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240 Help getting off the bottle.

districtmotors

New member
Joined
Aug 24, 2016
Location
Shaker Heights, OH
Hello! I am in the process of acquiring a very stock 1990 245. Overall, the guy before me seems to be an amateur mechanic like myself but has not been able to get the car off the bottle. The car sat for eight years prior to him owning it.

He replaced the in gas tank pump and sending unit as well as the external fuel pump and filter and fuel is reaching the rail. He has not installed but does have a new fuel pressure regulator. In addition, he has replaced the following:

- External fuel hose, pump and filter and applicable couplers
- Spark plugs
- Distributor cap and rotor
- Air filter
- All ceramic fuses

One suggestion he had was cleaning the injectors - does this sound right?

I appreciate your input as I diagnose both the car and impact on my wallet!
 
Are you seeing the pulsing ground from the 'puter at the injectors?

After installing my 12 year old Ford V8 engine that had been in a warehouse for 11 of those not a single injector would pass gas. An ebay set of cleaned ones fixed it right up.
 
Totally sorry but I don?t understand. Are you saying new injectors?

My injectors were so gummed up that nothing came out at all with pulsing ground. I ordered a reconditioned and tested set off ebay and with the trade in of the old ones they were like $7 apiece. Been running happily for 20k miles.
 
OP, if the car sat for so long, there’s a good chance some or all of the injectors are clogged from old varnished gas. I bought a 740 that sat (no idea how long) and it ran but 1 injector was completely clogged. I would just buy a set of used yellow injectors off here for cheap cheap. I ended up using my old 240s injectors in this 740 and they’ve been fine ever since.

If I still had a set laying around, I’d give them to you for the cost of shipping. Maybe someone will do the same.

However, before firing the parts cannon, you need to see if you’re getting an injector pulse. Common causes for no injector pulse are as follows:
•Dirty/loose grounds on the intake manifold. These are the ECUs grounds. Without them, the ECU cannot ground the injectors and get them to fire.
•Bad ECU. 1990 is early lh2.4 and they have issues. But don’t start here..


Also to note, you should jump the in tank pump as well as the main pump seperately (at the fuse box), and ensure yourself that pumps are running.
 
1. check for spark.
2. check for fuel.
3. if you have both, there is something else wrong.

My expectation is that you simply don't have spark. with gummed injectors, the car will likely still run - just badly.
 
An easy test for spark or fuel is to see if it will start on engine start fluid or flammable brake cleaner.
 
1. check for spark.
2. check for fuel.
3. if you have both, there is something else wrong.

My expectation is that you simply don't have spark. with gummed injectors, the car will likely still run - just badly.

An easy test for spark or fuel is to see if it will start on engine start fluid or flammable brake cleaner.

Guys, I may be wrong here, but I?m pretty sure when he says off the bottle, he?s talking about starting fluid. As in, it runs off of starting fluid but won?t run on it?s own fuel.
 
An easy test for spark or fuel is to see if it will start on engine start fluid or flammable brake cleaner.

That's my favorite test. In through the regulator vacuum port. It is really easy to do on these LH-fueled 240s.

Maybe this is the bottle OP is talking about, as in feeding the baby naturally sometimes doesn't happen when things clog.

hattrick1002.jpg


Once I've established spark is OK, rail pressure is my next question. Fuel delivery. Run the pumps with a jumper, such as fuse 4 to fuse 6.

fuel0472.jpg


Then, if you think those nipples are clogged, it is easy to check with the LH2.4 OBD mode 3 test of injector valve operation. This will work with the pumps running on the jumper, or even with residual pressure in the rail. Just turn the key on without trying to start the car and fire off the output test. Pull the injectors out of the manifold to see the spritz.

Check them one at a time by disconnecting the electrical plug from the others.

injectorTest01.jpg


injectorTest02.jpg
 
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I just repaired two cars this past year that both had clogged injectors. Both cars sat or the engine sat for a number of years. When I looked at the spark plugs they were completely varnished up. A cleaned set of injectors fixed both cars. I followed the checks suggested above and then ended up with injectors being the culprit.

We are going to see more and more of this as the alcohol in the fuel causes more deposits to travel down the fuel line to the injectors.
 
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