Unusual problem - Now solved.

[Castrol]

Picture this if you will. Sunny evening last week and a blast in convoy to my local meeting. Car running better than it has ever done, smoother and zipping round the rev range 😬. Stop at the pub for an hour or so and shoot off to pick up my daughter. Winding through some twisties and the car gives a little misfire......clears but does so a few moments later. Fuel gauge is showing low, but it has been much lower, but nevertheless decide to have a shot and drop a tenner in. Pull away from the garage and it was terrible ☹️. Wouldn't rev past 3000, wouldn't pull under load so we struggled to see 35mph!

Pulled over and had a look under the bonnet to check for anything obvious ( to the guy who came out of his house to see if I needed any tools) but couldn't see anything. Refitted all the coil pack wires and plug leads. Tried to start it again and it wouldn't have it. Another fiddle under the bonnet and she roared into life! Jumped in and flew up the road about a mile (remembering the bonnet) before it happened again. Tried what I had done before but with no joy and ended up crawling back home (only 5 miles luckily).

Put the car away and looked at it the next day. Concentrating on plugs. When I pulled no3 plug lead off nothing happened so decided a plug had given up the ghost. Replaced them all but after 1/2mile it came back again .

Decided to check out the carbs and took the float chamber top off and the rearmost carb had hardly any fuel in whereas the front carb was just over half full. A breakthrough. After ensuring the pump was pumping fuel to this carb I decided to have a look at the fuel needle valve so stripped this out.

Looking at it closely it seems that the action of the float closing the valve onto its seat had worn a minute ridge onto the cone of the needle meaning that at certain points the valve would not re-open thereby starving the engine of fuel on cylinders 3&4!

Just took it out for a blast tonight and it is back to normal.

 

Matt.

 

2.0 Zetec

40s & OMEX

[JAG]

Hi Matt,

 

so how do you like the Zetec now it's running? How long have you had it on the road? and where did you source the exhaust manifold from in the end?

 

 

Justin

 

A closed mouth gathers no foot.

[Castrol]

Hi Justin,

 

The Zetec was running the second week on April but not used in anger until it was rolling roaded a week later. On the same rollers as my Supersprint was done on it gave a 42% increase in power at the back wheels (151bhp) ❗.

 

Since then done around 2000 miles, including a trip to France, and it has been great. A lot more flexible than my X-flow, but the mapped ignition would have helped a lot there though, sounds great on carbs too 😬.

 

This problem has been the only one since it was back on the road and the rebuild (eventually) went smoothly once I got all the components sorted.

 

Exhaust was bought from Raceline eventually, expensive but great quality and quiet. It has a 7inch silencer which next to the standard Caterham one looks massive!

 

So how is your project going??

 

Matt.