Waterlogged 88 3.2QV

After sitting at the side of the house for 2 years, occasionally starting it, my Mondial now has a big problem.
The boot seal leaked and the side compartment with the Bosch KE ecu, relays and baro sensor filled with water about half way up the ecu.
I did not turn the ign on with the water in there ,I sucked it out and put a fan in to dry stuff out. The cars starts eventually, but after a few mins idling the exhaust manifolds glow red.
I took the ecu apart and there is no sign of water ingress and it was dry.
Otherwise the car has had new plugs, oil change, cambelts, injectors tested, metering head overhauled and new fuel pump because water also got in the feul tank.
Any suggestions would be appreciated
Thanks

 

That's too bad, these cars should never sit outside in the elements, especially for 2 years, never a good idea. Sounds like your ecu has gone kaput! I had to get to mine last year to change the FV relay but I don't believe you have it on your euro/swiss car. Does your exhaust manifolds glow red at idle as soon as the car warms up? Do you get the Slow Down lights on dash? Does the engine stall after the glow?

Per Steve Magnusson -IIRC, there isn't a fuel system ECU on a euro version Mondial 3.2 (K-Jet without Lambda). On the US version 3.2 Mondial (K-Jet with Lambda), I believe it under the rear trunk floor on the RH side.
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The OPs 1988 Swiss KE3-Jet system does have a protection relay, but, if it fails, it wouldn't cause an idle problem like on your K-Jet with Lambda or the KE-Jet cars (If the protection relay fails on a KE3-Jet = A/F ratio reverts to the manual setting; whereas, on the K-Jet with Lambda and KE-Jet models, if protection relay fails = A/F ratio goes very lean.)

Could be as simple as the manual mixture tweak on the airflow metering device being set too rich -- was it set using an exhaust gas analyzer (upstream of the cat, warm idle with O2 sensor unplugged), or by looking at the unplugged O2 sensor output during warm idle, or ? when you had the fuel distributor rebuilt?

Another easy thing to try is unplugging the cold start injector on the RH side of the plenum (just to make sure that an electrical fault is not wrongly causing the cold start injector to spray fuel during warm idle).

Also, if the air injection system is not properly shutting off, this causes the O2 sensor to report a "lean" condition to the KE3-Jet ECU so it (wrongly) would add more fuel. One thing to try here is to block, or squeeze, the air hose going from the airbox to the cut-off valve closed (simulates a properly closed cut-off valve which stops the air injection air from entering the check valves and the exhaust manifolds).

Have you downloaded a copy of the KE3-Jet booklet 539-89 from All Ferraris?

 

mice love to build nests in exhaust systems that have been sitting outdoors for extended periods of time.
Steve's info is worth following up on, still don't know where he gets the time to post all tech help here, if he's making new time I want in, I could use a couple extra hrs a day!

 

Thanks for clarifying that Steve! Good stuff to know.

 

WOW Quick replys, thanks guys.
The metering head was overlauled at a cost of 400GBP by ATPElectronics in Cannock UK.
Then put straight back on the car. My next step was to send them the ECU for testing but funds are tight.
As all of the relays were under water I am more inclined to suspect them, but if I unplug the ECU and manage to get it started wont it run at base fuelling levels or the limp home mode ?

 

It's not really guaranteed to be perfectly physically interchangable like that -- even for the exact same metering head -- as the plunger position is something that can (and does) vary a little bit after reassembly (otherwise, there would've been no reason to provide a manual adjustment capability). Unless the engine has previously run perfectly after the metering head was reinstalled, I'd say getting the mixture adjusted (or at least checked as OK) is the first thing that you have to do (especially if the exhaust manifolds are glowing red hot).

Yes, if you unplug the ECU, the EHA current will (naturally) be the (constant) nominal value of 0 mA (which is also what happens when the Mechanic unplugs the O2 sensor from the still-plugged-in ECU to make the manual, warm-idle A/F ratio adjustment). IC engines have a very wide A/F operating range -- especially to the rich side -- so, even though it may be running OKish, it could be set quite over-rich now (which is big trouble for a cat-equipped model) -- so over-rich that, even if/when the Lambda system is active and working correctly, it doesn't have enough electrical adjustment range to compensate. Good Hunting!