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[omega3000]

Havent you finished it yet  Any pictures 

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Hello all! 

The following I take no credit for, my contribution for the evening was mostly putting on the kettle.

-My mate gave her a good run, fairly amount of worrying smoke coming from the engine bay after a few mins, which he assured me was most likely oil/dust etc.. that was just burning off - which it was 

-After a few mins, trying to keep her running -  very tricky with the desire to stall at a moments notice - he started squirting carb cleaner over various points, likely to have leaks. With the revs held constant, there was a sudden surge to about 2000rpm where the EGR joins the MultiRam.

-While he went off home to get some suitable bolts and Hylomar (the existing studs weren't original VX, and weren't 'biting' much either, clearly the wrong size/thread studs have been used at some point, stuffing the threads inside the MultiRam)  I set about making a gasket from the finest Weetabix cereal box. Also I had a little investigate of the HT leads. And found that 5 and 3 were the wrong way round! 

-Swapped them round. He returned, we stuck that on, nipped up the EGR, and bingo! Idling. BADLY but idling! Also a misfire... interestingly. Swapped the leads BACK in the 'wrong' place, and no more misfire.. ermmm!!!?! SO all I can think is due to the awkward nature of seeing the DIS pack, I've managed to get literally my wires crossed, though I did triple check. AH well!

-After a few mins she started to hunt, going from approx 1000rpm to 1400rpm. Sounds like ICV, which he had brought a spare, so we popped that on. STILL hunting, sadly. SO either both ICVs are broke/in need of a clean (the original was cleaned thoroughly) or it's not that 

-Went over the vac pipes (smaller ones to the ECUs/bagpipes) and swapped a couple over, seemed to make things momentarily a bit better/worse, depending what we did.

-Swapped the old Servo-to-MultiRam vac pipe for another, better looking one. Didn't cure anything, but looks smarter and certainly looks like it'll last longer. Also isolated the fault as not being that pipe.

-Still hunting, and my valiant vauxhall chum had to get off home for a well-earned sit down. But in a couple of hours a car that would not idle had been transformed into one that will, and clearly need a small leak in a hose finding and repairing, that's all as far as I can tell.

-After cooling down, once I'd put the tools away I tried for one last turn of the key, see what's happening. Basically she hunted from 1000rpm to 1100rpm. Maybe the hotter, the more exaggerated the hunting, I don't know. Maybe I did move a pipe. Not sure.

So... in conclusion the vac pipes per se weren't the major fault - but it was a leak at the EGR, but there's a slight leak elsewhere, so yes.
and the HT leads were in the wrong place (as far as I can tell) but when moved there was a misfire!

I'm a very happy bunny, as she's now idling, maybe a little hi and some hunting, but running, thanks to advice on here and a very kind guy who managed to work his magic.

So heres a working, if not entirely pretty EGR... aesthetics can wait, for now we're looking for function 



Thank you and good night!

[omega3000]

Congrats .. you have passed the initiation Omega test  You are at one with it 
Glad your getting nearer to solving the puzzle 

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Congrats .. you have passed the initiation Omega test  You are at one with it 
Glad your getting nearer to solving the puzzle 

 

 

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Progress (as of last night)

Just a short evening, 2 hrs 15 according to the clock (which started going from 00:00, of course, once the battery was connected) .

Jobs:
1. Blocked off the servo main vac pipe. This stops all the extra vac-supplied ECU electrickery from getting a feed. This quietened down the revs to approx 800rpm. (these started at 1100rpm, but slowly, at 50revs or so intervals crept down - it was a joy to watch, I don't mind telling you!) This done using ancient Chinese art of using a 1p piece and gaffa tape...



2. Drained ICV which had been soaking for 24hrs in carb cleaner. Beware - it dissolves/softens the rubber, so it's a bit like soft liquorice. Not perhaps as good a seal as it was before. I have a spare, but probably best to remove this rubber seal if you're cleaning the ICV the same as me.



Apologies for the noodles. These did not come out of the ICV.

3. Replaced a couple of vac pipe elbows. As you can see, they weren't in the best shape - though not actually causing the fault, best to change them. Freebie from Scrapyard. 



4. Started her up. With main vac pipe blanked off revs eventually died to 800rpm approx  Success!! This means it's a vac leak, vac hose, or a faulty 'bagpipe'. So to start the investigating. I couldn't see anything suspect, all connections seemed tight and good. Engine off. Looked at...

5. This. Thinking this was a vac pipe (it's coming from the plenum anyway) I removed this...



And there was a slight 'gurgle' like the last of the bathwater glugging away. This appears to be to do with the throttle body/ intake manifold, but has oil inside - so part of the breathers? Might just take throttlebody off and give it a soak in the carb cleaner, as it appears this wasn't cleaned out that well when we did 'all' the breathers... Chain as strong as its weakest link, and all that.

Sadly that's where it ended. But I've narrowed down the list of suspects.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Thats the water feed to the throttle body to stop icing in cold weather.

Has that throttle cable got any slack in it?

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Ah! Water feed! THank you.

I was thinking it may have been no 14 here:  http://www.partsbase.org/opel/omega-b-1994-2003-5-4-20-crankcase-ventilation/

Seem to think it was a bit grimy with oil inside (!) hence my thinking it was a breather. Worth a squirt of anything inside? Dont' want to be a muppet and start chucking carb cleaner in things that are water-only, though.

Yes, thank you Mark, the throttle cable, even on fully adjusted seems slack. Seemed very slack before I started on her, and after the non-idle prob occurred this was the first thing I did. But even on max adjustment it's still not got any what I'd call 'tension on it' I know it's not got to be like a bicycle spoke, but surely a bit of tension?

[Marks DTM Calib]

There should be no tension on it at idle and a small amount of slack.

For the coolant, I would flush the system a few times once your happy its running ok

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Ahh then it's fine. Good to hear. Thanks. And will do. Once she's actually 'going and stopping' the lot's happening..

Full service, plugs, leads, all fluids, all filters. Then wishbones and basically replacing the whole suspension, followed by a geometry setup. Then gearbox and diff oil change.

[omega3000]

Apologies for the noodles. These did not come out of the ICV

 

Keep up the good work , yowl get there 

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Well... it's no steps forward, one step back tonight. 


Ok, so I had her idling at approx 800rpm, with the man vac hose disconnected and blanked off. Thus proving that the leak is in one of the thin vac hoses.

Tonight, start to narrow down which vac hose it can be. I pulled the hose with the T-piece, blanked it off. Still hunted by about 500rpm. OK, so it's not any of them fed by that pipe. So disconnect the single one after that. Still hunting revs. OK so its neither 

So after proving it definitely is one of them pipes the other night. I've now proven it's not! 

[Marks DTM Calib]

Did you check the main servo pipe for holes/damage?

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Hi Mark.

The main vac pipe is a 'known good' replacement from a mate. It has seen some repair in the past, where they rub on the aircon pipe, but looks fine now. However, I won't take any chances. I'll get it off soon as I can to check. I'll get it blanked off and blow into it in a bowl of water, or something like that.

The worst bit of this is when I decided to just return the piping to how I had it before, blanking off the main vac pipe and plenum, so at east she'd idle normal again...and it didn't. She carried on hunting wildly as before. 

The wild idling seems to occur when temp gets up to indicated 95^oC

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Good morning all. So, last night's progress...

Prezzie Time! Bought a full plenum and ancillaries from the wonderful MissyMV6. And here they are...




Fitted a new set of thin vac pipes. (found an Omega with 37k on the clock in the scrappy, the engine bay's like a timewarp so got several bits including a nice white header tank) all but the two that lead to the reservoir behind the pollen filter. These will be done when I get the others from the scrappy.

Main vac pipe has been replaced. The car's now on it's third! The original looked suspect, a good friend gave me a known good one, just with some tape on a worn-thin bit, but better than the original. But as this low mileage example was there, I couldn't resist getting it. Good times!

out with the old, in with the new....



She then idled lovely, slowly drifting down to about 900rpm. Then, after five-ten mins, started rising, to about 1300rpm, then starting to hunt from 1300-1800rpm approx.  The problem persists!



So looking for further places where a leak could occur, rather than take the plenum off as a whole I went for the breather panel on top. I found this...





So the seal is dry, cracked, and wasn't seated properly. I tried getting the seal off the new spare plenum I now have, but this sadly also split when I tried to fit it. It donated new o-rings, though  I'll be ordering new seals and rings etc from Vx today.

Fingers crossed this is part of the problem. Even if it isn't, just like the vac pipes, they want doing anyway. So I've a feeling of progress, even though she's not actually running better.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Managed to get the Plenum and throttle body off last night, before getting a text off my girlfriend. She managed to burn and electrocute herself from a dodgy plug.  I am reliably told that I am wrong - and the electric heater and four other appliances plugged in was not overloaded. The plastic must have spontaneously combusted, as it is known for doing...   

So sadly only managed about 45 mins on her (the V6, I mean!) Still hunting out possible reasons for the steadily rising revs, then hunting....

Possible reasons for the bad idle issue are...
-Throttle position sensor faulty
-Sticking butterfly valves (these seem to move easily, and beautifully. So a bit doubtful it's this.
-6 x O Rings where divider meets the plenum are hard and letting some air by.
-The 'top-hat seal' was damaged, this may have been causing issues. letting air by inside the plenum, maybe?
-Verrrry end of tube where breather bridge enters throttle body snapped off - possible weep of air past the o-ring?

And after than I've no idea!

Just sad seeing it like this, all broken and bits missing! 


It's not the muckiest throttle body in the known world - can't imagine this is causing issues?