NA running problems :eek:

Guys, really hope someone can solve this. Today with the nice weather I decided to go to town on the NA and give the engine bay a clean. Now I used Gunk spray, with a damp cloth and a very light spray with the hose now and then to rinse away some of the grime. Because of time I only managed the left hand side on the engine bay. When we come to drive it was fine at first but then started to run rough, now this is where my explaining goes to pot By rough I mean it doesnt sound rough, but feels rough when driving, when idle it sound and feels fine. So my first thought was maybe I got water in the distributor cap, took that off but was dry and clean. But what I did notice when I had to take some of the air intake off to get to the distributor cap, at the end of the plastic air intake where it joins the big metal thing that I beleive is called the in track ????, inside it there was a lot of greasy grime. Looking inside at it, you can see the opener/shutter that opens and closes as the air is taken in (see I told you my explanation was good.... )

Anyway inside there it was really greasy, but clean further down the air pipe towards the air filter, it seemed to build up on the bend.

So whats causing my NA to run really rough, Im not sure if its a case of not all 6 cylinders running correctly, as I dont think I would know what that was like, maybe I would ??? Or if its to do with this grime (Matt H said that this can be quite common ??? ) Or if its just where I got water somewhere I shouldnt have, but the water was no more of a sprinkle, like a watering can.

Anyone have any experiences/problems with engine cleaning/water, or can any slightly mechanically minded individual have an idea what my problem might be........????

Help, Im useless.......

Had the same thing happen when i cleaned my corrado. Popped in to the garage bought some wd40 and sprayed everything that was even remotely electrical. Waited five minutes and all was good. Good luck!

sounds like you have got some water somewhere.

and no matter how little water it was mate it will get in

the physics of capillary contraction im afriad. (ill explain it if you want:p)

Get a can of WD40 and get spraying

Odd that, cos when I fitted Mandy's strut brace last weekend I cleaned my engine bay with Simple Green, and gave everything a damn good hosing over, proper spray and all.

No problems at all, doesn't help you though Ashley, sorry.

I did have a slight bit of gunk in the air pipe (with HKS filter) once, maybe your air-temp sensor thingy is all clarted up.

Water in the plug wells. Get the engine up to full temp and leave with engine off and bonnet open for a few hors to evaporate the water, or gain access to the plugs and blow out the wells with an air line, and spray lightly with WD40 or some other water dispersant spray.

Ahh, when I washed mine, the bonnet was up for hours on a warm day before I started her up.

If you can't wait for a few hors to evaporate the water just wait a while instead...

Sounds like a risky business.

Ash

The big metal thingy I think you are talking about at the end of the plastic air pipe(not the air box end) is the throttle body. If you have a bit of gunk of crap in there get a can of carb and air intake cleaner and spray it inside the throttle body. That should break down all the crap inside there.

Thanks for the responses guys, took the car to Graham S ( ) who removed the throttle body (thanks Supna), and cleaned that with carb cleaner, also removed all 6 spark plugs which some were wet, cleaned them and then replaced, but still no good. At times if feels like theres 2/3 cylinders not running, so took it to a car park and left her running with the hood up for about 40mins in an attempt to dry her out. It helped, as she wasnt as rough, smoother as though we're now missing 1/2 cyclinders.

Am hoping she will self cure over the next 3 days, otherwise Graham will be replacing plugs, followed by HT leads.

Any ideas on what to look out for next.......

:cool:

Sounds (still) like classic wet plug wells. Be patient, they will dry out in due time, but a mechanical drying out would be preferable to a nautural one in case salts in the water used, or detergent salts, cause conductivity problems later, as the water evaportates and salt crystals are grown, which may cause tracking problems.

Just to bring this to a conclusion, the car was minus a few cyclinders, 6 new spark plugs, and all was good. Noticed that the HT leads seemed original, so their not doing bad for 10 years old.