Spark plugs, how do these look?

[Boomy]

I fitted a different silencer not long ago, but it only bangs and pops like it did before.It would have to be leaking from the manifold end really as the pipe is welded to the silencer and i used some decent exhaust stuff and clamp at the other end. .

It never pops when driving with the throttle open, only when you coast down hill or are slowing for a corner etc.

Not all the time as in every single time, but it does do it quite a lot.

Hot weather eh?.

Maybe, i don't honestly know.

[pistonbroke]

It was just a thought , does yer fuel tank have a breather fitted and if yes , is it venting properly  

[Boomy]

It was just a thought , does yer fuel tank have a breather fitted and if yes , is it venting properly  

Erm..no idea.What should i be looking for to check?

[pistonbroke]

Either the tank or the pipe from the filler cap to the tank should have a smaller 15mm ? breather hose leeding up the chassis rail to atmosphere .

The purpose is to vent air out of the tank as it fills up with petrol or allow air in to displace the fuelwhen you burn it .

If it aint venting properly , you may be getting an"air lock" preventing proper fuel flow to the carbs when you need it most i,e, under hard acceleration .

The symptom is fairly common and it will only appear after driving a fair distance esp. with flat out driving

Check for the pipe , make sure its clear and has no kinks in it !

[little ed]

I know i maybe late in posting on this thread, but i fully simpathise with boomy on this one a look up to him for constantly trying new solutions.

I have a 2L pinto and seem to have the same symtoms as boomy.

I have changed the plugs and up-ed the fuels pressure slightly. I have looked into various things but to no avail.

I also have a few other problems so i kind of feel a little dis hearted with the westie as it seems to be problem  after problem. I know that this is what westie ownership is all about but is seems to be in the garage more than its out on the road.

I hope that i don't get accused of stealing boomy's thread as this was not the intention.

Boomy if your still having problems maybe we could keep in touch and try and work through this together.

I also don't really know a lot when it comes to engines

[spence]

Here's a good site about plugs. I think Denso are supposed to be the best in the business, I may be wrong.

This link will let you know how to read your plugs.

http://www.densoiridium.com/howtoreadusedplugs.php

[Blatman]

IME, NGK are the best in the business.

QUOTE

I have changed the plugs and up-ed the fuels pressure slightly.

Upped from what to what?

Is the Pinto on points/condenser or electronic ignition?

What else have you checked?

[little ed]

Blatman i have up-ed the fuel pressure from 1.5psi to 2.0psi. That was a recomendation from you. To go no more than 3.0psi.

I am running points ignition and a couple of other things i have done is to clean the air filters had it in at the garage to which they thought it was running weak, but they didn't really know much more.

i have changed the oil etc fan belt etc.

Boomy have you had any more developments with regards to the problem??

[Blatman]

QUOTE

I am running points ignition and a couple of other things i have done is to clean the air filters had it in at the garage to which they thought it was running weak, but they didn't really know much more.

You should change the points and condenser as well. Condensers fail without warning and give spluttery running. Ideally, swap out the points and condenser for a Lumentition Magnetronic ignition system. They take about 15 minutes to fit and mine was fit and forget.

[Boomy]

Back again, thanks for the comments and suggestions etc.

Well, so far i have only done what i listed in this thread and nothing more as of yet.

After a bit of fiddling on Sunday i took her for an early morning rip around and it performed quite well.

It is not 100% however.

Now and again when you floor it, it has a wee stutter/splutter however it does pick up each and every time.

I did notice later on that day that when i was going rather quickly round a roundabout and still trying to accelerate it showed symptoms very similar to those that made me start this thread.

The throttle was fully open (on and off - as in throttle steering) and it started to do that rhythmic missing affair again.

As soon as i was off of the roundabout and back on the straight it was all ok again.

I'm not sure if that is connected to the original issues or not though but it seems possible.

I can appreciate that the car will be experiencing some g- force under those conditions as will the fuel and stuff, but i don't know what suffers the most under those conditions.

Either way, it's a lot better than it was at the moment, but i'm not sure which action i took helped the most!.

Maybe it was a combination of all of them, or maybe i have just eased the problem for a while.

I will get the carbs serviced when i can though that's for sure.

Almost forgot, i stuck the camcorder on the headrest while i was testing.

You can see and hear it seems to be pulling away ok now, but on the roundabout in the second clip, with the volume up you can hear what i mean regarding the engine missing.

CLICK ME FOR VIDEO

[Johnson]

Your symptoms sound very similar to mine.

I found that the final fix was rebalancing the carbs and tweaking the mixture.This was after having eliminated everything else lol.But then the car needed checking over as I had just bought it

I would personally whip the carb jets out and give them a clean and whilst you are there check the float heights.Then balance the carbs and adjust the mixture as required.

Looking at the video I would guess that it probably occurs around 2-3000 rpm possibly more?

J

[blankczechbook]

....worth having a look that the webers give a squirt of neat fuel when the accelerator is pressed quickly - accelerator pump working properly and not blocked?... filters off and look down the chokes when the throttle is opened quickly?

if that can be ruled out as working properly then it is onto other searching.

HTH

[Boomy]

Weber tune will be the next thing to do then.

Then again, i have never had them apart nor do i know much about them.

All i have is a scary looking picture that shows around 100 little parts, all of which will end up on the floor no doubt due to my sausage fingers if i try and sort them out

I will take it somewhere when the time comes i think.In fact there is a place not far from me that Spence mentioned.

Looking at the video I would guess that it probably occurs around 2-3000 rpm possibly more?

J

In the video i was trying to show that it doesn't happen at all now sometimes.

I did a few runs up that road and the only time it spluttered was when i was on that roundabout at the end of the clip really.

It was revving all the way up to 5/6000 ish with no problem at all for the majority of that blat.

When i started this thread the car was undriveable over 3/4000 rpm.You had to feather the throttle to gain any speed at all and it made the same sounds as it does in the roundabout section of that clip.

After changing the fuel filter, cleaning the plugs, cleaning the air filters and replacing the rotor arm it is now driving as you see in the video.

In other words mostly fine, but with the odd moment as you can hear.

Don't expect many updates at the moment though, i have other stuff to sort out at the moment which do not involve cars sadly.  :/