Hi folks,
Just thought I'd get some opinions concerning my worries about
starting my car. At the moment I really don't have much of a problem
starting it, since I use it every day. However, I have noticed that
when I leave the car for a while (normally over a week or so), it
really doesn't like to start right up. I'm sure that my ignition
system is really good (new coil, points, condenser, plugs etc) and I'm
therefore more suspicious of fuel mixture/leakage and maybe
compression.
My concern arises because in 2 months time I will be shipping
the car back to the UK with me. This process will mean that I leave
the car on the dockside in Baltimore for some unknown person to drive
it on to the vessel and another unknown person drives it off at
Southampton 2 weeks later. I'm therefore worried that this person will
not be able to start the car to drive it off the ship and I will
undoubtedly incurr huge expenses if this is the case.
So, I would like opinions in the following areas:
1. Permanent solutions and true problem diagnosis.
2. Short term solutions that will make the car start
easier (advance/retard ignition slightly?).
3. Advice I should leave for the driver on a note
pinned to the dash. (Maybe I'm underestimating the experience of these
guys - I'm sure they are pretty expert in starting a variety of cars.)
Ok, as to the diagnosis of the problem - firstly I don't think
my compression is too bad. Recent readings indicate that compression
on all cylinders is between 115 and 125 psi. Is this really low and if
so, would this be the main contributing factor for difficulty in
starting? My car doesn't burn any significant amount of oil.
Secondly, I have not rebuild my carbs yet and I'm sure that
petrol will evaporate out of them over the course of 2 weeks. Would
this be the main cause of my problem and would it be necessary for the
driver to re-prime the fuel pump? Should I suggest that he mess with
this or should I tell him to be patient and crank for a while (I'll
make sure my battery is good).
Thirdly, I'm fairly sure that this problem is unrelated to my
other hot-start problem which I believe is vapour lock. However, if
anybody has any theory that might cover both situations, I would be
interested to hear it.
Forthly, I know that sometimes oil can leak through the valve
stems causing difficult starting. I don't think this is my problem
though, since I don't recall any blue smoke appearing during previous
problematic starts.
So that's about it really - probably not the easiest problem
to overcome, especially since my car isn't able to stay stagnant for
very long at the moment. The car will remain unmoved for a period of
about 2.5 weeks before I take it to the dock, so I really have one
more chance to apply any theories beforehand.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Maybe I just need a
confidence boost and am fretting about nothing. On the other hand,
maybe I should put racing fuel in the tank?
Thanks,
Paul.
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