Jim_Harvey

I've had two cars that were really difficult to bleed (Peugeot 106 and mini). This is based on Peugeot special tool XXXX but has worked on both cars. Be carefull-coolant gets v.hot. Find a piece of plastic waste pipe about 15" long and a suitable rubber seal from a waste pipe compression fitting, so that you can jam it in the neck of the expansion tank sticking vertically upwards without it leaking. Fill with coolant to between max/min levels. Start the engine and let it warm until the coolant reaches about 6" from the top of the pipe. Let it cool for a few minutes (the coolant level drops) then run it again until it rises to 6" again. You may well be able to see bubbles rising to the surface in the pipe, beware of it spitting though. When you can run it for 5 minutes or more at a time, increase the revs to about 1500 and watch for bubbles/ overflowing. If ok run at about 2000rpm. When there are no more bubbles allow it to cool right down. Put an old bath towel around the expansion tank and pull the pipe out (yes, it makes a mess) and replace cap. I think that air gets trapped in the cylinder head when refilling with coolant, expands rapidly when the engine heats up and pushes a lot of coolant out. This method allows some room for expansion and ensures the coolant level is above the highest point in the system. You need to run fast enough to push any trapped air out. The cars above took 2-4 hrs to bleed fully. Hope this helps.

I have also spent a lot of time trying to cure the cold flat spot and spitting back throught the carbs. My car is a 1700 crossflow with twin 40s, 234 cam, ported head with 41.3/34.9 (1.625"/1.375") valves. Current jetting is: (original jetting in brackets) Main venturi 36 (32) Main jet 130 (120) Air corrector 180 (165) Emulsion tube F16 (F16) Idle jet 50F9 (45F9) I also found changing to a 50F9 idle jet cured the spitting. Changing the main jet and air corrector made the car more tractable and largely cured popping and banging on the overun. Setting the float levels very carefully reduced the flat spot but has not completely eliminated it. I set the float level (with the carb cover held vertically) to 10mm Min and 15mm max. This gives a fuel level of 32mm from the top of the body to the fuel surface measured on the shallow (engine) side of the float chamber. Boring out the venturies from 32 to 33,34 then 36mm has made very little difference. At 32mm it pulls like a diesel,lots of grunt but no top end, at 36mm slightly less grunt, slightly better top end. I have the old style O-ring seals between the carbs and the manifold, with seperate o-rings each side of an aluminium carrier. I have changed the o-rings to Viton ones. I spent a couple of hours setting the gap between the head and manifold as equal as possible using feeler gauge stack to ensure the o-rings were clamped uniformly. Finally, I was not impressed with the Aldon distributor fitted. When I removed the springs from the counter weights, the movement was very sticky. The pivot holes were not a very good fit and weren't very square to the face either. I drilled them oversize and made some brass bushes which were pressed in place. One weight acts against the other and has a cam profile. The surface of this was very rough, so I have polished this to achieve a smooth action. I like to think it now works properly. The springs weren't right either. They started to advance at about 1800rpm and were still advancing at 4000rpm. My car runs a lot better now than when I first got it. Its always been a bit temperamental when it gets very hot and is prone to stalling at tickover. I hope that this might be of some help to you. Jim

Wanted 1 or 2 track day wheels. 14"x6J ET 8mm (Std Caterham) KN Jupiter prefered, or pair KN Minator, or anything else considered. Required for Throckmorten.