at TDC, not sure if this may be different now? if you check the canems web site you can download the manual. dont connect a strobe light to the car either, it knackered the ECU when I first got it rolling road tuned. Again check with David at canems.

[cobblers]

Good to hear the engine is back in. You have to set the angle of the missing tooth from the sensor when at TDC, not sure if this may be different now? if you check the canems web site you can download the manual. dont connect a strobe light to the car either, it knackered the ECU when I first got it rolling road tuned. Again check with David at canems.

Cheers for that Had this morning on it, lost interest again due to rain. Still no luck!

My crank sensor works in my nans fiesta, not tried hers in mine becuase the tab has snapped off and it wont locate in my bracket without it. My crank sensor seems to work correctly when connected to a multimeter and waved near metal objects, but I get no crank signal at all when cranking the car over. The gap is about 1.5mm.
Brought the ECU home, wired it into my megasquirt stimulator and it picks up a crank signal from this fine!

The wiring to the crank sensor and coil checks out ok too. I'm going to try and get hold of another crank sensor and see where that gets me. I won't let it beat me!

[ChrisL]

Have you connected the Canems ECU to a laptop? When you download the software you have to set the static timing, this tells the coil pack when to fire. Do you get a spark if you put a plug in the lead and hold it to the engine?
If the crank sensor works in another car it should be fine and 1.5mm gap is perfect. If I remember correctly the LED on the ECU should flash when cranking over to show the sensor is reading. Would be woth speaking to David at Canems.

[cobblers]

Have you connected the Canems ECU to a laptop? When you download the software you have to set the static timing, this tells the coil pack when to fire. Do you get a spark if you put a plug in the lead and hold it to the engine?
If the crank sensor works in another car it should be fine and 1.5mm gap is perfect. If I remember correctly the LED on the ECU should flash when cranking over to show the sensor is reading. Would be woth speaking to David at Canems.

Cheers again Chris

I've connected it up, and the ecu communicates fine with the laptop. When in the car, it just wont pick up a crank signal at all - the log shows 1 spike to 500rpm maybe once every 10 tries at starting, but on the simulator (set at a 36-1 wheel) it works perfect, but when on the car I don't get any spark whatsoever - it just doesn't pick up any RPM signal whatsoever.

I'm half baffled. The crank sensor works fine, ecu works fine, wiring is fine, but it won't pick up any signal at all. The new crank has the keyway identical to the old one too.

The battery on the mini is fairly shafted though - it will barely turn the car over, so I've been jumping it through some crappy leads, and the ECU loses connection to the laptop about half the time, so I reckon the ECU isn't getting enough voltage when the car is turning over. It drops to about 9.5 volts on the multimeter when cranking, but in my opinion an ecu built to work on old BL cars should be designed to just about work at that.

I'm going to drop David at canems another email, see what he thinks - I'm getting really frustrated!

[cobblers]

FIXED IT!!!!

Begrudgingly put a new battery on it, tweaked the crank sensor even closer to the crank damper and boom, it runs!
Plenty of oil pressure, no nasty noises and it drives great again. Just a few jobs to do and it's all done
Got the radiator and fan fitted etc. Just need to set the tappets properly (just did them quick and they are a bit loose) retorque the headbolts, fit the breather system and fix the speedo and I'm ready to go!

[cobblers]

Well, as usual not all is well with this thing!

After doing a few miles I noticed a bit of noise from the timing chain area. I suspect it's misaligned, but I'm not sure.
Rather than *lady garden* about with the thing in the car, in the rain, it's all coming out AGAIN (3rd times the charm!) and I'll get it in the warm and check it out.

Later on tonight I'm going to pick up a new engine - 1380 with a 286cam. Stock head. I'll put it in as is for now, while I take my 1330 to bits and check everything out.
I need to get it driveable this week because I've nearly reached the 3 month limit for being temporarily added to the insurance on my mums Ka.

I need to do some calculations and measure the cc of my modded head to work out if it'll be OK on the 1380 with 10cc dish pistons and 1mm deck height (It's currently running 21253 pistons at +60, with what I suspect is quite high compression)

My mates tell me I'm stupid for buying an unknown engine and hoping it is better than the one that's in. They are probably right, but the engine is only up the road and I think the combination of my head, 286 cam and a 1380 will bloody fly if it all works together CR wise. With a 276 and 1330 it pulls very strong, +50cc and more cam should make it brilliant!

[cobblers]

Just got back with the new engine - I realise I've been a bit shy with pictures, so heres one:



While uploading that, I stumbled across this picture of the existing engine. I think it was taken before it came to pieces the first time (It's got the speedo cable in - I plugged the hole because I'm running a digital dash.

Is the oil flinger the wrong way round, or is it just my eyes? The lip should face out - the inner lip, or outer lip?

Edited by cobblers, 07 December 2009 - 10:41 PM.

[cobblers]

Did a few errands in the mini this morning (Furthest I've ever driven it) and more or less gave it death all morning. The mystery noise is now louder!
Got the car back in the garage at my nans and took the engine out AGAIN. I'm getting good at this, lol. Took about 90 minutes.
Left today with a familiar scene:



Off up tomorrow at 9am to get cracking with the new one. Wish me luck

[mini_mad69]

Did a few errands in the mini this morning (Furthest I've ever driven it) and more or less gave it death all morning. The mystery noise is now louder!
Got the car back in the garage at my nans and took the engine out AGAIN. I'm getting good at this, lol. Took about 90 minutes.
Left today with a familiar scene:



Off up tomorrow at 9am to get cracking with the new one. Wish me luck

Hang on, so the engine that you just took out was the 1330 right? the rebuilt one? And it's making a funny noise from the timing chain, did you fit a tensioner to it?


If that 1380 is any good, it should be real good fun. Same as mine

Accept with a better head yours should be even more fun!



90 minutes, that's pretty good. You get faster and faster with practice, I got mine down too 40 mins.

I saw you were considering selling it, is that still the plan?

[cobblers]

Hang on, so the engine that you just took out was the 1330 right? the rebuilt one? And it's making a funny noise from the timing chain, did you fit a tensioner to it?


If that 1380 is any good, it should be real good fun. Same as mine

Accept with a better head yours should be even more fun!



90 minutes, that's pretty good. You get faster and faster with practice, I got mine down too 40 mins.

I saw you were considering selling it, is that still the plan?

I've got a lot better at popping the shafts and top ball joints, and everything went easily (nothing has had time to sieze!)

Yeah, took the rebuilt 1330 out due to the odd noise. I am probably going to end up selling it in a month or so, and I don't want it packing in on the way home for the new owner (I know how gutted I was!)

Saying that, the 1330 did me proud all morning, about 30 miles of very spirited driving, and it held great oil pressure, but the noise seems louder now.

The timing chain has no tensioner, but it didn't have one before either! (Don't think you can get one to fit a duplex chain?)
My worry was that I've not got it shimmed right, but we'll see when I get it to bits.

Tomorrow I'll fit the 1380 and see how it is. It's got a 286 cam so should go alright even with a stock head I hope. If it seems a decent bottom end, I'll swap my "vizard spec" head onto it, as it seems a really good head (85bhp at the wheels!)

[cobblers]

Today didn't go that well - Step one, I remove the dizzy from the "new" engine, to fit the blanking plate. I pull the dizzy out, poke my finger in to slide the drive out, and it drops into the crankcase.

Originally I was going to drop the whole thing in, as-is, but now I had to get the box off.

Turned out for the best - Removed the drop gear casing to find a completely shredded clutch oil seal, got the engine off the box and gave the box a quick check over - All the box seemed spot on until I check the diff and find a good 2mm of play in the diff pin - I had intended on fitting my diff with a hardened pin at some point, but I this one was ready for going (Firing the diff out of the side of the casing!)

So I decided to put my original box on rather than just swap the diff (I knew the box and diff were all fine, so on it went)

Just before I was about to *lady garden* about lifting the engine onto the box I realise the new engine uses bigger bolts for whatever reason, so I drilled the holes in the box out and got it all bolted up. Bloody nightmare!

I then swapped the plugs, set the tappets and lumped the engine in. By now it was getting dark and I was wet and cold, so ended up taking 25 minutes to get the 4 engine mount bolts in through the subframe. Nightmare.

Ran out of light, so I need to go up tomorrow, fit the oil filter housing, rad, fan, top engine steady and plug a couple of wires in.

This new engine better work nicely, I'm completely out of money, patience and my mojo is at absolute zero

If it's *poop poop*, it'll have to get sold as it is or even broken for bits - I can't afford to throw any more cash or time at this car

[mini_mad69]

You go through stages like this. It's a real bummer, I had massive things very very similar to this. The best advice I can give is too try stay calm, I closed the garage for a few days, just too keep morale up.

Stick with it and when it's running well it will be a great feeling.

[cobblers]

It works now!
Without making any awful noises. Goes quite well (about the same as before) Idles a bit lumpyer than before, but not much.





and a picture of the thing "not" in the garage:




Just fitted some new number plates - going to put the wing mirrors on tomorrow, then it'll hopefuly stay driveable!