T-Series Engine Not Starting (Rh Super Spec)

[Guest S2_PTH]

Hi All,

 

Been a while since I've been on here - so much so that I'd forgotten my login details.

 

The car is a yellow/gold super spec with a 2.0l T-series (stroked K-series?) 16v Rover with an MT75 gearbox. I completed it in 2007, drove it until 2011 and its been sat in my parents garage ever since.

 

Bought a new battery, and tried starting it today, fuel went everywhere. The inline filter was cracked so fitted a new one.

 

Fuel pump whirrs away when I ignition-on & fuel fills the filter (and stays in the lines). Now, when I crank I get one or two cylinders firing once, followed by empty cranking.

 

I put new spark plugs in (since they were only £10 for 4 NGK ones), and confirmed that I have spark by pulling each HT lead individually and grounding the spark plug on the top of the head and watching to see the spark while I was cranking. I think I have fuel going into the cylinders as the clean & dry new spark plugs come out wet with fuel.

 

Thought I was probably flooding the engine, so left the car for several hours to let the fuel evaporate through the spark plug void. Still the same thing happens.

 

Starter motor sounds OK, it always had quite a slow cranking speed, but used to catch immediately.

 

Car has covered 2800 miles, and the engine is probably long due a service, but wanted to get the oil up to temp before draining it, then off to

 

Any ideas?

 

Cheers,

Phil

[blue]

Try some easy start or brake/ carb cleaner in air filter - if it then starts even momentarily then fuel has gone off

[Guest S2_PTH]

Thanks blue, I'll give that a go tomorrow.

[e666]

Hi

 

I have one of these myself. Does your EMU have the immobiliser circuit rewired, or is it still active? If I forget to deactivate it then she fires up once and dies -a bit like what you're describing.

 

Also be careful when testing the spark, these old EMU's can get temperamental grounding the plug to the engine, best to use a spark tester, just in case (I managed to fry one once )

 

Ian

[alanrichey]

Does your EMU have the immobiliser circuit rewired, or is it still active? If I forget to deactivate it then she fires up once and dies -a bit like what you're describing.

Interesting, I thought all these were reprogrammed by RH Engineering before they were issued, How do you deactivate yours ?

[Guest S2_PTH]

Hi All,

 

As blue reccomended, fresh fuel and a can of easy start down the throttle body and she burst into life immediately. While adding the fuel, we noticed the first half litre went all over the floor. Taking the back panel off we found the flexi rubber tube from the fuel filler cap to the top of the tank had massive cracks along it in two places. This probably allowed moisture into the tank and evapourated off half the old fuel anyway. Next job to replace and re-position the filler cap (as refulling has always been a slow process).

 

I can't remember what we did regarding the immobiliser. The way we've wried it is that we need to press a dash mounted button with the key in the crank position to complete the circuit. I think we decided that was good enough security!

 

Cheers,

Phil

[alanrichey]

Good, glad to hear it's sorted. And not surprised to hear about the pipe, I think they were homemade from a couple of rubber steering gaiters. I have long since replaced mine with a proper fuel-resistant pipe.

 

As for the immobiliser I think you are talking about an after-market one. The Superspec ECUs were internally modified to disable the built in immobiliser before they were issued with the kit, Unfortunately the firm involved, like RH Engineering, are long gone, so I am not sure what we SS owners do if we need a replacement,

Edited March 31, 2015 by alanrichey

[Guest stevenkirk]

My Superspec has a box of tricks supplied by Avon diagnostics who were the firm that modified the EMU for RH. ~It is wired into the EMU multi-plug and deactivates the immobiliser. Replacement for the EMU = Emerald.