Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

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Jimmy
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by Jimmy »

max71 wrote: So here's the deal. Heavy throttle in 1st no issues. Heavy throttle in 2nd - bogs down again. Same in 3rd.
Something is not recycling fast enough would be my guess. What that is - unknown.
Maybe, just maybe, my initial thought about fuel delivery could be correct?
Although, with a different coil making a difference, I'm not so sure.
But, if changing one coil made it run in First gear, perhaps you only have to change three more times to get the other gears, too?
In baseball, running into someone is apparently a "collision".
But doing the same thing in a car somehow makes it an "accident".
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by Steve Simmons »

Jimmy wrote:Gary, they do make spark plug cables that connect in reverse, which would compensate for such a reverse flow of current. But do make sure to increase the size of the ground strap to the motor, and to install it in the correct direction.
Are those sold by the fellows that offer cross-drilled brake hoses? :|
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by Jimmy »

Yeah, that's were I found those plug wires.
Those guys carry a lot of useful stuff for odd projects.
In baseball, running into someone is apparently a "collision".
But doing the same thing in a car somehow makes it an "accident".
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by max71 »

Jimmy, You are a riot! I never heard of a ground strap being directional. :lol: Good one!

FWIW, I have a new ground strap on the engine.

I know home audio has cables that are directional and I believe I see spark plug wires with wires to plug. These came pre-made I believe but I'll check them.

Steve. I'm coming over and let you do the fuel test. For some inane reason I don't feel comfortable doing it. But if its fuel starvation why wouldn't I immediately get it starved once I switch gears from redline - ie bog down right away? Not saying that isn't the problem. Just trying to think it through.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by Steve Simmons »

Because changing gears would give the fuel time to fill the bowls, and changing to a higher gear would reduce RPMs which uses less fuel. Not saying that's it, but that I'd try it since all you have to do is drive the car to run the test. Then again maybe I'm full of crap! 8)
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by malcolmr18zoy »

Gary,
A new coil may more completely burn the charge in your cylinders, giving more revs under load. That would suggest the carbs leaning out at high revs. This suggests incorrect needles. You will probably tell me that an expert told you that they are correct for your new camshaft. This is all well and good except that whenyou deviate from stock, it's all trial and error. You are obviously in the error stage. Now PLEASE tell me how, when your car would pull strongly into the red as it was, you decided to overhaul it.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by max71 »

I had thought of changing the needles and had a long discussion with Sean Brown about this. I thought it might be leaning out. I have #7s but if I recall he had something between 6 and 7 so I'd have to try that. When I tried #7 before it was way too rich.

When I was restoring the car at Guillermo's I pulled the engine to have some transmission work done. Just for the heck of it I pulled the pan - might as well. Saw a lot of metal chunks in the pan. Pulled the lifters and they were trashed. So I figured might as well just refresh the engine and not have to deal with anything on the car for a long time. Since it was a new paint job I didn't want to be pulling the engine out in the near future. As you witnessed that plan didn't work. :wtf:

With the lifters gone and the cam bad I thought a light valve job would do. You get the drill.

Otherwise I wouldn't have touched it. The TO bearing to my surprise was toast. Maybe 1 MM of carbon left.

On a side note I never could find out where the metal chunks came from and finally agreed with someone that maybe when the engine was last rebuilt by Mike Goodman they didn't clean out the oil passages properly.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by malcolmr18zoy »

So why didn't you get a new cam and followers from Huffaker? I guess you thought that if his cam and lifers went bad, you'd better get something better. Have you not heard that modern automobile oil gives virtually no protection to camshafts with followers that bear directly onto the cams. You have to use four stroke motorcycle oil, as this doesn't have to comply with current emission laws.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by max71 »

Now Malcolm. I don't change good resources just because. I also don't shop opinions until I get one I like. :)

The Huffaker cam lasted for 15+ years. The lifters were just what Moss sold back then.

Huffaker got out of the MG business when BL did since they were the defacto race team. No sponsor and no money. They moved onto full race cars and japanese race engines.

I talked to Joe about the cam and he didn't know where Joe Sr. would've put the specs. He did say as a favor to an old customer they would rebuild the whole engine as long as I got it in between race seasons as they were swamped. They still wouldn't have be able to set me up with a cam but since I didn't know you existed, and not able to be without the car for an open ended time I just did the best I could with the local resources.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by malcolmr18zoy »

Don't forget what I said about using Castrol 4 stroke motorcycle oil. That is an absolute must for our kind of engine.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by max71 »

Just got an email from the dizzy guy. " You need to get an AFR meter on your tailpipe to see what's actually happening."

Malcolm. You would happen to have one would you? I always wanted to install one. Never had the budget. I did richen it a but as mentioned with not any gains but it would be fun to see what's what on a meter.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by malcolmr18zoy »

Hi Gary,
Sorry, I don't have an AFR meter, don't even know what that is. Maybe I have a different name for it. It sounds like he is trying to tell you what I've been trying to tell you. Restriction in your exhaust pipe. What did he say about the distributor?
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by max71 »

Air Fuel Ratio meter.

Here's exactly what he said. "That sounds like a "state of tune" problem. The lower gearing in 1st masks a lot of issues. In 3rd the drive is much closer to direct (instead of 4:1) so problems are much more apparent. I'd suspect fuel mixture, carb balance, or something along those lines. You need to get an AFR meter on your tailpipe to see what's actually happening. If its going lean, then you know its carbs or vac leak. If its going rich its either carbs or ignition. It could still be points that are bouncing, fatigued advance springs, etc..."

This guy is VERY good with dizzys for all Brit cars. Steve will attest to that. You might consider using him as a supplier.

BTW, what gap do you like. I use the stock .025 I've read you can go as high as .035.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by Jimmy »

Gary, you may want to consider buying an Air Fuel Ratio meter. They're actually fairly cheap.
You'll have to weld a bung into the downpipe on the exhuast, however, but from then on you can always check the AFR yourself with ease.
In baseball, running into someone is apparently a "collision".
But doing the same thing in a car somehow makes it an "accident".
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by malcolmr18zoy »

Oh! Yes I have one of those. I certainly agree with everything he's saying. I'd say it's leaning out rather than choking up, but checking the exhaust gasses is definitely the way to go. BTW I call it an exhaust gas analyser. I think that the slight improvement with a new ignition coil shows weakness of mixture because if you have a better spark you may take better advantage of what mixture is present. Could still be points bounce though.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by max71 »

Your term is correct. I think AFR is the new buzz word because of the products made available to people as add-ons.

So Malcolm -- how can I gat a date with your exhaust gas analyzer and my tailpipe? :lol:

We still need to take you and your wife to the Burmese restaurant.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by max71 »

Sent the dizzy off because the builder wanted to be sure nothing was wrong. I got this reply after he sent it back

I only found a minor issue with over-advancing around 2000 rpms, but no real problem. The thing is rock solid and didn't even need that adjustment - rock solid. I reved it to over 9000 rpms before the points would bounce. You don't have a point problem. Maybe valve float? lean/rich condition? Whatever it is, its not ignition related.

It feels like valve float but I can't imagine it since the head was redone by an expert.
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Re: Expert Texpert

Post by VWNate1 »

I once did a valve job on a Ford Courier pickup and it had floating valves, turns out the " expert " Machinist re-used a wasted intake valve spring , when I depressed it with my thumb when the engine was idling , that cylinder began to miss...

' expert ' my bum .

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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by Steve Simmons »

Have you tried replacing the plug wires yet? I still think you could have a bad wire or two. If you're in the area, drop off the dizzy I lent you and take some wires instead.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by max71 »

Hmmm. Wires are brand new. Anything is possible. I have wires here I could swap.

The dizzy doesn't leave me hands until you verify it was from the GT and the one in the GT is perfect.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by Larry Kluss »

It's very easy to check plug wire resistance with a digital multi-meter. The actual reading is not so important than if you find one that has a very high resistance when compared to the others. If you want to get fancy, you can slowly articulate the ends while using the meter to look for bad spots. Yes, it can happen even with new wires.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by max71 »

I'm good with a DMM. I thought I measured them in the past. Its a great tip. I'll do it again this weekend.
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by Steve Simmons »

Blah, just change them since you have the spares. No guesswork and I'd rather test drive a car than sit in the garage with a multimeter. :thumbs:
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Re: Did someone throw a boat anchor behind my car at 4500?

Post by max71 »

I'll try it but I doubt that's it.
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Re: Field Test

Post by VWNate1 »

We used to simply ue a test light & test sparkplug wires for continuity end to end.... much faster than digging for the VOM .

Bad plug wires usualy create a miss , not low overall power though .
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