Stinkystinky. Herts/bucks engine tuner ?

morgan · Post by **morgan** » Tue Sep 30, 14 9:25 am

Should be OK. Checked seating etc, didnt push back out. Looks like this. (excuse artwork).
I just got lucky with my method/fittings hopefully.

How crazy is that ? Concerned because something DID go well .

morgan · Post by **morgan** » Wed Oct 01, 14 8:39 am

Bolted it up. Looks good; not fired yet.
Also one of the feeds (not the leaky one interestingly)had eaten the last set of washers I put in there. Looks like overtightening had mashed it. But if the Bananarama! thing had stayed leak free then it wouldnt have been tightened so much. QED.

Anyway, pic1 = before, pic2 = munchymunchy washer, pic3 = after.

The fittings for those that are interested were 'torques' from ebay. The whole lot came to about £50 including the hose. A lot more than the old chrome twin pipe feed, but if it stops me catching fire then it strikes me as worth it.

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Wed Oct 01, 14 12:09 pm

Any reason for running the fuel feed around the back of the engine like that? It's inviting fuel percolation, can you not turn it around and run it down by the dizzy?

morgan · Post by **morgan** » Wed Oct 01, 14 1:38 pm

On the previous installation the length of the chrome fittings fouled the dizzy - so no dice they had to point backward; had to go the long way round. Works OK as there is a fuel filter just behind the dizzy.

Interestingly I did play around last night with routing past the dizzy with the new setup, and it is doable, but its a bit of contortion and makes things very busy at just the point where all the wiring and dizzy come together. What I might do then is leave the existing pipe in place from the fuel pump into the filter, but shortcut from the filter onto a forward facing mount.

Hadnt experienced any issues from long pipe; but if its bad practice then I'll fix it. Thanks (as ever).

Dave81 · Post by **Dave81** » Wed Oct 01, 14 1:56 pm

Morgan.......I'd put another spring on the throttle return too while your there (not fun if the one fails at WOT)!!!

morgan · Post by **morgan** » Wed Oct 01, 14 2:16 pm

Dave81 wrote:Morgan.......I'd put another spring on the throttle return too while your there (not fun if the one fails at WOT)!!!

There are 2 - you cant see it in this pic. The biggy is supported by a secondary one behind. Dont worry - I am nothing if not paranoid

Thanks though - good advice.

Scooby · Post by **Scooby** » Wed Oct 01, 14 9:25 pm

Morgan nice fittings shame you can't route around the dizzy tho...
Rich

morgan · Post by **morgan** » Thu Oct 02, 14 1:01 pm

Dunnit now. Cant go between rocker and dizzy (seriously, there is about 2mm) so heads out to the heater hose then back. Couple of tightish bends, but took 18" off the fuel line. Will fire up tonight and see if it links...

Dave999 · Post by **Dave999** » Thu Oct 02, 14 1:02 pm

looking nice

dave

morgan · Post by **morgan** » Fri Oct 03, 14 8:16 am

Ta.
Well, routed OK. Had to head North of the dizzy to get enough wiggle room for the filter, but its much neater. Good call.

Flooded out the rear on first fire up (seal to the carb, not the pipe union). Gave it a good tweak. Seems OK; but might still be weeping a little. Finger was wet during the ol swab test - but that could have just been residual - once something is covered in petrol once its kinda hard to tell.
Will fire up again tonight and see. Have to say, dont want to go much harder though - its had a fair armful on it and you aint supposed to over tighten carb fittings

I may just have that rear one off again and check out your earlier post on 'things to slap on fittings and stop them weeping'...

Eventually this thread may get back on track to 'stinky stinky'

morgan · Post by **morgan** » Sun Oct 05, 14 10:24 am

Right, back on track. So just been playing - and for giggles and my own sanity decided to recurve the dizzy to something less extreme and see what that produced.

So I change the advance stop bushing to a 21deg total, set the curve springs to light (which should give me full advance at 34) and the initial to 13.

Timed her up. Runs nice. 13 at idle, 34 at 3K.

Now, according to the manual, the vac can should pull in 'up to 10 deg', so in theory even if it went nuts it would only pull to 23; enough to run OK.

Connected up the vac. Idle stays the same, advance stays at 13 on the gun. Touch the throttle, and BANG ! BANG! Pop Splutter ! Bang cough. die. Advances off the scale when you touch the loud pedal.
What I cant establish (cause I cant get her to run long enough ) is just how far advanced we are going here. I may back it right off to silly low and see if I can get a reading on it.

At the moment I am thinking vac can isn't doing what it should, or there is a stop missing somewhere.

Yes, I know, I know. Don't need to run vac - BUT I don't want it smelling like this either. And for my own sanity and learning I want to know why this vac aint doing it. Most mechanics I have spoken to don't seem to know much about it when it comes down to it - usually they just connect it up and that's that.

Anyway, as promised and for future generations I will let you all know how I get on.

Morgan.

PS - Incidently, the 'sweet' spot for the engine doesn't seem to be 13, the idle increases as the advance gets higher. I have not yet found the spot where the 'rate of idle increase lessens'. I am tuning my ears. But it does seem remarkably tolerant and will run on just about any setting you like. Apart from with the vac on, obviously...

PPS - Talking of tuning my ears, 3,000rpm with your head under the bonnet rattles the old grey matter around doesn't it ?

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Sun Oct 05, 14 10:35 am

Try tuning on open headers if you want your head to rattle

Adrian Worman · Post by **Adrian Worman** » Sun Oct 05, 14 5:07 pm

I'd like to attach a Mityvac to the vac can and watch what it does to the plate when say, 5", 10" etc is applied to it.
I wonder if the can is Bananarama! and attaching the hose from the manifd just introduces a massive air leak, would explain the backfiring.

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Sun Oct 05, 14 7:11 pm

Yep, my thoughts too.

morgan · Post by **morgan** » Sun Mar 22, 15 5:58 pm

Now the weather is looking up i am going to get her to a tuner. Had another little play, just because...
Its mad - i advanced it to 60 degrees ( yep, 60) - still ran fine on idle.
Backed her off to 'max revs' it was like 40 degrees.
Backed her back off to 15, adjusted until revs 'slowed their rate of increase' - was about 27 deg. Car didnt kick back on the start - so gave her a run. Ran ok, pinked a bit under load ( hooray!). Backed her off 5 deg or so - so 22 initial now - pinking seems gone under normal driving ( have not nailed it yet) - but mega rich stink still there.

Bonkers. Cant understand why she runs so lovely but stinks so bad - never used to - and never run vac before. Unfortunately i didnt take any readings off the old dizzy and cant hook it up again as its the old 8v system and i ripped all the wiring out...

Tuning shop should be able to tell me what the carb is actually doing then at least i know i am not chasing carburation issues through timing. It must be one or the other... Hopefully they can test the vac can too.

Will keep you posted...