Well a while ago the Head Gasket on my 1.6 si (Zetec) went. Got a new HG kit and what not and set about changing it with my dad (Hes changed a few Fiesta HG but only worked with DOHC once, though did get it running)

Anyway, we've put the engine back together with necessary parts changed and the head machined, but the engine is refusing to start. Battery is fully charged, starter is wurring away, but still nothing.

Any suggestions on what to look out for that could be causing problems? Timing is spot on, but any pointers would be helpful

make sure the cam phase sensor isnt plugged into no4 injector and vice versa. its definately timed up on 1 and 4 and not 2 and 3? i take it you set it up before you put the head back on?...

Sensors are plugged into the correct slot. Timing is set so 1 and and 4 are TDC with 1 on compression stroke (At least according to Haynes)

I'm just guessing but even if timing was off, the car would still start and run badly right? At the moment, all it seems to be during is turning over. My dad seems convinced that its the starter, though we've never had problems with it before and seems to be turning the engine over quickly enough

may sound silly but are the cams in the inlet/exhaust right way as only differance is the inlet has a little extra tag for the cam sensor trigger, is fuel pump running ok when first turn the ignition and got a spark, just to confirm its not broken wire when all un plugged, fly wheel triger ok and got fuel pressure in rail, not swapped the flow/return?

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Will

We did at one point think we had the cams the wrong way, so we switched it 180, still nothing. But soon worked out it was correct the first way so swapped back. We did go through the whole process of trying to think like an engine and work out what was missing, everything was there though.

But anyway, we got it running eventually (Thanks for the hints guys ), but not quite sure how really. We redid the timing, swapped the starter from an old fiesta we had hanging around, rechecked as many connections around the engine we could and well now it runs.

Except now it doesn't Idle XD

As soon as revs gets too low, engine cuts out, which means I need three feet to drive properly. Shame. So now from one problem onto another. Going to check the Idle speed valve majiggy tomorrow some time, not too sure where else to check either, as far as I can work out, all we can do is recheck all the sensors. Anyone have any ideas what could prevent the car from Idling? Like I said, the car drives fine, I've driven it around softly and other than being a pain when ever I need to come to a stop, its feels pretty good to drive

idle speed control valve...mass air flow meter dicking about?...air leak...wrong throttle body to inlet gasket... if you have had the ecu off for a long time you wil need to re learn it by taking it for a drive...

Yea was hoping it would just be the ecu needing to relearn but been driving around (which is bothersome when you cant idle) but no luck. Will check the iscv tomorrow/later and maf, though I assume the engine should run fine without maf? Just a bit lumpy/off I'd have thought, but I'll give it a clean anywho. Airleaks? We did notice that the engine was pushing air back out of the inlet quite often, not sure if that's normal behaviour or what but best take a look at it anyway. Any particular spots that are susceptible to leaks of any kind?

We did make the boo boo of getting oil over the front of the engine while testing (Didn't bolt down the rocker since it was bothersome), so when it did eventually get started, smoke from burning oil made it difficult to find any actual oil leaks and such

I don't know if its obvious, but I'm a bit of a novice to this, literally the Head gasket going will have been the first time I've tinkered with the engine at all so I'm having to pick this up as I go ^_^

Sounds like your MAF/TPS/ISCV isn't plugged in..

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L333SYA - Ford Cougar 2.5 V6
RR - TBC

Car is up and running, been running better than even now (driven about 200 miles so far). Ended up tightening up the throttle cable. Not sure if the throttle cable is always meant to be applying a tiny bit of throttle at all times, seems like cheating to me, but the car does now comfortably idle just below 1k mark. All the sensors are plugged in, but could probably do with a bit of a clean since the car needs to have the throttle pumped to actually start.

Does anyone know if the throttle is meant to be slightly open when the engine is idling? Did notice there was a small screw thingy that keeps the throttle from resting back at 0, will probably get round to sorting that soon

i wud hope the throttle is slightly open as the engine needs air to run so needs it open that least bit ya get me

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Fiesta Si 2.0
Fiesta 1.1
Peugeot 206 sw 1.4

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Fiesta Si 2.0
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