Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

[RWD fords rule]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Check the spark quality, we once had an issue with some dodgy wiring, the engine sounded quite good and revved up fine in neutral but started to misfire badly as soon as the engine was under any load, changed the coil suspecting this, engine sounded perfect immediately, then re connected rev counter and the exact same problem was back again, must have been a stray wire somewhere, would accelerate perfectly under load when we figured this out

There was enough power coming from the coil to fire the plugs under light throttle openings, which equals low cylinder pressures and higher advance at low rpm
Higher advance takes way less power to spark than closer to TDC firing when the engine is under load with much higher cylinder pressures, a turbo engine would be most difficult to fire needing more energy to jump the spark plug gap

Worth a try disconnecting one of your coils, connect it to a spare spark plug, give this an earth to engine or car body and start the engine running on 3, you should see a nice bright spark, if it looks very faint then you know there is a problem, may be unlikely when running full management but you never know

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Seeing since all this startd due a loose connection to the ignition module the current issue may well be something spark related. I believe I should change some coils to begin with.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

This is us fixing the ECU last thursday with instructions over the phone. Felt like disarming a bomb or something. You know , cut the red wire and stuff...

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Got it! Too bad we're two days late. It wasn't the coils or the plugs. The short circuit in the ECU messed up the base map completely. We loaded our old map but oddly that could not take any load either until we added the opening time of the injectors. Now running rich but it is running and more importantly it now can handle some throttle. I think I'll hook up the new exhaust and visit rollers soon.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Picked up the new manifold and welded on the rackets to hold the bits in one piece. The new mani goes quite near the oil lines so I'll propably need to try and re route the lines or insulate them really good. Any suggestions on good insulation material? I'm thinking a sleeve of some sort. If the lines were to melt / puncture the oil would not spill on to the manifold but drain elsevere wthin the sleeve. And I can duct some fresh air feed to the sleeve.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

It came out rather heavy so I'll propably need a brace.

[Tristan]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

that looks really well!

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Manifold blasted and ready for its DIY ceramic coating.
Has a nice disco look to it now.




The reason its bolted to the engine is that I've been making the new exhaust pipe for the new manifold.
Nearly cost me an arm and a leg. It took one tetanus shot four stiches and a black nail to get it done
Now only needs three brackets and its done.




Leaves me a "healthy" 65mm of ground clearance too

[tom burgess]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

cars still looking goodand well done on getting to the bottom of the ecu fault.that would of had me stumped.as for the oil lines i know goodridge do some sort of heat resistant covering.its bright orange and ive seen it on a lot of turbo,d race cars over here.im just not sure where u would find it.hope you have more luck than me finding it

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

cars still looking goodand well done on getting to the bottom of the ecu fault.that would of had me stumped.as for the oil lines i know goodridge do some sort of heat resistant covering.its bright orange and ive seen it on a lot of turbo,d race cars over here.im just not sure where u would find it.hope you have more luck than me finding it

Well , actually I've not sorted the issue yet. BUT I do have a solid theory whats wrong. The fact thet it nedded more injector opening with the map that worked fine a month ago just bothered me. http://www.turbosport.co.uk/showthread.php?t=347416
While waiting to get a propper timing lamp I figured I'd sort the exhaust.

I thought I'd double protect the oil lines. With thermotech wrap, and a sock on top of that. And the ceramic coating on the manifold will help to some extent. But still I will need to try and get more clearance between the oil lies and the manifold.

[Tristan]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

DIY exhaust coating?

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Oh yes Mate. Its called Tech Line Black satin. You degrease and media blast (not glass media) the surface and spray on the coatin. Let it dry in room temperature for 24h and install. No owens or cooking needeed. The exhaust temperature will take care of the final hardening.

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Car is still not running right. I've now spent hours on end diagnosing it but so far no luck. The check list so far goes like:
- plugs
-Coils
-Ignition modules
-All the wiring
-Cam sensor
-RPM sensor
-New battery
-new fuel lines
-New Fuel Filter
-Dismantelled the fuel pump
-checked the tank for gloggs
-ignition timing check
-cam timing check
-TPS check


Still needs 50% more injector opening than prior to the ECU failure. I've now sent the injectors to be tested. I have no idea what could've damaged the injectors but I have to keep at it and I'm all out of ideas. I'm also trying to get an ECU to try out from the manufacturer. This would be a good thing and a huge motivation boost to see if the fault is in the ECU itself. If not I'll know the issue is ... ... ... somewhere else. Again time is running out. But We'll see how this goes. If I were to get the car running too late I can focus my energy to some other projects and leave this escort as it is and wait for next season.

[Graham]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

has it switched from batched firing of all the injectors to firing sequentially? perhpas its firing sequentially now but was working batacged. that would make a massive difference

[Roadsport]

Re: Escort Sigma 1600 Race Car

Wasted it has a wasted spark Ignition. But after a few sec it switches to sequental fueling and direct ignition. The X's are all in the right boxes and I do believe it does so. At first it started fine but stalled right away due to snapped cam sensor wire but now idles like it has before. Only cant take any load.