e16se pinking problems

[Curtoise]

have been hearing this metallic noise under load for a while now so thought i would have a quick look at the plugs. turns out they look like its been running pretty lean. so the noise must be pinking, at first i thought it was the alt pulley but its not all the time.

what would cause this to pink? could it be the idle screw? as i messed about with that. :thumb:

[tommy8252]

Idle screw shouldn't do it but the dizzy timing being out would, id try adjusting the dizzy

[Curtoise]

It's perfectly in time tho, as I.used a strobe gun

[bazil]

Earthing problems, mine was pinking badly, I put it into a Bosch specialist and he ran allsorts of test, earthed the engine loom straight to the battery and it was cured,

[Curtoise]

bloody hell i wouldnt have thought that! i shall do that in a second

[Curtoise]

Okay so where is the engine earth ? Is the main one the one that goes where the mechanical fuel pump would be on a carb ?

[bazil]

There should be a loom earth there yes, also check the earth from the gearbox to the n/s chassis leg

[Curtoise]

i dont remember fitting a gbox earth when fitting the engine! i shall investigate

[Curtoise]

turns out i dont have a gbox earth strap on this engine or my old one?! anyone got a pic of where it should be?

[Andy]

Gearbox end case,theres loads of 11mm bolts,one will be a stud-it goes from here to the chassis leg where the headlight loom goes,you will see from pass side wheelarch

[Curtoise]

yeah i remember the stud your talking about, i have a earth already on my chassis leg going to the loom where my coil goes, could this be cocking it up do you think?

[Andy]

Its got to be a strong possibility.

[Connor]

Try cleaning all the earths up mate then see if it continues

[Curtoise]

Just run a earth from the Gbox to chassis leg will see how it goes.

[Curtoise]

Still pinks :(

[Connor]

Does it do it with that coolant temp you fitted unplugged?

[Curtoise]

fixed the pinking, turns out it was the timing, even though it was right on the marker........

now its retarded about 3degrees roughly, i guess its because the heads been skimmed drastically and it supposed to run on leaded originally.

now i know its getting enough fuel as it pops on lift off :)

thanks for your help guys

[Connor]

good lad, just make sure its not running too rich now :thumb:

[Curtoise]

if it was is there anything i could do about it lol?

[MK999]

popping as you lift off is lean, not rich.

[Curtoise]

really? for gods sake,
i hope its just my exhaust sytem then,
otherwise i honestly dont know what to do, if i advance it a little it pinks, and retard it to much and it doesnt idle!

[MK999]

How much is too much? My 1600 always ran lean but it did have a fairly lairy cam in it ;p

[Curtoise]

i would say about 30 degrees retarded then it dies, probably less. i want a lairy cam!

[MK999]

30 degrees is a hell of a lot so that's not too surprising. IIRC Mowgli's 1600 always ran quite lean as well and he's spent years swapping various parts about to sort running problems. Craig Green also mentioned an ECU fault to me that makes it run leaner, it may just be something you have to live with, as long as it's not melting anything.

[Curtoise]

i have 2 spare ecu's in my garage so i might try either one of those, how hard are cams to fit? are they a head off job?

[shed-on-wheels]

you can get a tool where you wont need to touch the head but otherwise the cam carrier has to come of bud, i would get her running right first to behonest fella :)

[shed-on-wheels]

oh and by the way you know the ecu on these are on the afm yes

[Curtoise]

have they not got 2? the one on the afm and the fueling one on the bulkhead ?
just bought a new afm off ebay so just collecting parts

[shed-on-wheels]

yeh you got it bud

[matt_vaughan]

one on the bulkhead is the ignition controller mate. if that's fubared there's a chance it woud cause this but i rekon it probably wouldnt run at all. mine is timed in with strobe correctly and it does pink a tiny tiny bit under load up hills etc. think it's just something we've got to live with. atleast you dont have loss of compression on one cylinder like me

[Curtoise]

Yeah that's exactly what mine did. Now its completely fine tho, although I fear abit slower :(

[mowgli]

30 degrees is a hell of a lot so that's not too surprising. IIRC Mowgli's 1600 always ran quite lean as well and he's spent years swapping various parts about to sort running problems. Craig Green also mentioned an ECU fault to me that makes it run leaner, it may just be something you have to live with, as long as it's not melting anything.

mk999, at the moment its running perfectly, i finally sourced an early ign controller & stuck a new coil on too...

i had several duff icv's that tested fine & a few bad pipes too.

its running so well now that i'm worried... i've had it 20 yrs & its never run better. i hope its not about to blow up...

[Curtoise]

to be honest most of the running issues could be the coil as its still the 1.4 one. i will grab a 1.6 one out of the scrappy to see if this changes it and also might enable my rev counter to work :)

[Curtoise]

Right bit worried now, it seems to pop a fair amount and burble now. And only slightly pinks under full throttle in a high gear which is fine. Surley adjusting the timing wouldnt make it run leaner ?

[mowgli]

if the timing is out, then the co is adjusted, so it reads correctly, then you set the timing better, it could affect the 'mixture'
did you ever sort out the mystery plug?