11 replies to this topic

[Prawn]

hey guys, i recently bought a metro for my gf to learn to drive in. it seemed like abargin at £140 with a dodgy head gasket.

got it saturday morning, and did the head gasket, had a few problems getting it started again, but eventually i got it going again this morning.

changed the head gasket, i did use new bolts, just to be safe, after a fair bit of messing around, ive finally got it started today, which is great news.

however, theres a fairly big problem. it wont rev at all, it rough as hell, and sounds like its starving itself when you give it some throttle.

ill admit, i didnt do the cam belt when i did the head gasket, i just marked up the belt, and slid the cam out. then back in afterwards.

im now thinking that perhaps the cambelt slipped a tooth on the bottom pulley whilst it was all still apart. does this sound likely?

how easy is it to find the timming marks on the crank pulley and on the cam pulley to time the cam in again? i dont know which way it would have slipped, but its all i can think the problem could be.

hears a vid of it running, and me trying to throttle it on and off..... you can hear it sounds crazy!



any help would be great guys, as ive only insured it for a week, and need to get it running sweetly and up to my gf's house in northants from portsmouth this week!

the engine is a 1.1 8v K-series in a rover 111Si metro.

i figured id get a response on here, as a load of you guys are running K's now!

[biggav]

how badly gone was the head gasket?? was there water left in the block?? K-series are aluminium and warp within moments of boiling dry... inlet manifold can also melt if the car has been driven on with a failed gasket.

[Prawn]

i dont think it was gone too badly, i couldnt actually find the failure in it at all. there was still water left in the block for sure.

i got the car with a dead head gasket, it hadnt been driven on it at all, but it did still run.

i checked it ran very briefly when i picked it up, and at the time, it ran perfectly and picked up just fine. its only sinse ive done the gasket that it now sounds like a tractor!

could this strange running be anything other than cam timming? cam timming being out would also effect igntion wouldnt it? as the rotor arm runs straight off the cam shaft.

[Sprocket]

This is a single point injection. make sure the small black vac lines are all connected and the elbows are not split especialy the one at the ecu.

[Sprocket]

The other things that are very important and you should double check is the cam timing, and the dizzy set up. Throttle position sensor gives information about the acceleration rate, if its not working it will cause spluttering and poor pick up.

Other general things would include making sure the exhaust and inlet manifolds are not leaking.

There can be a short period for the ECU to addapt to the new conditions, but doesnt normaly cause seveare bad running, usualy just a lumpy idle.

[Prawn]

cheers mini sprocket!

im fairly sure now its the cam timming, i thought the timming was out when trying to start it.

when i changed the head gasket, i didnt to the cambelt, as it was pretty knew! i just marked the belt on the pulley, and slackened the belt off and slid the cam out, then lined it all back up and tensioned the belt again.

im guessing that in my stupidity, whilst the belt was off the top, its slipped a tooth on the bottom, causing this crazy running.

the car now starts perfectly, but wont run properly at all..... it ticks over OK now, but wont rev or pull in any way at all!

[chairchild]

For your sake, I hope it's normal for a K-series to spit out its coolant from the header tank when revving - as yours does in that vid

If not, then I'd say the HG's still dead somewhere!

[koss]

That sounds terrible like a still saw.

The coolant. Is it rising just off the water pump, or on continuous throttle does it throw all the coolant out?

Have you changed the inlet gasket as biggav says there is known faults there.

The timing could well be out. The K series has a strange timing set-up where all four pistons are half way up the bores in stead of tdc.

[Matt]

thats the water tank for the car right? id have said when theres bubbling in that.. that the head gasket is still gone? did you get it skimmed??

[Dan]

Did you turn the crank at all with the head off? Even a little bit?

[felixxx]

did you measure the protrusion of liners in the block? they have a habit of receeding.

[AndyR]

Hi there

Check the stepper-motor, they have a tendency to make the engines rev in the wrong places!! I had a problem with mine that made the engine rev uncontrollably, changed the stepper-motor and it seemed to sort the problem; maybe you have the opposite to what i had.