Hi All!
I have an interesting one here. On 10/14 I decided to go out for a sail. It had been a month since I had been down to the boat so when I started up the engine she needed a little extra TLC to get her going but once she was warm she ran well. I started hearing a clinking sound out from the back of the engine, I knew it right away. My valve tap issue in the 4th compartment has returned. I let the engine run for another 25-30 minutes hoping that the movement of the engine would shake the valve free. When I ran her a month ago she was in good shape. At the 30-minute mark, the engine cut off, like someone turned the ignition switch. I took a look at my Moyer handbook (aka A4 Bible) and my suspicion was confirmed - sparkplugs. Got my extra set of sparkplugs out and swapped them. To my surprise, she wouldn't start up. I got on my rubber gloves and tested the spark plugs with my remote starter switch - no spark. I'm assuming this issue now deals with the coil or distributor but I'm no expert or electrician. I have broken down each issue below.
Sparkless Sparkplugs:
When performing the sparkplug test, I placed the sparkplug on the engine (away from the plug hole) to ground the connection and used rubber gloves to hold the cable that goes from the distributor to the plug. Made sure it was dark so I could see the spark but no luck. I did refer back to the A4 Bible and started to take a look at the distributor. I have images linked below for reference to each section:
Distributor Cap >
Level One of the Distributor >
Level Two of the Distributor >
The second level is pretty dirty and rusted. Not as bad as the example in the A4 Bible but do you think that could be the issue?
Does anyone know an easy way for me to test my coil and distributor to see where the issue is?
Valve Tap:
I've fixed a couple of valve taps over the past 5 years but this one looks and acts differently than I remember the others. Currently, I have the same compression in 1 and 2, 3 is about 3-5 PSI less, and 4 has zero compression (which makes sense). On the 14th I was hand-cranking the engine and sprayed a bit of WD-40 in the plug hole, while hand-cranking you can see the valve popping up and down sporadically, and doesn't seem to close. I have included a video below for reference:
Last valve movement while hand cranking (liquid bubbling is the WD-40) >
When I went down today (15th), the valve now doesn't move while hand-cranking but does move when I use my remote starter switch. Is that normal or concerning?
Does this issue look like a normal valve tap or is it a broken spring?
Could this be a part of the reason the engine won't start? I've been told the A4 can run on as little as 2 chambers but not 100% sure.
Oil Change Question: After this is all said and done, I'm planning on performing an oil change. I read in another thread that some of you add MMO with the oil change. Do you pour it into the Oil Filler?
Thank you for the help and advice! Apologies for the lack of proper terminology.
- Chris
I have an interesting one here. On 10/14 I decided to go out for a sail. It had been a month since I had been down to the boat so when I started up the engine she needed a little extra TLC to get her going but once she was warm she ran well. I started hearing a clinking sound out from the back of the engine, I knew it right away. My valve tap issue in the 4th compartment has returned. I let the engine run for another 25-30 minutes hoping that the movement of the engine would shake the valve free. When I ran her a month ago she was in good shape. At the 30-minute mark, the engine cut off, like someone turned the ignition switch. I took a look at my Moyer handbook (aka A4 Bible) and my suspicion was confirmed - sparkplugs. Got my extra set of sparkplugs out and swapped them. To my surprise, she wouldn't start up. I got on my rubber gloves and tested the spark plugs with my remote starter switch - no spark. I'm assuming this issue now deals with the coil or distributor but I'm no expert or electrician. I have broken down each issue below.
Sparkless Sparkplugs:
When performing the sparkplug test, I placed the sparkplug on the engine (away from the plug hole) to ground the connection and used rubber gloves to hold the cable that goes from the distributor to the plug. Made sure it was dark so I could see the spark but no luck. I did refer back to the A4 Bible and started to take a look at the distributor. I have images linked below for reference to each section:
Distributor Cap >
Level One of the Distributor >
Level Two of the Distributor >
The second level is pretty dirty and rusted. Not as bad as the example in the A4 Bible but do you think that could be the issue?
Does anyone know an easy way for me to test my coil and distributor to see where the issue is?
Valve Tap:
I've fixed a couple of valve taps over the past 5 years but this one looks and acts differently than I remember the others. Currently, I have the same compression in 1 and 2, 3 is about 3-5 PSI less, and 4 has zero compression (which makes sense). On the 14th I was hand-cranking the engine and sprayed a bit of WD-40 in the plug hole, while hand-cranking you can see the valve popping up and down sporadically, and doesn't seem to close. I have included a video below for reference:
Last valve movement while hand cranking (liquid bubbling is the WD-40) >
When I went down today (15th), the valve now doesn't move while hand-cranking but does move when I use my remote starter switch. Is that normal or concerning?
Does this issue look like a normal valve tap or is it a broken spring?
Could this be a part of the reason the engine won't start? I've been told the A4 can run on as little as 2 chambers but not 100% sure.
Oil Change Question: After this is all said and done, I'm planning on performing an oil change. I read in another thread that some of you add MMO with the oil change. Do you pour it into the Oil Filler?
Thank you for the help and advice! Apologies for the lack of proper terminology.
- Chris
Comment