basically i wrote of my 1984 mini and my mum gave me her fiat punto n reg 1.1 sx. after spending a few hundred quid on the mot i then found it had a pretty bad oil leak through the sump.

so i bought a 2nd hand sump which had a dent on the corner but no leaks and fitted it with a new oil filter and new oil. let the silicon set. then started it up up and it was running really lumpy and when i drove it found it had lost all its torque. the acceleration is shockingly poor and it struggles to get up hills. then i noticed it was still leaking slightly so took it off cleared some crud off the oil pick up looked like some of the silicon had fallen into the sump as i fitted it and then re fitted it and it still ran like like crap with the rough idle and rubbish performance. it struggles to get past 4000 revs unless you goin down hill

may be unrelated but sometimes is difficult to start just keeps turnin over and some times takes a couple turns of the key to start it

i've changed the lamda sensor, plugs and leads,

and am fed up with spending money on it but need to sort it as i do a lot of milleage and need to rely on it to get to work

any ideas would be greatly appreciated. other than the oil leak it was a brilliant runner before i changed the sump

sounds like the timing is out. did you remove the timing belt to drop the sump? if you did- did you make marks on the crank and cam pulley first so you can check the timing is still perfect?

if you didnt touch the timing then my next choice would be a blockage in the oil ways or one of more of the tappets, leading to incorrect valve clearance and lost compression on that cylinder (they're hydraulic so they need oil to adjust valve clearances). it could be due to crap you left in the sump or the silicone.

by the way, wtf were you thinking using silicone instead of a sump gasket?!

er let me see how about because it doesn't use a gasket it is fitted from the factory with high temp silicon. i asked the same wtf question wen i was buying the stuff from the parts place. its like 10 quid a bloody tube aswell. didnt touch the timing belt did get some of the silicon on the belt but cleaned it off and all the teeth on the timing gear are clean. spent ages clean up the meeting surfaces to get a good seal

ive also changed the timing sensor but only for a used one. fuel economy has gone from 225 miles to half a tank to about 180.

oh and when i checked the injector for crud there was some black rubbery stuff against it but i removed the crud and it made no difference

how do i check the valves havent got crud in

jonnyburno said:

er let me see how about because it doesn't use a gasket it is fitted from the factory with high temp silicon.

Click to expand...

the 1.1 has a sump gasket. i know this because i have changed one myself. it was made from silicone rubber, same as the original.

well the existing one was definately the same stuff as i was supplied and used. but ill look into getting a gasket

other than taking the head off is there anything else i can try?

also want to add that the engine hunts slightly and if u listen closely about every 15 seconds u year a metal to metal tapping noise for a second or 2 then it stops for another 15 seconds. it sound like its battery end of the engine so pulled off the ht lead at that end and it seemed to stop the tapping i didnt see if it stopped if i took another lead off

also wen accelerating i some times get i high piched wine which could be the timing cover catch on the timing belt but not sure