Hi, can anyone help with this?
Just had head gasket on Citroen ZX 1.4 (petrol/carb) replaced and since then has begun to run roughly, with following symptoms:
- starts from cold OK but idling rough, needs a bit of coaxing to keep going
- the following has just started over last 2 days - once engine warm and choke in, suddenly starts misfiring and hesitating on acceleration, usually ending up with engine stalling. Once it has stalled it is a nightmare to re-start, it fires OK but soon as clutch is let in and I try to pull away it stalls again. It does this for several attempts until I can finally get it to move and then seems to be OK but will repeat the misfiring again a few miles later.
I had the head gasket done by independent Citroen specialists, who said it may run a bit rough for a few days and if so to bring it back for tuning. That's an understatement!!! Do you think this is all it needs or is something more expensive going on?!
Any ideas?
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I had very similar symptoms a few years ago with a ZX 1.4. It turned out to be water trapped in the spark plug recesses of the cylinder head after I'd pressure washed the engine. The rough running showed itself every day for several days and was worse when the engine was hot.
I think what happened was that, as the engine started to warm through, the water evaporated and then condensed inside the spark plug cover and shorted out the spark.
This is unlikely to be the cause in your case, unless your engine was pressure washed, but very easy to check so worth doing.
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Dizzy is right that otherwise harmless water collected in plug recesses can evaporate as it heats to give odd symptoms.
Having said that alarm bells should have been ringing at "it may run a bit rough for a few days and if so to bring it back for tuning". There is no reason for the car to run poorly after a head job. I reckon he knew he'd done or missed something and was trying to buy time (and get the bill paid).
Consider....
Vacuum hose air leaks.
Inlet gasket air leaks.
Timing belt set incorrectly by a couple of teeth.
Dirt in carb passages displaced during job and now blocking jets.
Ign problems...failing coils can sometimes give poor running as they get warm.
I assume this fault didn't pre-date the head job...what work was actually charged for?
All in all he needs to have this back pronto.
MM
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Not familiar with the ZX engine but if the inlet manifold and carb have been removed complete with head - and tipped upside down - all of the bits of sit and water etc which had settled in the bottom of the carb, are now in the jets.
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The second problem is almost certainly carb icing - especially as it has only started in the last few days! They have forgotten to reconnect the hot air hose, or switched it to summer, or the automatic device has stopped working.
The first is a little more difficult. However, I would be straight round to the guys that changed the head gasket and demanding they fixed it. Could easily be the idle jet blocked, or the carb level wrong, or the fuel hose kinked starving the carb or..., or...., or...., or.....,
Richard
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