one for all you x14xe owners out there

[comptoncj]

need a bit of help, a mate of mine wants me to get his corsa sport through mot, ever since it had the head gasket done about 6 months ago i has never wanted to idle correctly and when you rev it up it just cuts out as if the air idle valve isnt working, it is also blowing out blue and black smoke and running stupidly rich, ive replaced nearly every sensor i can think of apart from the throttle position sensor but it is still doing the same thing, any ideas? ive said to him it wont pass an mot with the ammount of smoke it is kicking out but he wants the work done on it so that it does but im running out of ideas :( could it be a wiring problem causing it to cut out? anybody had anything like this before? i feel an engine transplant coming up with it but it would be nice to find out why this one wont stay running

:)

[Steve]

Did you setup the timing after you did the head gasket? maybe worth checking.

[comptoncj]

i didnt do the head gasket on it chap im trying to sort out somebody elses c**k up, would the timing being out cause it to smoke like it does? its a pig to start as well and is popping out the tail pipe

[Steve]

The timing should account for it running really badly but as for the smoking im not so sure, the guy that did it, is he trust worthy? as its still smoking im thinking he hasn't quite done the job properly. Was it smoking much before the head gasket started to fail?

[comptoncj]

well, i told the person who did it not to do it as he didnt have the experience to do it, i did one about 2 to 3 months previous of when he did this one and i knew they were a pig of a job so i refused to do it, the owner says it ran perfectly before hand it jus boiled up on him so he had it done straight away, its a right ball ache of a job and im just thinking of saying to him look just take it away, ive spent about 8 hours playing about with it changing bits n bobs ive checked for air leaks and there isnt any, its starting to annoy me :(

[AlexW]

Have you changed the lambda?

It could be a ECU fault but i doubt it, although is the car completly standard? No mods and no ECU mods?!

Blue smoke is oil, id say the head gasket wasnt done right or the piston rings have gone.

Does it take a while to start? Does it run rough for a few mins when first started and then be better?

Oh and i doubt its a timing issue, usualy there too close to even be 1 tooth out without smashing valves.

[comptoncj]

yeah its completly standard mate, ive changed the lambda and its still the same and yeah it splutters on start up for about a minute maybe a bit longer then it clears itself and idles for a while then just cuts out when you rev it up, the revs drop back and go below about 500 and it just cuts out.

[AlexW]

It could be a few things.

Temp sensor been changed? But im wondering if the problem is the same as mine, which i cant find out. Could be water/oil collecting in the chamber causing the problem when first started.

ECU light not on?

[comptoncj]

yeah ive plugged the solus into it and it came up with 8 faults when i first started working on it, after hours of tinkering i got it down to one fault it was p505 air idle control malfunction, so i replaced the air idle control valve and that wasnt a nice job, then started it and it was the same, then another code came up saying egr valve, thats why i think its a wiring issue :S but i duno its bugging me now,