A strange fuel/spark issue

[David Pertuz]

Update: Injector #4 was stuck open. No idea how that happened, but when I
replaced it the problem went away. Good!

In other news, it turns out I don't have a rod bearing issue after all. In
2007 I thought I started hearing the signs of rod bearings starting to go,
and kept an ear on it. I stopped driving the car in 2008 when I moved to
Chicago. The car sat and sat, put it back on the road last year....no
noise. Huh?! Did an oil change on all my cars last month and sent a sample
off to Blackstone - no evidence in the oil of bad bearings. I have no idea
what I was hearing years ago, then. but I'm glad to see it! So no worries
about the engine. But I don't need the spare I picked up last year from
Josh Palmer any more (anyone need one?) Maybe I will swap in the S4 cams,
though.

I think I forgot to attach the photo in my last email - picked it up in
Vancouver, BC in June and drove it home. Great car!


​

On Sun, Aug 27, 2017 at 1:04 PM, David Pertuz <d.pertuz at gmail.com> wrote:

> The other weekend I was driving the SE-R with a friend who wanted to get
> some practice with a clutch before driving a rental car on vacation in
> France (I'm one of his few friends who owns a car, and the SE-R is
> easy-peasy to drive and similar to what his rental car would feel like.)
> Car was fine, we went out to dinner, and then when I started it to drive
> home from dinner it was, mysteriously, running on three cylinders again.
>
> When I revived it from its long slumber I did not flush the old gas out
> (no time, perversely) and a couple of injectors got clogged - I swapped
> them out with spares. But it's been running fine for a couple of thousand
> miles now. This afternoon I started it up in its parking spot to isolate
> the affected cylinder. What struck me the most was the strong fuel smell
> from under the hood. Sniffing around, I eventually noticed a significant
> amount of raw (wet) fuel leaking out of the header primary-secondary
> gasket, some of which would collect on the front of the block. This is
> strange.
>
> Cylinder #4 is the affected one (verified by pulling the injector plug -
> no change in running condition) but the fuel coming out the exhaust, and
> its quantity, is strange. I ran out of time and will have to go back later
> this afternoon, but either there is no spark or the injector is possibly
> stuck open and just dumping tons of fuel in. Or both? But I have no idea
> why. Odd since the car ran perfectly for a million years, but this is what
> long sitting can do.
>
> On another front, attached is a photo of my latest acquisition, to replace
> my 2004 Accord.
>
>
>
> David
> Chicago
>
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