DeeeeC

OK, I finally got the time to work on this again after some work priorities. The answer to how the cylinder fired with a tester in it. Well, from my thread on water and white spirit for decarbing the engine, it became clear there was a lot of coked up crap in there that raised the compression to 245 psi on cylinder 4 when it should have been about 160 psi. Now consider the JTS is about 11.3:1 compression ratio. A 2.0 JTDm diesel engine compression ratio is 16.5 to 1. Scaling up the proper JTS compression ratio to 16.5:1: (160 / 11.5) x 16.5 = 230 psi This means that if I pumped in diesel fuel into the (previously) coked up 245 psi JTS engine of mine, the compression alone without a spark could fire the cylinder. The fact that it was petrol made it a lot more volatile and easier to ignite with compression alone and is why my tester broke. So at least that puzzle is sorted out now. If my new compression tester shows the engine is not damaged we now know that my engine has done at least 20k miles (obviously the compression built up pver the life of the engine) at this compression of 245 psi without damage implying that if someone had the inclination - there is scope for forced induction. According to the scaling above for compression it seems the engine can handle 50% more compression, so half a bar of boost that would equate to 50% more power or going from the claimed stock of 165 BHP to around 220 BHP. But I'm not going to try that! I'm going to post a guide on how I got my manifold off once I'm through cleaning my injectors and refitting them. It was a colossal b!tch of a job so now I know what you meant.

Thanks my friend! I will be taking pictures to help others along in the future.

Thanks for that Smaky I kind of hid the car away for a while not wanting to know if I totally destroyed it. I have drained all the contaminated fuel out without firing the engine again. Then I turned the engine on the starter with no fuel supply just to see if it still turns - it does thankfully but I know a proper test is needed. I also changed my broken compression tester for a new one, so hopefully that will tell me if I cracked any rings or pistons. I have my spare injectors posted to me - now I'm removing the intake manifold. I'm finding it hard to remove the power steering reservoir for access. I took off the engine top mount, and the easily accessed top nut for the reservoir. But I have no idea how to open the bottom allen bolt and whatever else holds it on. I disconnected the hoses to it and saved the fluid. Once I get the reservoir off I think it should be plain sailing to get the inlet manifold off and finally put in (new to me) injectors. So please advise. I just want to make it to the Ace cafe, and be an Alfa driver again.

OMG should I drain the fuel tank then? o_0 it hasn't blown up yet.

You'll need to worry about it in winter for sure.

I confirm I got this error when rewiring my lambda connectors, it went when I finished reconnecting them.

I decided not to take off my intake manifold to clean injectors. BTW I know the procedure below will not really help the injectors! So i read about pouring water into the vacuum hose into intake manifold (after throttle). I put in a few gallons (500ml at a time) very slowly, then revved to 3000 rpm. It took about 2 minutes to steam out the water each 500ml. A hell of a lot of white steam came out the exhaust. Then I tried 500ml neat injector cleaner whoa ho! The clouds of dense blue smoke were something to see - again taking about 3 minutes to cear up. Problem is some pooled into the manifold and the engine wouldn't stop. So I kept it at high revs and WOT for a while and it stopped. Then I added another 500ml water x2. White smoke again. Then 500ml white spirit x2 and massive clouds of blue smoke again - I'm told that's essentially what injector cleaner is mixed with petrol. Now I'm going to try this with about another 2l in total of white spirit and some water to see if blue smoke eventually clears. I must have had a hell of a lot of carbon in there. Also in the past when I did "Italian tune ups" with injector cleaner I just let the car idle through emptying the tank - what I should have done is kept it at 3000 rpm. My question is, other than waiting until blue smoke clears - how do I know when I'm done? I will probabl do a scan on FES when the smoke stops coming. EDIT: smoke has stopped coming! Now I put 2L of white spirit in the fuel tank to 10 l unleaded. Running smooth. FES still says cylinder 3 misfire but has changed from saying "sensor voltage high fatal" to "sensor voltage low fatal". What does this mean? All spark plugs have become very clean except cylinder 3. Lambdaintegration is staying at 1.01 now rather than 1.09 before.

Thanks Smaky. Ambition is a bit high today. I think my high lambda voltage can only be caused by the heater shorting to the sensor, i.e. knackered? I'll change the guage. I have no clue how the cylinder fired there was no coilpack! That's when the guage broke. It sounded like it fired for a second and bust the check valve on the guage.

Hi, some questions I have - please help my car is in bits and my second MOT test failed again on emissions. Mechanic suggested injector as gas test gave lambda of 1.17 and HC of 26 ppm and could barely read and CO - like 0.0 at fast idle, 0.3% at idle. Also said could be a post cat exhaust leak. 1) what is normal pre-cat lambda voltage? Web says it can be between 0.1 and 0.9 volts. I am getting 2.2V pre cat and 0.38V after cat on FES - I rewired the harness to no effect. 2) what is normal compression for a 2.0L CF3 JTS engine? I get for cylinders 1-4 respectively: 230, 220, 235, 245 in psi - it seems high, but this is no loss of coolant or oil. Plus my compression guage broke when the cylinders fired a little due to the compression. 3) How do i take off my intake manifold without breaking anything or getting a high pressure shot of fuel to the bloodstream? I took off the fuel relay and coilpacks and turned the engine for 30 seconds. I can see three bolts on the aluminium part of intake at the top. I took off the pairs of hose clips to each cylinder - but don't want to break the plastic part of the intake. I have to check and clean the injectors. This seems to quickly be turning into an engine rebuild and I don't want to go that far - when it's in bits you feel like changing everything while you're doing it!

Howdy.. err I mean G'day mate!

Hi there.

Thanks, I got it

FWIW, my temp guage was reading low and I thought I needed a thermostat too, but FES was confirming that the temp was actually 15 degrees more than the guage was reading, i.e. about 90 C as it should be.

MY MISFIRE IS NOW GONE ALL THE WAY!!!! All I have to fix now is the connection to this canister purge valve that I can't find o_0

PARTIAL VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm happy to say that my punt worked, partially. I couldn't source the correct ECU part number in the UK to replace my broken one ending on 027. Everyone was selling ECUs ending 007 or 010. I got a good price on a unit ending 017, along with the code block and key. Well the ECU worked just fine! So now we know there is some compatibility / interoperability between Bosch ECUs. I googled looking for these terms, and didn't find anything so I guess here we are with the first data point. I think the heat damage and corrosion to my old ECU (at what I think were the injector pulse chips) was causing part of the problem. Now I still have the misfire - but greatly reduced. Now it kicks in at close to 5k rpm. I switched to using MultiECUScan instead of Torque, it's much better and has free code reset now. I have these error codes: P0443 - Evaporation control valve P0300 - Misfires detected (generic) P0303 - Cylinder 3 ignition failures Now what/where is this canister thingy? On the facelift JTS? I saw a black cylindrical thing near the driver's side wing at the back of the engine bay. Is that it? The software says "The reason for this fault is that ECU did not receive signal from the sensor. I need to identify the valve to figure it out. Also, wouldn't this cause problems on all cylinders? For my cylinder 3 misfire - I'm not understanding what exact sensor is telling the ECU that there is a misfire? If it was an O2 or lambda or cat problem, then why don't I have a code for that? Something gives me a hunch it's a broken exhaust valve spring or guide causing it to run rich? How can I check that without taking off the top of the engine? Thinking about this a step further, I think that the canister is causing the rich fuel air mix, and maybe cylinder 3 is misfiring because it's mechanically weakest, perhaps burning a little oil. Also I started using 10w40 oil (just 2 litres) to top off the oil and a litre of 10w60. I think I should do an oil change too.

Hi to you both too

Ok I got the ECU, key and control box. Fit the ECU - check - easy. Lock barrel is too long - will just use the transponder in old key - the lock barrel just turns a switch, I think only the transponder matters. Now I'm stuck on the control box. I can't find the location behind the dash on my facelift 2004 JTS 2.0. I took off six bolts holding on the fusebox and secondary fuesebox. The fusebox is loose, but the upper fuses just won't get out of the way. I can't see the original control box anywhere! So I followed the wire from the transponder aerial and it goes to the left of the steering wheel and down along the steering column. I can't see very well, and I took off the fuse cover and side panel already. Do I have to take off the whole dash? Where is the control box? The replacement one is yellow, but I could not see any brightly coloured box anywhere the same size. I saw part of a blue box but thought it might be a relay. Hope this isn't a steering wheel off job, because I've never taken one off with a airbag in it.

I have to be there! Better get my car fixed before then. So is there a 6ft tall Mr Alfa that I should be worried about or are we good to go?

Wouldn't the center of mass be really high on that and make it hard to corner? Anyway gotta love it anyway.

Sorry to hear that

Admit it, you all give a look to another Alfa driver...

DIY to the rescue BTW, when I said virtual pond I mean from Alfa156.net I live in Uxbridge!

Sage advice Smaky, one complete set is being sent out to me tomorrow - but it's ECU ending with 017 rather than 027 that I need (at £50 it was a punt). Just couldn't find the same part number except for $400 from the states or 1800 SEK from a Swedish page I don't understand. If it doesn't work I guess I could try reflashing the software because AFAICT the hardware is MED 7.1.1 on ECUs ending in 007, 010, 017 and 027 so probably only the firmware and maps are different. I have no idea how I'd do that but crossing my fingers. If I can't get it on the road I'll revert to the Jeep with the fscking 12 MPG economy until I get the right parts. That or sell it for the metal. If I want to search for firmwares, what should I use as a keyword. Are they even called firmware or images or roms or what please? Edit: Since I own the original hardware I also own the license to the software already.

Saw a 156 in baby blue behind me - honking me for going slow - but I was pulling into my driveway on 3 cylinders before it died!! Was that any of you?