Flushing hydraulic lifters

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Andy, managed to produce the following words of wisdom

Why are you assuming any of the above?

Have you checked the compression?

Sounds to me like a fuel pressure problem rather than hyd. followers.

Assumptions? It's pretty much because I've checked everything else.

The fact that I can turn the engine over manually first to get around the problem means it cannot be related to the ECU, fuel system, or ignition system. The *only* thing that happens when I am winding the engine over is oil and water circulate, 2 cams, a crankshaft and the pistions go round, the hydraulic lifters pump up and open the valves, and some fresh air finds its way from the inlet manifold to the exhaust.

Given that the problem doesn't reappear for 2 hours, what else do you think it could be?

What would this tell me?

I thought that at first. I tried manually running the fuel pump for 20 seconds before starting the car, and it made no difference. Given that the car starts by itself after 5-6 secs, I don't think there is a problem with the fuel pressure. Later on I tried the above procedure with the starter motor (tested several times) which clearly shows the fuel system isn't the issue.

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Andy, managed to produce the following words of wisdom

Heh, dunno. Almost anything.

As you've replaced the head and it's a K-series, it's always worth checking. Just in case. Low compression can cause an engine to take a good few seconds to start. Cosworths with low-compression pistons can often not start until they've been cranked for 5-10 seconds, for example.

Tis a weird one, that's for sure.

when you start to spin it does it sound whirry and as though the compression is low? Did you have any difficulty timing the engine after the rebuild.? My guess is that you have one or more valves leaking, pressure test each cylinder and see where the compression is falling out.

Mrcheerful

No problem timing the engine - the factory timing marks made the job easy. Triple checked everything.

I relapped the valves, so they should be good. Just tested one cylinder (engine stone cold) before I read this, and I seem to be getting 200-250 PSI compression - does that seem a bit high (!) or normal? I'll test the rest tomorrow.

Andy.

if you are getting 200 - 250 (your gauge may be inaccurate, but equality on cylinders is fairly important) on ALL cylinders that is fine, you need to look elsewhere.

Spinning the engine over first 'might' blow through any leaked fuel (from the injector/s or fuel regulator.

Cyl 1 : 230 Cyl 2 : 230 Cyl 3 : 250 Cyl 4 : 250

Looks ok then.

Good point. I checked to see that I wasn't blowing out water from the cylinders by probing them with the plugs out. Short of taking the inlet manifold off (a right pain in this case), I can't think of how to eliminate this. I presume you mean the fuel might be leaking into the manifold after the engine is switched off?