Goliath 94 Posted April 8, 2008 My 1.6 has a problem i'v not heard of before so im not sure what to check, basically it has little power above 2000 ish rpm, however it seems to have all the torque and low down power that it should. so far i have come to the following conclusions:- Head Gasket Failure: Symtoms not consistent with this as i think there would be more power loss at low revs due to slower stroke letting more gas escape, also none of the other symptoms like exhaust in the water or water in the oil. Pretty sure this isnt the problem. Timing out: Again symtoms not consistent as if the timings out there should be equally crap power throughout the band. Pretty sure this can be ruled out too. Something i did notice was the vacuum advance hose was off the pipe in the throttle body so i stuck that back on and it seems to have made no difference whatsoever. For info the car recently overheated and blew a hose which i put down to being a mixture of things as follows: Dodgy thermostat, now replaced (although with an 89 degree one not sure if thats right). Mucky/blocked pipes, now cleaned and flushed through releasing a lot of dirt/calcium deposits. If anyone can help it would make my day! I seem to be spending so much time scratching my head over this car but i really dont want to pack it in after getting this far! cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pug309twin40s 1 Posted April 8, 2008 check the condition of the lobes on the camshaft. 1.6's are known for wearing camshafts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Goliath 94 Posted April 8, 2008 check the condition of the lobes on the camshaft. 1.6's are known for wearing camshafts. not something i have done before so how big a job is that? rocker cover off and not too much else? I will have a look in the haynes manual and see if that will help me through it! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Fenton 1,526 Posted April 8, 2008 Are you getting full throttle travel? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Goliath 94 Posted April 8, 2008 Are you getting full throttle travel? As far as i can tell yes, both the pedal and the throttle move freely and appear to open the butterfly fully at full throttle. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob_the_Sparky 9 Posted April 8, 2008 My guess is that something is blocking the engine breathing. Something collapsed in the inlet tract or the exhaust although my vote would be ont he inlet side. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Fenton 1,526 Posted April 8, 2008 Hmm, thats got me thinking though, if the divider in the downpipe has collapsed or splayed apart maybe this is something to do with it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Goliath 94 Posted May 12, 2008 (edited) UPDATE!!! Today I finally got a bit further with this, WP suggested that the vacuum advance was knackered, i had previously thought this aswell but for some reason or other came to the conclusion it wasnt, anyway i decided to give it a try. I took the distributor off the car I am breaking and stuck it on this one to see if it made any diference................ No sadly not, infact it seemed slower and worse so i decided to have a play with adjusting the distributor anti clockwise, this made it a lot worse it hardly even ran. At this point my little brain decided if anti clockwise made it worse then clockwise WILL make it better, so thats what i did............ and it worked!!! I have Pooowwwweeeeeeerrrrr! still not completely normal but a bit of adjustment and i will be there!! Chuffed at last Edited May 12, 2008 by Goliath Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
welshpug 1,626 Posted May 12, 2008 nice one, is the breaker a 1.6 as well? tis a strange one as it starts and idles lovely, isn't particularly noisy, seems smooth enough low down but just doesn't have any get up and go! at least you have a decent hill to test it on eh see how fast it'll go up there in 4th... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Goliath 94 Posted May 12, 2008 no the breaker is a 1.9, but the 2 dissy's seem exactly the same (it shows two different ones in the haynes) i had to swap the cap and leads over to as they are slightly different, also the breaker is ph1 and this ones ph2. It does now idle really high (2kish) when warm but that can be adjusted. yeh i will report back on crickley hill when i next go up there! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
simonb 0 Posted May 12, 2008 By how much did you have to advance the dizzy in relation to amount of adjustment available? Position of dizzy is related to the position of the camshaft and cam timing so is it possible that your timing belt has slipped a tooth and retarded the cam requiring you to give more advance on the distributor? Just food for thought. Vacuum advance is pretty much useless I have found. It just causes pinking low down and under load so I have just disconnected mine and plugged the pipe, but the car still flies. HTH Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob_the_Sparky 9 Posted May 13, 2008 Vacuum advance has no effect on power, it is an economy improver so if you bypass it you won't feel any difference, doesn't mean it isn't doing anything! Broken advance spring or stuck bob weights might do this but not heard of this before on a 205. Check the numbers on the dizzy, they can be externally the same but have different bob-weights and springs (hence different advance curve). I'f sure it will work as a temp fix with the wrong one on there but probably worth getting a 1.6 one at somepoint. Rob Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
simonb 0 Posted May 13, 2008 Vacuum advance has no effect on power, it is an economy improver so if you bypass it you won't feel any difference, doesn't mean it isn't doing anything! Broken advance spring or stuck bob weights might do this but not heard of this before on a 205. Check the numbers on the dizzy, they can be externally the same but have different bob-weights and springs (hence different advance curve). I'f sure it will work as a temp fix with the wrong one on there but probably worth getting a 1.6 one at somepoint. Rob I disagree Rob. My car pinks loads more when the VA is connected and so surely that has an effect on performance as it advances the timing at lowish throttle openings. When it's disconnected - no pinking. I know that it is an economy device but I really don't notice any real benefit from it when it's connected and get about the same mileage per tank when it's not even though the unit is in good working order. Any thoughts on the belt theory? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Goliath 94 Posted May 13, 2008 im still fiddling to try and get it to stop pinking, in the end though i wont have moved it many degrees. I will have a look at the numbers etc. to see if they are the same and let you know! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob_the_Sparky 9 Posted May 14, 2008 I disagree Rob. My car pinks loads more when the VA is connected and so surely that has an effect on performance as it advances the timing at lowish throttle openings. When it's disconnected - no pinking. I know that it is an economy device but I really don't notice any real benefit from it when it's connected and get about the same mileage per tank when it's not even though the unit is in good working order.Any thoughts on the belt theory? Belt is unlikely to have slipped, it may however, have been fitted a tooth out at somepoint in the past. I've not had experience of this directly so don't know the precise impact of it. Strictly VA does give more power but not that you'd notice as it only does this at part throttle openings so as a driver all that would happen is that you need a tiny bit less throttle opening. On the pinking front: are you running a modded engine? (I am running 10.4:1 compression) In which case you may have the same problem where the igntion advance curve is now wrong (too much advance mid throttle). Removing the VA is then a bodge to correct for an incorrect ignition curve, a cheap one and if it works for you then fine. I have thought about doing the same to mine but am going to try a modded dizzy first (altered bob weight springs from what I understand). Rob Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
simonb 0 Posted May 14, 2008 AFAIK my engine is std compression ration however I do believe that the head may have had a skim in the past so who knows, I'm guessing that the internals may be a bit coked up after so many years which makes the mid-range pinking worse especially on hot days like these. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob_the_Sparky 9 Posted May 15, 2008 More pinking in high temperatures is typical from my experience. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
