vintage-race
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [Vintage-race] Power Loss

To: Rich & Liz Stadther <stadther@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Vintage-race] Power Loss
From: William McLeod <wbmcleod@cox.net>
Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 18:47:12 -0700
I drove a TR4 from Oregon to Tucson a few years back, and it kept  
dying on the freeway, only to start back up again a few minutes later  
with no apparent problem.  Drove me crazy!  In Santa Cruz, I  
discovered the coil wired backward, rewired it and had no more  
problems at all.

Bill
Slightly Classics
Tucson

PS Did you check for hot brakes?  Did anything smell/ feel hot?


On May 22, 2007, at 6:28 PM, Rich & Liz Stadther wrote:

> Listers,
>
> This past weekend I ran the SVRA event at Road America in a Dulon
> Formula Ford.  The car was completely refreshed with new wiring,
> engine, coil, etc.  It started out great, going very well, running
> within 3 to 5 seconds of my fastest time at RA.  In later sessions,
> it had a hard time getting to 7000 RPM.  The engine builder happened
> to be at the race, and he was quite concerned, so he went over valves
> and just about anything that may cause the problem.  The next
> session, the car started out quick and slowed down.  Further checks
> found the timing was off a bit, and it was reset to 38-40 degrees
> total advance.
>
> In the race on Sunday, although I had qualified dead last, the car
> easily passed a few of the cars in front of me, but on the second lap
> it started to slow.  After 3 or 4 of the 4-mile laps at RA, I could
> see no one in front of me and no one behind, so I quit.
>
> The engine builder of course was quite concerned and again reviewed
> the engine he had built.  Timing was good, valves were fine, the
> plugs looked great, the exhaust pipe had a nice color, and during the
> race the engine sounded great.  But it did go slow.  Sometime after
> the race, the engine builder noticed that I had hooked up the coil
> backwards.  He said he'd never heard of that causing this kind of a
> problem, but I am wondering if it caused the coil to heat up and the
> engine to lose performance.
>
> Has anyone on the list experienced a dumb mistake like this, and can
> that be the cause of my diminishing performance lap after lap?  Over
> the winter, everything was refreshed on the car.  It had a new Lucas
> coil, which is now become a Bosch Blue.  The distributor is a
> late-model Lucas from a Formula Ford builder.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas what may have caused my slowly  
> decreasing power?
>
> Rich Stadther
> 1970 Dulon LD9
> _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________

Vintage-race mailing list
Vintage-race@autox.team.net
http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/vintage-race

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>