Hi All!
Seems a while since I have posted on here! (sorry, been very busy!)
I have been having trouble with my car now for about a month...it kept losing power when I put my foot down, and gave a really bad 'kangaroo' feeling...jumping and juddering as I was accelerating..Not only this, but my lovely new exhaust kept backfiring every time it 'jumped'. It got to the point that I couldn't drive along, without the exhaust backfiring like crazy, even only doing 5 mph in 1st gear! It literally sounded like someone was playing a drum behind my car! So, I finally decided to look into it!
My dad and I looked under my bonnet, and thought the best place to start would be the spark plugs, as it seems like it's misfiring. Backfiring is a symptom of misfiring also. Low and behold, spark plug number 1 (first one we took out) was COVERED in oil...obviously so much that it wasn't sparking, meaning I was probably only running on 3 cylinders! (explains poor performance). So as we went on, we noticed the other 3 were almost as bad
I was not happy! My dad has had a fair bit of experience with engines in his younger 'apprentice' years, and straight after seeing the spark plugs said "it's your rocker cover gasket leaking". So we looked at the gasket, and spotted lots of gasket sealant which appeared to have melted, and dripped down the rocker cover. Its obvious that the last person (i.e the garage I bought it from, as I had work done to it a few months ago) hadn't replaced the gasket, but filled it in with this 'instant gasket' rubbish after they had looked at my tappets! There was oil seeping through this 'gasket' too! So, after a sigh of relief, I went out and bought a new gasket, and 4 new spark plugs. All in all, it came to £15.85! This is what we did:
This was the 'gasket' that we were met with..although it was worse on the back, which unfortunately I couldn't get a photo of:
So, we located all of the bolts that hold on the Rocker (valve) cover (I believe they are all 10mm):
After removing all of the bolts, we simply lifted the cover off:
We then cleaned the rocker cover (and where it sits on the engine) to remove any crap that was left over from this 'instant gasket'. The gasket for this engine is part number RCE667, but I'm told by Ant that this will not fit all Seicento engines (Ant will need to comment about this, please). So we took the new gasket, and lubricated it with a little oil on both sides and put it in place on the rocker cover:
We then carefully placed the cover back onto the engine, and bolted it back down:
Obviously we then had to do the spark plugs which is just as simple of course. Have a look at the difference in the plugs!(this was one of the better ones!):
So yea, it runs absolutely perfectly now..no juddering, or jumping! And best of all, no bloody backfiring! Such a simple job..wish I had done it weeks ago!
Just want to say a MASSIVE thanks to my Dad for his work on this! And thanks to Ant too for his advice
Mike
TalkCento Admin
p.s I know my rocker cover looks AWFUL at the moment! I need to clean it up. If I had thought about it, I could have painted it when I had it off...but I'm not going to remove it again, otherwise I'll have to replace the gasket again! Engine Degreaser, here I come!
Seems a while since I have posted on here! (sorry, been very busy!)
I have been having trouble with my car now for about a month...it kept losing power when I put my foot down, and gave a really bad 'kangaroo' feeling...jumping and juddering as I was accelerating..Not only this, but my lovely new exhaust kept backfiring every time it 'jumped'. It got to the point that I couldn't drive along, without the exhaust backfiring like crazy, even only doing 5 mph in 1st gear! It literally sounded like someone was playing a drum behind my car! So, I finally decided to look into it!
My dad and I looked under my bonnet, and thought the best place to start would be the spark plugs, as it seems like it's misfiring. Backfiring is a symptom of misfiring also. Low and behold, spark plug number 1 (first one we took out) was COVERED in oil...obviously so much that it wasn't sparking, meaning I was probably only running on 3 cylinders! (explains poor performance). So as we went on, we noticed the other 3 were almost as bad
I was not happy! My dad has had a fair bit of experience with engines in his younger 'apprentice' years, and straight after seeing the spark plugs said "it's your rocker cover gasket leaking". So we looked at the gasket, and spotted lots of gasket sealant which appeared to have melted, and dripped down the rocker cover. Its obvious that the last person (i.e the garage I bought it from, as I had work done to it a few months ago) hadn't replaced the gasket, but filled it in with this 'instant gasket' rubbish after they had looked at my tappets! There was oil seeping through this 'gasket' too! So, after a sigh of relief, I went out and bought a new gasket, and 4 new spark plugs. All in all, it came to £15.85! This is what we did:This was the 'gasket' that we were met with..although it was worse on the back, which unfortunately I couldn't get a photo of:
So, we located all of the bolts that hold on the Rocker (valve) cover (I believe they are all 10mm):
After removing all of the bolts, we simply lifted the cover off:
We then cleaned the rocker cover (and where it sits on the engine) to remove any crap that was left over from this 'instant gasket'. The gasket for this engine is part number RCE667, but I'm told by Ant that this will not fit all Seicento engines (Ant will need to comment about this, please). So we took the new gasket, and lubricated it with a little oil on both sides and put it in place on the rocker cover:
We then carefully placed the cover back onto the engine, and bolted it back down:
Obviously we then had to do the spark plugs which is just as simple of course. Have a look at the difference in the plugs!(this was one of the better ones!):
So yea, it runs absolutely perfectly now..no juddering, or jumping! And best of all, no bloody backfiring! Such a simple job..wish I had done it weeks ago!
Just want to say a MASSIVE thanks to my Dad for his work on this! And thanks to Ant too for his advice
Mike
TalkCento Admin
p.s I know my rocker cover looks AWFUL at the moment! I need to clean it up. If I had thought about it, I could have painted it when I had it off...but I'm not going to remove it again, otherwise I'll have to replace the gasket again! Engine Degreaser, here I come!
