My '72 P6 V8 is back in use on UK roads and once again wearing its silver on black 'K' plates!

mrtask said:
Fettling the kickdown cable has been a bit of a trial, not least because the 'crimp' is still present on the cable, but loose, rendering it quite useless. :roll:

Forget the crimp, if it was on the cable it was probably in the wrong place anyway, just adjust the cable on roadtest.


mrtask said:
Having tickled just about everything I now have the timing at 6°BTDC (it had been at 8° before), the idle down to 750/800rpm in neutral, rising to about 900rpm in 'D' or 'N', which engages without a clunk.

Something wrong there, the rpm should drop when you engage gear.

mrtask said:
Road manners are considerably improved! However, in town in stop start traffic, the idle speed in gear at the lights wanders a bit, and sometimes stutters out if I don't nurse the throttle delicately. If I lift the lift pin on the right hand carb the revs don't rise and fall back, unlike the left carb. So I'm thinking it'll need to come off and come apart, a little further than I've ever previously had a carb dismantled into pieces! Sticking float perhaps? Long bank holiday weekend might see me tinkering some more...

It sounds like the RH carb is running weak.



mrtask said:
Which carb feeds which cylinders?

LH 1467
RH 2358

mrtask said:
Is it correct that crank and flywheel are balance together?

I don't think the flywheel was included, but it may have been.

mrtask said:
When I swap out my automatic for an LT77 5-speed, will I need to get the manual flywheel balanced to the crankshaft?

In view of my previous answer, I wouldn't, I never have, and I've never had balance problems afterwards.
 
mrtask said:
When I swap out my automatic for an LT77 5-speed, will I need to get the manual flywheel balanced to the crankshaft?
I didn't and there were no noticeable vibes or issues with seals leaking etc.
 
Thanks for that info chaps. Especially for unravelling the mystery of which carb feeds which cylinders!
To clarify, I am quite obviously a scatterbrained muppet, because what I had meant to say was that I now have the idle down to about 850/900rpm in neutral, falling to about 750/800rpm in 'D' or 'R', which engages without a clunk.
As Harvey pointed out, revs should fall when engaging gear! And indeed they do. My problem is that occasionaly it 'hunts' a bit when waiting at a set of traffic lights, and sometimes either conks out or needs the gas pedal squeezing to keep it from stuttering out, meaning it is being held at about 1000rpm, or about 200rpm more than it ought to be idling at.
 
mrtask said:
what I had meant to say was that I now have the idle down to about 850/900rpm in neutral, falling to about 750/800rpm in 'D' or 'R',

I had guessd that, but I just couldn't resist......


mrtask said:
My problem is that occasionaly it 'hunts' a bit when waiting at a set of traffic lights, and sometimes either conks out or needs the gas pedal squeezing to keep it from stuttering out, meaning it is being held at about 1000rpm, or about 200rpm more than it ought to be idling at.

That's consistent with one carb running really weak.
 
I'm delighted to be able to report that my old car is once again running properly, after ever so many months of ever-worsening bother and aggravation!
Turns out the reason all my repeated carb tuning efforts had been in vain was down to the seals on the choke mechanisms having been well and truly shrunken and useless. They'd been allowing extra fuel in, ever increasing amounts thereof, which was what had caused the exhaust to puff out so much smog pulling away from a standing start. It had got the point where my fuel consumption was simply awful, forward motion had become a real struggle, and the exhaust fumes were rich enough to make the eyes water. I was driving through a tunnel on the Berlin ring road the other week, when I had a backfire that sounded as if I'd been shot at with an anti-tank weapon! Enough was enough.
Off came the carbs again (I'm a dab hand at that now!), lo and behold one of the floats had filled up with petrol since the last time I'd been in there, so started by swapping that for a new one. Didn't really help. Then my trusty mechanic mate had a 'Eureka!' moment, having recently had the same problem with an MG B he'd been working on, and suggested the choke seals. Ordered a seal kit, in they went, and it worked a treat! Wish I'd've known that oh-so-simple fix ages ago, I can tell you! Anyway, it idles at a standstill once again without me always having to dose the gas pedal, much better mannered than of late.
We also swapped out the Lumenition module for points, which immediately banished the misfire that had been coming and going mysteriously that last few months. Nice to be able to simply adjust the points from outside the distributor. I'd forgotten how the engine ought to behave, and sound. I'd become too used to it being okay for a day or two, then misfiring again. I'm a very happy chappy indeed. Great emissions test result, much more driveable again, success all round. Well, apart from the fact that I needn't have bothered changing the cylinder head gaskets back in spring, but hey, you live and learn eh? :oops:
 
Got my GAZ adjustable front shoocks back from rebuilding today, fitted them with lots of the assembly grease provided with the new Superfley purple poly bushes, and I'm very happy again. Gone are the clunking noises, and all is good once more. I must say I do hope they last longer than two years this time!
 
500 miles into the new year, my radiator sprang a leak. The cooling fan was attached to the rad with little plastic doo-dads that you poke through the core. They weren't up to the task, it seems. Or, possibly, the rad matrix wasn't beefy enough to withstand the torque of the fan! Either way, I've had the same thing happen to two rads in succession, the first a Rover original, the next a recore I had made here some years ago now, and which I've learned subsequently was 'refurbished' using cheap and nasty matrix. I was getting all gung-ho devising bracketry to hold the Kenlowe fan in front of the new, replacement, upgraded radiator. Then I realised the rad guard underneath which I wanted to drill through is flush with the front valance, not enough room to drill holes, never mind space for bolt heads! So I've left the leccy fan off for now and gone back to a mechanical fan. Previously the plastic engine fan had been mounted on a 2cm spacer so as to clear the crank pulley. The beefed-up new rad is so chunky there wasn't space left for it, so the plastic fan is now bolted straight onto the water pump nose, and the curved parts of the blades trimmed to clear the pulley. I'm hoping the loss of fan blade efficiency is compensated for by the increased radiator capacity!
 
Reading about choke seals with interest, as mine were also cracked on both carbs. As a temporary measure I added a thin O-ring against the sleeve, but I don't expect that to see use since I have to get a new jet or two now that I found the cause of at least one of the persistent issues the car has had. Interesting that those seals have had a noticeable effect on your engine's running.

Edit: Does your car run HIF or HS's..?
 
The Blue Meanie is fitted with SUs with integrated float chambers , not separate. HIF, right!?
 
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:mad::(:confused: Car trouble. Just doesn't end, does it!? I've had cooling issues for a while. Of late I've had trouble with two standard radiators, and fitted a brand spanking new uprated radiator a couple of weeks ago. Last year I noticed coolant loss which I attributed to cylinder head gasket failure. I'm confident I fitted a new pair of tin gaskets properly last March. I can't see noticable amounts of white smoke in my exhaust, but I noticed the engine temp rising rapidly as I sat in traffic midweek, and had to top up a whole litre of coolant! I'm losing the stuff at almost the same rate as I get through petrol!
I think I've got a slipped liner. Or perhaps more than one. How can I diagnose this? Is it possible to achieve a conclusive diagnosis without removing the engine, stripping it down entirely, and pressure testing the bare block?
 
If you can get hold of a borescope, you may be able to diagnose the dropped liner from the water ingress steam cleaning a particular cylinder better than it's neighbours, but I believe a pressure test is the only real test that is definitive.
 
My understanding is that dropped liners are rare on narrow bore engines. But then Pilkie had one not that long ago....

Good luck.
 
I've only come across one dropped liner on a 3.5, and that didn't exhibit any symptoms, running well without overheating or knocking, it was only when I sold it to be overhauled and used in a Series Land Rover conversion, that the dropped liner was revealed.
 
Dropped liner? No. Leaking radiator drain plug? Yes! New motor = loadsamoney. Rubber O-ring in place of a copper washer which I hadn't sufficiently compressed = a quid, or thereabouts. Fingers crossed I've found the problem and fixed it... ;)
 
Haven't posted anything since March! Many miles of motoring have been enjoyed since then, albeit on my winter tyres for many months. I knew I needed summer tyres, but didn't want to have them fitted to my Magstars in the scruffy and scratched state they were in, so decided to bite bullet and have my wheels refurbished. Ended up taking longer than I had hoped, but eventually I picked up my newly spiffed-up Magstars last week. They've been bead blasted, but there was still some stubborn old paint left on the inner faces, so they then got chemically cleaned, before being powder coated, then sprayed in an anthracite grey metallic, the front face detailing polished, and coated with a clear finish. Finished off with four new Vredestein Sprint Classic tyres in the correct size. It cost an arm and a leg but I reckon it now looks the business. The tyres are great, I highly recommend 'em. Smartphone photo:
BRV3500H-9Aug2016.jpg

Wish me luck, I have to get a new TÜV (German MOT) next week... Four years already since I got my project back on the road.
 
Haven't posted anything since March! Many miles of motoring have been enjoyed since then, albeit on my winter tyres for many months. I knew I needed summer tyres, but didn't want to have them fitted to my Magstars in the scruffy and scratched state they were in, so decided to bite bullet and have my wheels refurbished. Ended up taking longer than I had hoped, but eventually I picked up my newly spiffed-up Magstars last week. They've been bead blasted, but there was still some stubborn old paint left on the inner faces, so they then got chemically cleaned, before being powder coated, then sprayed in an anthracite grey metallic, the front face detailing polished, and coated with a clear finish. Finished off with four new Vredestein Sprint Classic tyres in the correct size. It cost an arm and a leg but I reckon it now looks the business. The tyres are great, I highly recommend 'em. Smartphone photo:
BRV3500H-9Aug2016.jpg


Wish me luck, I have to get a new TÜV (German MOT) next week... Four years already since I got my project back on the road.

That is a really beautiful shot.
Well done.

Mark.
 
What kind of front/rear springs did you install, in other words, what means lowered, uprated suspension ?
Looks really like it should...
 
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