It moves around the block - sort of - 5th July 2008

I rose at 8am, and was at it again by 9am on the dot. It was lashing down outside, so I donned my waterproofs, and did the timing in the light.

It wasn't as successful at the previous night - never mind cutting out under load, it wasn't even idling. An hour later of:

1. Using timing gun (i hate doing this) - Cuts out in various lumpiness
   
2. Taking apart throttle body again, and making sure crappy gasket is okay (will make a new one out of suitable material today ;) ) - possible difference, less roughness amongst more 100% roughness
   
3. Taking more stuff apart
4. Examining rotor cap - maybe improved things a bit
5. Putting coolant in - engine whirred as it started and it idled
6. Cleaned coolant temperature sensor - took full on load!!

I doubt the coolant or the rotor has something to do with, but it was now revving with no hesitation, but idling a bit lumpy - letting it drop below 1k had it jerking a bit, but it would now rev!

Here's a video of the rev needle. It doesn't seem too bad.

I was even confident to take it for the first drive - around the block! Wahey! Off boost, it's a fairly normal car, but on boost, the car is typically lovely, and as much as I dislike them, it had a nice subtle whoosh from the internal wastegate.

Alas, it was short-lived! The car was having non of it! Here's a video of the car, stuck about a mile away from the house. No load, once again. You may notice the difference in environment, and lack of oil on surface - this house has seen 15 years of oil leakage purely from me!

Now, however, we were not getting blue smoke, but black smoke - a good sign in my eyes. No more blue smoke, I presume, because no more crud in the system? If you're really into seeing black smoke vaguely being emitted from the back of a car, you can see this here!

A quick call to my brother and i'm once again freewheeling home, feeling a bit foolish as people watched the odd looking car being wheeled back on the end of a rope.


What next? I don't know. A quick check on the Starion forum, reveals 2.6 engine injectors and 2.0 engine injectors are not actually the same. But I need more than that. :?