Richard,
Thanks for all the suggestions, I was just coming to the conclusion that maybe I
should get the car tuned properly. The only trouble being finding a mechanic I
can
trust, and who can still remember how to tune twin SUs. I have only recently
installed a fuel filter after a long lay up due to restoration, it could be that
it has pciked up rubish (ie dust from the kilos of bondo I gound out). Fuel pump
is new (100 miles) so that should be OK. I agree that fuel blockage should
produce
later sputtering. I ave put standard engine oil in the carb dampers, would that
be
a problem? I did this for many years in an old rover metro which had a single SU
and it was fine... The strange thing is the fact that it seems to happen as the
car gets hotter, so perhaps a vapor lock?
As to the temperature guage I'll try a thermometer, but where do you put it?
Thanks for the help
Cheers
Tim
Richard B Gosling wrote:
> Tim,
>
> Two thoughts occur about this - tuning or fuel starvation. If you've tuned it
> using a Color Tune then tuning should be OK - I've never actually used one of
> these, so I don't know how good they are. What I do know, after a fair few
> attempts at tuning myself using the
> push-up-the-lifting-pin-and-seeing-what-happens-to-the-engine-note method, is
> that I am no good at it at all, and now tuning is one of the (very) few
>things
> I leave to a professional who does know what they are doing!
>
> The other thought is fuel starvation. Have you checked your fuel filter (in
> the top of the pump on the LH of the engine) - could be blocked? Also, does
> this happen particularly when you are low on fuel - you could be picking up
> crud in the tank and that could be causing a blockage - my wifes Panda used
>to
> do that if the fuel ever dropped below 1/4 level. If neither of these are
> correct, then it could stil be a blockage, but it could be something lodged
>in
> the system somewhere - this may require dismantling and cleaning out parts of
> the system, which sounds like a hassle!
>
> Although, thinking about it, a fuel filter blockage shouldn't cause a problem
> until after several seconds of sustained acceleration, unless it is a very
>bad
> blockage - after all, the carbs have their own little float tanks, so until
> those are empty there will still be fuel for the carbs. Very small particles
> from the tank, that pass through the filter, and then block the carbs may be
> more likely. I'm not going to go into this any further, as carbs remain
> beyond my comprehension, I still don't really understand what goes on in
> there!
>
> As for the funny coolant temps, have you checked your voltage regulator?
> Admittedly, when these go, you usually get a high reading not a low one (I
> spent a couple of months fighting what I thought was an overheating problem
> until I replaced the regulator), but it might still be this. If it is, your
> fuel guage will be funny too - does it read full when the tank is full? If
> not, then it is almost certainly a regulator problem.
>
> Hope this helps!
>
> Richard and Daffy
--
Tim Dafforn
Structural Medicine
Department of Haematology
CIMR
University of Cambridge
Wellcome-MRC Building (Level6)
Hills Road
Cambridge
CB2 2XY
Tel. (01223) 336829
Fax. (01223) 336827
http://smokeroom.cimr.cam.ac.uk/
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