2.0 Efi Idle Valve

[Guest Ant]

Does anyone know of a cheap supplier for an idle valve for my 2.0 EFi pinto? I've tried three from scrap yards so far. Two were worse than the one on my donor, and the third is about the same. I've also tried cleaning them with component cleaner in an ultrasonic bath but with little or no difference.

 

Ford want £66.22 for one. There's must be a cheaper way. Any ideas? Anyone know of a cheap supplier? Anyone out there with an EFi setup and a known good idle valve but who is converting to carbs? I'm fed up of my car almost stalling every time I dip the clutch!

 

Ant

[Guest neil gale]

Ant,

 

might be a daft question but have you tried getting it professionally tuned??

I did with mine, now the idle is perfect and i have no problems with almost stalling when you dip the clutch.

 

I may have a spare if you are stuck, depends what route i go with the engine rebuild.

 

Neil.

[Guest Ant]

Do you know what they actually did when it was tuned? Am I right in thinking the only adjustments to be made are on the MAF sensor? Who did it for you?

 

Questions questions.

 

Bad luck on the con-rod, but it sounds like you're going to get a better motor out of it.

 

Ant

[Guest neil gale]

Ant,

 

not sure what was done, you probably know more about it than me!

He did say he adjusted the idle (IIRC), not just the MAF sensor.

I got a tuning specialist to do it for me, was worth the 50 quid.

 

Pity about the engine, but i did go the easy route and assume the donor engine was ok

 

Hopefully i will get a nice motor out of it, once run in!

 

Neil.

[Guest Ant]

Hmmm - you've got me interested now. Before the tune up did your engine do the same trick as mine - ie almost stalling and then over revving and then almost stalling ... about 2 or 3 times before settling to the idle speed? Sometimes it does it just once before settling to 800rpm. Sometimes it does it 4 or 5 times. Sometimes it just stalls - this is usually when it's re-started after being parked up for 10 or 20 mins.

 

Up to now I've been assuming that this is a sticking idle valve, but you've got me thinking now.

 

Cheers

Ant

[Guest neil gale]

Thats pretty much exactly what mine used to do before i got it tuned.

I would at least take it somewhere and ask the guy if he thinks thats the problem- thats free!!

 

Sounds to me like you may have the same problem as mine, especially annoying when slowing down to lights and it stalls!!

 

Good luck, hope its as simple tune thats required!

 

Neil.

[Guest DaveB]

Hi Ant

 

Are you sure it's not just an air leak may be worth going around with some soapy water to check the seals before you pay out for tuning.

 

Dave B

[Guest Ant]

You're not the first to suggest that to me. I reckon it's time I investigated potential air leaks, and it's also time I connected up the exhaust gas analyser at work and re-calibrate the maf sensor.

 

Any more ideas or theories ... keep em coming.

 

Ant

[ibrooks]

I had the same problem with my EFi when it was in the Sierra. I took the idle valve off and completely immersed it in white spirit for two days (manually working the rod with a pair of pliers after one day). When I took it out I gave it a good wash with clean white spirit and let it dry. Re-fitted and hey presto no more problems.

 

This was recommended by the guy at Minisport's rolling road and he's an ex Ford works rally mechanic so I trust his advice on all things Pinto.

 

Iain

[Guest keyper]

Hi guys,

 

Got the same problem with my 2.0Li Pinto. The revs dip and then shoot up the range. I have been struggling for ages trying to resolve this problem but not being mechanically minding I plumbed for the air leak.

 

Did anyone have any luck with the idle valve ?

[Peter Bell]

I have an old valve from a dohc engine if it is the same and if you want to try it. Athough if you have tried others with the same result I doubt if they were all bad. I had a similar problem on my dohc sierra, replaced the valve with a new one and it was just the same. turned out to be the MAP sensor was dying.

Peter.

[Guest Mr Pledge]

Hi Guys

 

This may help or may not ,I served my time at the Main agents and we had loads of 2 litre sierras suffering the same problem we firstly removed the idle valve and split it left it soaking in jizer for a while then refitted it started the car and then disconnected the throttle poteniometer and set the basic idle with the little screw on the throttle housing to 850 rpm then reconnected the poteniometer this then usually cured the problem ,if not we then fitted a little sub loom and grounded the yellow wire this raised the rpm slightly and usually cured the problem the sub loom has 3 wires yellow /red/ blue and is normally found near the coil

 

Yellow raises the idle +75 rpm

 

Timing is adjusted by grounding red wire 2 deg blue wire 4 deg and both gives 6 deg

 

Mr pledge

[Guest Ant]

I had a play with the stop on the throttle body yesterday and the problem is now better than it was, but still not right. My worry in doing this is that I am not allowing the throttle to fully close, hence on over-run the engine will not brake as much as it could if the throttle were really closed.

 

That said, it's far better to drive this morning, and I didn't notice any change in engine breaking.

 

I'll have a play with that sub-loom. I know where it is and have puzzled over it many times!

 

Cheers for the info

 

Ant

 

PS - All other ideas welcome. There's a solution out there somewhere!