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Ant

60 PSI on all 4 cylinders after installing new engine.

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Ant

So to follow on from my previous post, i finally got the engine all plumbed in..

 

History of the engine..

Engine is an engine is had in my 1991 CTi years ago, that i then put into my 1991 GTi in 2005. Car was scrapped in 2006 and engine at that point the engine had approx 80K on it.

Engine was put into dry storage until May this year, when i purchase another 1.6 1991 with a duff engine.

 

August 2022, my CTi engine was stripped and top end rebuilt - New stem seals, skimmed and valves checked skimming shop. All new top end gaskets, water pump, head bolts and timing belt. Liners looked fine prior to putting back together.

 

Today, i finally got around to fitting the last bits to it, turned over without spark / fuel to get the new oil flowing..

 

The only thing not fitted is the exhaust manifild to the downpipe - its in place, but i need to get some new exhaust bolts - so i expected it to be a bit loud.

 

Tried to start after.. Nothing.

 

Its getting Spark

Its getting fuel

Battery was fully charged.

 

Compression test on all 4 cylinders maxes out at 60 PSI...

 

Any idea what would cause such low compression.

 

I'll order a leak down tester tonight, but im assuming something is majorly amise..

 

I was getting more 75 on cylinders 2 and 3 with the head gasket gone on the engine i removed !!!

 

thanks

 

 

 

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Anthony

Put a little oil down the bores - does the compression jump up considerably to something approaching what you'd expect?

 

If not and given that it's uniformly low then - assuming the tester is still working correctly (check it on another engine!) - I'd check cam timing is correct first of all.

 

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petert

If they’re all 60, it does suggest your cam timing is incorrect.

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Ant

Just put oil down and redid the test. Slightly higher, but still really low.

 

i will recheck the timing again tomorrow, although I checked and double checked on rebuild.

 

thanks 

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PhilNW

Are they all exactly the same or is there a small variation between them that the gauge can detect?

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welshpug

Cam timing would be my first check like Pete, then Valve clearances if thats good.

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Ant

Whoooo..

 

146 on cylinder 4, 150 on the rest..

 

I suspect the issue was one or more of the cam retaining nuts was too tight. 
 

I paid a guy to rebuilt the head, and he did stems and refitted cam. 
 

turned over ok by hand, but I thought resistance was just the valves.

 

loosened off tonight and torqued all ten nuts up.. 

 

knew the second I turned the key it was different as it didn’t struggle.. straight up to 150!!!

 

tested the other 3 and cylinder 4 is a tad lower, but still close to 150…

 

well happy as I was positive it was a low mileage engine that ran sweet in 2006. 
 

thanks for replies. 

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boldy205

When you say can retaining nuts, do you mean the cam carrier nuts?

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Ant

yes. thats them.

 

So all sorted :)

 

Just picked up some coolant and plan to fire her up / test drive this weekend ( snow permitting )

Edited by Ant

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boldy205

Wow, wouldn't have thought they would have gone tight enough to bind the cam with out snapping!

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petert

Well that’s messed up. Left as is, your engine won’t run for long. The cam caps need to be done up to 15Nm from memory, then check the valve clearance again. Doomed.

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Ant

Scrap that theory..

 

nuts are back correct torque..they probably were originally after tonight’s escapades.. 

 

came to start tonight after putting everything back together.. same issue again. 
 

So I remove bolts and hose from rocker cover and it turns over. So it seems to be caused by tightening the rocker cover..

 

cover left off or untightened and it fires fine, although it p@&&es oil everywhere..
 

The second the rocker cover bolts are put in to tighten in place, it won’t start and struggles to turn over.. not checked compression, but it will be low.. you can tell by the sound of it trying to turn over..

 

thoughts? 
 

thanks 

 

 

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welshpug

Cam cover bolts too long

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Ant

Aghh..

 

I think you have hit the nail on head!

 

just looked back though my pictures I took for reference before removing and the left and right bolts have 4 washers on each bolt!

 

previous owner obviously lost bolt etc and fudged it. 
 

I never put 4 washers back on ! 
 
I’ll try tomorrow!

 

thankyou!!!!

 

 

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Ant

So..

 

it wasnt the cam / rocker cover bolts.

 

They werent that long after checking.

 

Replaced anyway and it made no difference. Wont start and struggles to turn over.

 

removed the bolts all togther, but left the rocker cover down ... wont turn

 

Lifted the rocker cover about a cm up and turned ingition..

 

sounds like it should and starts to fire, but i cant do it for more than 2 seconds as oil goes everywhere with the cover off.. - but no resistance and it turns like you would expect

 

I then turned over by hand at the 22cm crank bolt without the rocker / cam cover bolted down. - turns fine

 

gradually lowered down the cover and kept turning - no issues, no heavy resistance. - same as with the cover up.

 

Bolted it back in place and it still turns over by hand just like it did with the with the cover up.

 

tried to fire again and it stuggles / wont crank, almost like a flat battery kind of resistance ( battery is fully charged and fires it first time with the rocker cover up )

 

thoughts ?

 

 

 

thanks

 

 

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Zetec7

Cover bolts to long and distorting camshaft caps causing them to distort and lock up the camshaft ?

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boldy205

Dodgy main ground from the engine? Just thinking that as you have just put the engine back on.

Have you tried a new/known good battery?

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petert

Cam caps installed incorrectly? It's easy to reverse 2 and 4.

Edited by petert

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Ant

Hmm.

 

I don’t know tbh.. I didn’t reassemble the head / cam..

 

are they visually different.. how can i check?

 

thanks 

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petert
10 hours ago, Ant said:

are they visually different.. how can i check?

 

They are identical, except one is stamped 2 and the other 4. The order is 1,2,3,4,5 obviously, with #1 cambelt end and #5 dizzy end. If they aren't stamped, you'll need to pull the cam out and check the fit torqued down, without the cam. Any misfit will be obvious.

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pugdamo

Don't quote me on this but I thought it was 1 on the dizzy end and 5 timing belt end. Sorry to throw some extra confusion in this, but I'm pretty sure 1 was dizzy end?

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Ant

They can only go one way..

 

duque to the oil feeder pipe..

 

5,4,3,2,1

 

mine are correct..

 

so next question.,

 

are cams interchangeable?

 

I gave the builder 2 heads and asked him to skim, stem seal, build the best head..

 

no idea which cam he used. Cams were the same though. Both 1.6 115bhp heads. 
 

thanks 

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petert

Sorry, I was wrong with the order! As you can see however, it is easy to swap 2 and 4 around.

 

Have you checked clearances since bolting the head down? They do move around a lot. On this head, the inlet were all 0.010" on the bench. Now they're all 0.006".

 

IMG_3175.jpg

Edited by petert

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Ant

Thanks for the reply Peter,

 

can you clarify what clearances I’m checking?

 

thanks 

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petert

Between bucket and cam lobe.

 

Inlet range 0.006-0.010"

Exhaust range 0.013-0.018"

Edited by petert

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