Ford KA

[spitfire6]

Hi,
 Ford Ka 1.3 "RotoCam".
 Car would not start. Plugs & leads new two months ago. Old plugs looked good.
Added 500mL of Phosphoric acid to fuel & ran like kak. Misfire reported on #3.
Car got worse & would not start. Ether would not cause the engine to start! So bought a new coil pack.

Today took the plugs out. No wonder it would not start.
Even when "cleaned",  voltage grounding to earth & not jumping. 100kV test voltage.
I will test compression prior to new plug placement. If all good, then I guess it's injector time.

Moral; read label on container before adding to fuel. I wrongly thought it was 500mL of acetone & harmless.
Cheers,
iain.

 

[Nick Jones]

Is this the OHV HCS (high compression swirl) engine based on the geriatric Valencia engine?

I’ve seen very similar plugs in a former colleagues Fiesta with that engine. It would run ok for a while with fresh plugs but always did it again. It did burn a fair bit of oil though compressions seemed ok. Possibly a breather system issue, but the car was replaced.

[spitfire6]

Hi,
A9A engine?
It appeared to be fine prior to the acid.
I did change the oil a month ago.

It was like a xW20. Oil level is stable.

Cheers,

Iain.

47516-Iain McLean-9.8.22.pdf

[Nick Jones]

I suppose the phosphoric acid won’t have helped…..

Pump, FPR, injectors all likely suffered.  Possibly rings bores etc as well…

Good luck!

[spitfire6]

Hi,

 What could go wrong with squirting acid onto a +400C aluminium piston & head?
Pump, FPR & injectors should be rust free now. 

New Denso TT plugs in on Wednesday night & will see how long it runs for.

Cheers,
Iain.

 

[Martin]

Had this engine in the sons Fiesta. Problems with plugs, coil pack, throttle body, head gasket.  Replaced with a cheap used engine. This ran without any hassle for at least 100.000km until there was some iced road. 

[JohnD]

I thought to look up Aluminium phosphate, which is probably what had deposited on those plugs.       It's used as an antacid, so why not pop half a litre of hydrochloric (stomach) acid in your tank?     That might dissolve the concretions of 'berlinite'.

John

[Nick Jones]

Looked the engine code up. Not the one I thought it was….. but looks like decent used replacements are available a low cost should it come to that. Assuming the rest of the car is worth the effort!

[spitfire6]

 

Hi,

 an update.

4 X £12 new injectors & a £10 coil pack installed.
Oil drained & replaced with £17 15W40 A3B4 from supermarket.
Waste of money as damage already done. Never smoked though!

£283 for scrapping. RIP Ford POS.

If you want to scrap an engine add phosphoric acid to fuel tank.
Cheers,
Iain.
 

[Nick Jones]

4 hours ago, spitfire6 said:

Never smoked though!

The joys of a catalytic converter….

 

4 hours ago, spitfire6 said:

£283 for scrapping. RIP Ford POS.

Oh dear….