K-Series running issues...

Need a bit of help with this one guys...

When the engine is cold, when you first start it up, it fires up, the revs drop and it cuts out. It will do this time and time again, until you start it and keep the revs up with the throttle pedal. After this, it runs sweet as a nut
When the engine is still cold, it revs up fine, nice and smoothly.

When the engine is warm, and you press the throttle, it coughs and splutters a little bit, and is quite slow to rev up. If you blip the throttle pedal a few times, it occasionally pops and bangs back through the inlet manifold.

When driving, if you use a very slightest of throttle travel, it drives fine. Use any more than around 25% throttle, it starts choking itself, and the power dies away until you ease off the pedal again...

I had it plugged in at my local indy, and it came back with a pressure sensor fault, but no info on what sensor it was. The coolant temperature appears to be reading OK, though the inlet air temp was around 40 degrees, the fuel temp was 200 degrees, and ambient temperature was 200 degrees. I had a quick look, but I could not see an ambient temp. sensor, or fuel temp sensor on the engine anywhere...

It has had a new ignition coil, rotor arm and cap, HT leads and plugs before I bought the car. I have tried another set of plugs, just in case, but made no difference.

Just wondering if anyone has come across this issue previously.

Iirc there is no fuel temp or fuel pressure sensor. I don't think there is an ambient temp sensor ether. There is a map sensor and an inlet air temp sensor.

is it a sticky throttle body, or does the throttle pedal need a reset?

It is the early type, with the dizzy and rotor arm type.

I could not even find the map sensor, though there is a long pipe running to the ECU. I thought it may have been that... after looking again, there is a green connector on cyl 4 on the manifold that I expect is the inlet air sensor...

Should also mention that the car appears to smell very 'rich' when running at idle...

Have you checked the cam timing? There was someone on here that had one with the wrong injectors in it! It was a scrap yard rebuild!

I had thought of cam timing. A garage had previously done the head gasket for the last owner.

Doesnt explain why it is fine when cold though. As said, it ticks over and idles away fine, even when warm. Just doesnt like driving when warm.

Would a choked cat cause these issues? And can the early ECU's be swapped over, as I have a spare lying around that I could have coded in

disco_mikey said:

I had thought of cam timing. A garage had previously done the head gasket for the last owner.

Doesnt explain why it is fine when cold though. As said, it ticks over and idles away fine, even when warm. Just doesnt like driving when warm.

Would a choked cat cause these issues? And can the early ECU's be swapped over, as I have a spare lying around that I could have coded in

Click to expand...

The ecu's need programming to the car. A faulty rotor arm can give a similar fault as the internal resistor can fail when hot.
There will be a Map sensor or should be but I can't remember if it's in the ecu or external
It's worth checking the engine harness for chaffed sections as that's not unheard of.

Swapped ECU with one I had from a car I broke a while back. Pressure sensor fault has now disappeared, and does not smell as "rich" as before. Never got a chance to get it up to temperature, and take it for a drive, but hopefully, its now cured. Will update when I give it a run

ECU cured the issue. Drives spot on now

Buggered ecu or different map ???

Buggered MAP sensor, which is internal to the ECU, and not replaceable. £600 for a new ECU apparently.

Kept an old ECU from a Freelander I broke about a year ago. Coded it in, and the car has run great since fitting