Efi "hunting"

[Guest WHEELNUT]

DON'T KNOW IF THIS WILL HELP BUT.... I seem to remember that there is a way of setting "basic idle speed" on the injection pinto. this often needed to be set after cleaning out the idle speed control valve, or when hunting problems occurred. trouble is I can't remember how to do it! speak to someone in a ford dealership or if yuo are still struggling e-mail me and I'll ring my mate 'cos he'll definitely know how to do it.

[Guest Guy]

Mine idles at 2K most of the time so please ring your mate an let us all know

[Guest Ant]

I seem to remember that there is a way of setting "basic idle speed" on the injection pinto.

 

You can use the screw on the throttle stop to hold the throttle slightly open. On engines with a "sticky" idle valve you can use this screw to prevent the engine from stalling before hte idle valve has time to react. Open it too much and your idle speed will be too high. Do the setup with a fully warm engine too.

 

Ant

[Guest chris brown]

if you use the throttle stop to hold the throttle slightly open don’t forget that the throttle position sensor will see this as throttle applied unless it is reset. unfortunately the Haynes manual doesn’t tell you how to do this but from memory I think it is resistance between pins 1 and 2 is the same as pins 2 and 3 at idle. To adjust slacken the two screws and you will find it can be turned a few degrees until readings are the same

[Guest Ant]

I think there's an element of ECU "addaption" here. Opening it by the amount which I'm talking about isn't significant enough for the ECU to imply a "throttle pressed" situation ... and if it does then it ignores it. It uses the idle valve to maintain the idle speed, so as long as it's not held open far enough to lift above that speed with the idle valve still closed then its not a problem

 

...

 

unless someone knows more about the EEC4 strategy than I do!

 

Ant

[IanS]

The IACV is used to give a constant idle. The ECU looks at the engine revs and rate of change of revs when the the engine is near idle to control it. Plus large loads like aircon if fitted.

 

Ian

[Guest Phil Slater]

Just to say the downloadable PDF files on setting up the EFi state that the throttle stop screw should not be used to set the idle. The "expert" says the throttle flap/butterfly (can't remember what it's called) must be closed, otherwise it throws everything else out. I hadn't before come across the suggestion for adjusting the position of the throttle position sensor - so maybe it can be compensated for.

 

Unfortunately I havn't been able to proceed any further as having replaced the temp. sensor I ran out of petrol and when I put more in I discovered my tank was leaking : :angry: :angry: :angry: Not RHSC faulty workmanship as such, just that the rear lower corners of my 40 lt tank had to be "persuaded" not to make contact with the inside of the rear body panel and a litle crack has appeared next to a blob of weld. Why the tank couldn't be made an inch shorter I do not know, I mean to say you wouldn't lose that much capacity and it would make fitting so much easier.

 

So quickly (NOT!!!) removed my boot, :boohoo: rear panel :boohoo: etc. :boohoo: to get the tank out. This is after swallowing petrol whilst trying to syphon the excess petrol out. (Belching petrol fumes for 24 hours is not my idea of fun I can tell you I now have a syphon gadget

 

Any how the tank is being welded today so should be able to get it all back together at the weekend. I hope!!!!

 

Phil Slater

[Guest WHEELNUT]

I spoke to my mate who is a ford technician of many years experience, I served my time with him and as far as I'm concerned what he says is gospel! I had remembered correctly that there is a method of setting base idle on the injection pinto.This does however involve a piece of ford service kit called a star tester. the star tester allows you to enter coded area of the ecu, at this point the throttle potentiometer should be disconnected and the adjusting screw on the throttle butterfly tweeked until idle speed is approx 1050 to 1100 rpm the throttle pot can then be reconected and when the star tester is exitted the idle speed control valve regulates the idle speed to approx 900 rpm. This does work, I did this many times when I worked on fords. there may be other diagnostic tools out there that do the same job as the star tester but without something of this type you're stuffed!

[Guest WHEELNUT]

also these bloody stupid valves need cleaning often. we found the best method was to leave them for about half an hour in a parraffin bath with the nozzle poked into one hole .