Takes Ages To Fire Up!

[Guest smegheadsteve]

Hi chaps.I will try and keep this short.

Just wondering if anyone knows of any common issues with an engine that takes absolutely ages to fire up.

I took car off the road 2 years ago(wasnt supposed to go on this long!)to do some jobs.

Anyway,car ran great before,2.0 pinto,bike carbs,megajolt.

Had to remove engine to change corroded rear core plug.so while I was at it I have fitted a Newman cam,(took head off to do it)plumbed in a heater and had the wiring loom in bits to strip out the old efi wiring and plugs(wish I had left this bit.Nightmare!)

Problem now,everything is back together but takes ages to fire up.And I mean ages,like 15 or more cranking attempts.(not doing my new battery any favours!)

Runs fine though when it eventually fires up(which is why I have sort of ruled out a wiring problem,because it does eventually work.)

I know this is a tricky one to diagnose,and I am going through the basics(timing,fuel etc)but was just wondering if anyone had a similar experience.

Determined to be on the road in the spring!

Cheers.

Steve.

[Peter Bell]

As you say difficult to work out but do you have a mechanical fuel pump? if its on its last legs it could take a lot of cranking to get fuel through. Once it starts if you stop it does it fire up easily again?

[Guest smegheadsteve]

I've got the timing marks lined up the same as when it was running 2 years ago.(big mark on crank pulley alligned with pointer,dot on head ligned up with a mark I put on cam pulley.Marked cam pulley because I removed back plate with pointer to fit vernier pulley)

As for fuel pump,using a facet solid state.Took feed hose off carbs to check fuel was pumping.

I haven't actually tried firing it up again after it's been running.I will try this next time I run it.

Battery is on charge at the moment,because today it wouldn't even fire.

[Guest russell555]

might just be as simple as loose battery terminals.... mine did the same

[Longboarder]

Sounds like ignition problem but do the basics. Clean carb. Check fuel supply, float level, accelerator pump jet, choke. Retime cam. Use dial gauge to find TDC of engine and use it on the cam. Use a timing disk on the crank pulley. You can't rely on fitting the new cam with vernier set at 0 deg and it being accurate. Don't forget to set the cam to follower gaps. Do a compression test. All these are probably OK but check anyway.

 

My two ignition favourites would be crank sensor to timing disk gap and low/zero ignition supply when cranking. First is simple physical check of the gap and do it four times with the engine turned 90 degrees each time so you are sure the gap doesn't vary as the engine rotates.

Second. Check ignition wiring. Yerr, like that's quick and easy. So quick dirty check is to 'hot-wire' the coil and megajolt and try to start car. (Flying lead from battery positive to megajolt and coil.) If the car starts then you know you have messed up with the 'loom prune'. You then have two choices. Check wiring, find fault and rectify or wire in a new decent ignition live to megajolt and coil. If it starts fine with the hotwire but not with a new ignition live then the electrical part of the column ignition switch may be sticky or faulty and not giving ignition live when cranking. Squirt of WD40 might sort or replacement switch.

There are a few other possibles but those would be my favourites for starters.

 

Nigel

 

p.s. In the real world I would start with the crank position sensor gap, then hot wire it, cross my fingers and try to start it. Then if that worked fix new ignition lives and promise myself I would do the other checks sometime soonish.

[Guest smegheadsteve]

Thanks chaps.I will check all of the above.

I have also changed battery wire ends.My old battery had bolt through type,but the new battery I got had the standard round lugs.So I went for the quick release type of connector.Just remembered this with Russell mentioning loose terminals!

Nigel,my thinking is that if I had messed up with the wiring,then it surely wouldn't fire at all.

Got the carbs off at the mo.

In the future,I will do one job at a time,and check all is well before starting the next job!

My dad told me to leave the wiring loom as it was.Why do we never listen to our parents!

Steve.

[Guest sandy77uk]

i had issues with my zero firing up, much like you do, mine turned out to be a buggered starter motor

[Guest old_timbo]

Are you using resistor spark plugs with a conventional coil? I was having problems starting when I had this combination. The volt drop you get when cranking is enough to prevent a spark under compression, but all looks OK when spinning the engine over with the plugs out. Changing back to ordinary plugs made a huge difference. However now I'm using the Ford EDIS coil pack, resistor plugs are essential and work OK.

[Longboarder]

Nigel,my thinking is that if I had messed up with the wiring,then it surely wouldn't fire at all.

If you had seriously messed up with the wiring it would not run or fire. But once running it takes very little to maintain the spark.

There are lots of possible faults and solutions above given by all posters. . Don't dismiss any of the options just because you don't think it would be 'that'. You just have to do the donkey work, methodically working through all the checks and you will find it. An engine needs fuel air mix, compression and a timed spark. A fully charged battery helps it start. Good luck.

 

Nigel

[Guest smegheadsteve]

Thanks again for the advice.

Old timbo,I don't know what resistor spark plugs are!

I am using standard plugs with Ford Edis coil pack,and this is how it was running before I took car off the road.

Starter motor is another thing to check which I hadn't thought about.

Regards.

Steve.

[Snapperpaul]

Is the starter running slow?

If so could be ignition cranking advance, with a megajolt you can reduce cranking advance.

Earth straps to starter and block, bad earth, slow starting or the starter pulls so much power there's none left for the coil pack.

[Guest sandy77uk]

what snapper says, make sure you trickle charge your battery, you can test it by jump starting, if it goes first time, chances are you have a dodgy battery/starter

[Guest old_timbo]

Edis coil packs give such a wack they will get a spark out of just about anything and create a load of electrical noise and cause strange ignition issues if not used with plugs with a resistor in them. Resistor plugs usually have a R in the part number ie std Pinto plug is NGK AP6FS, with a resistor NGK APR6FS.

[Guest smegheadsteve]

Hi again.Just a quick update.

I am using resistor spark plugs.NGK APR6FS.

Eventually got car running today,so tried firing it up straight away after switching off.It fires straight away!

Left it an hour,still fired straight away.

I will experiment and see how long it has to be left before it will not fire.

Steve.

[Guest smegheadsteve]

Ok,after a couple of hours it took a while to fire up.Not as long as the first cold firing,but about 3 atempts.

So the longer I leave it,the longer it takes to fire up.

Can't think why the temp of the engine would affect starting.I am thinking fuel/carbs?

Any further thoughts apreciated!

Cheers.

Steve.