Here is what happend
Went for a trackday on Wednesday in Sweden… In the end of the day I noticed that all of my rear “rear clamshell” was full of dots… So I guess it must have been fuel or oil… I didn’t worry to much about it then…
Drove the car 2 days after to another trackday. Didn’t notice anything unusual then… But from the Hotel to the track (10 km trip) The car started to hunt for revs . so I had to use the clutch to make it stop… I think it got a bit better when the car got warmer…
Started the trackday and after some laps… I lost control of the car and spun out… The car got a hit in the driveshaft/gearbox area… SO I lost maybe around 2 dl of oil… (from the driveshaft jumping in and out I guess. no visible leak after this accident anyway)… Drove the car around in slow speed… Car felt OK… Started a lap on the track when the car lost almost all the power right after I had started (2 or 3 cyl?)… I changed the sparkplugs… but all the plugs has ignition… Cyl 1&4 get hot when the car is running but not as hot as 2&3…
I also noticed a bit of oil on spark plug 4 on the treads an “upwards”. … But all the sparkplugs has the same colour on the “spark part” of the plug… which is black, so I guess its not a problem…
Have also checked various sensors to see if anyone has pooped out.
Cant hear any unusual mechanically noises from the car… It just sounds sick
Hope some of this info makes sense… maybe someone has a good idea of what I can check myself (easy fix)before I do something more drastically?
I don’t quite know what you mean about the driveshaft/gearbox area taking a hit but as far as the motor is concerned it sounds like you either have a bad coil pack or a bad injection driver output on the ECU.
You will have to establish whether or not you actually have spark on cylinders 1 and 4. (as you stated that 2&3 ran hotter) I am assuming that you measured the temp of the header primary tubes with either a non-contact thermometer or just used the spray water on the tubes method.
Either way once you have confirmed spark or the lack of spark you will know then what direction to go from there.
The car got hit by a rock under the car (undertray)… Close to the driveshaft /gearbox area, but anyway this is not a problem, but maybe it have worsened my problem with the engine…
Its 100% sure spark on all sparkplugs (I saw it myself, kept the plug in my hands while firing up)… About the temp I could feel the difference by hand…
But I think Ill know a lot more later today… I will take a “compression” test on all cylinders. but I still hope its a coil problem (even if I have spark)…
Lets pray…
If you’ve confirmed spark, you may be looking at an electrical problem with an injector driver. But do the compression test to see if you have any major problems in respect to the cylinder/valves.
Have done a compression test on the car… All cylinder are almost the same (around 8 Bar)… Sounds a bit low to me, but I’m not sure what it’s suppose to be on a Lotus 190 VHPD engine… anyone?
So I will change the coil and the sparkplug wires as soon as I can find any…and I hope that will solve my problem.
A VHPD should be around 14-15 bar (200-215lbs) on a warm engine.
8 bar is seriously low, are you sure that the compression tester was functioning correctly?
About the compression test. I’m pretty sure I didn’t do it the correct way or it could be a malfunction tester…
… I didn’t worry to much about it then since I was only interested to see if I could spot any difference in the cylinders… No I’m waiting for new coil and leads to the plugs, and hopefully the car will run smoother. And if it does I will take a new compression test If I just figure out what is the correct procedure for a compression test…
Is it something like this??
- Disconnect Fuel pump Fuse
- Disconnect coil plug (to avoid stressing the coil)
- Crank engine for few sec with accelerator pedal all the way down.?
-warm engine
-pull fuel pump fuse or injector harness plugs from injectors
-pull all plugs
-crank engine with tester inserted into bore (I usually crank about 5 seconds each)
I defiantly had some problem with the ignition system… I have change the coil.leads,and plugs… But the car is still sick:( …
When I’m trying for instance to keep the rpm on 2k the rpm starts to “hunt”… This also happens when I’m driving the car on the road while trying to keep a steady rpm like 2 or 3 K… As soon I start to accelerate the “hunting” disappears… I will also say the car is having more smoke then usually… Especially when giving the pedal a “blip”, then there is coming out a small cloud of smoke…
Not quite sure what to do investigate next…??? I can always do a new compression test… Maybe I have a worn valve gasket on 1 cylinder???
Or could some of my sensor be fuckked?
I just opened up the ECU to try to measure the O2 sensor to se if its between 0.7-1 V… But Its kind of hard to measure it there and I chickened out since Im afraid to shortcut the whole ECu… Is there another way to see if the O2 sensor is ok…
I guess its possible to use a probe in the exhaust to see if the lambda is fuckked, but can they still se it when I don’t have the cat on…??
Well… after a long day the car finally looks like its back in business…
So to make it a bit short… I had some problems with the ignition problem…And that I had a bad Pipe going to the Map sensor… Yohooo… glad its sorted… now its time to burn some rubber…
Thanks for your help Mikelr…
I’m glad you got it sorted!
yeahh …me tooo… but as soon as one problem is solved another one is coming upp… … Now it looks like I have to open up the engine … I have a “clunk clunk” sound comming from cylinder 1… It all happend after a trackday today… ufff. well… guess its part of the deal wehen you own a K Lotus…