Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,550 Threads: 90
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Location: Monmouthshire
A small contribution. Initial thoughts are indeed too far retarded, or air leaks. Did you check and flatten off all mating surfaces? Which carb? I ask because of my recent experience with the side draught Zenith. A combination of ageing mazak and modern petrol caused problems that were not immediately obvious. However a total strip down and serious inspection showed traces of white flakey powder in various places, nothing big enough for old fashioned jet blocking, but serious attacks with cleaner and a toothbrush restored performance. And talking of performance I must now go and fly the flag of Longbridge in an Inter Reg nav rally.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 53 Threads: 11
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Location: Surrey
PROBLEM SOLVED
After doing nothing but just sitting and staring at the engine, I was looking at: 1-2-4-3 --- doh!
And yet it still ran... ???
OK, so we also had to reposition the distributer about 3 cogs (or maybe 90 degrees), and its all working pretty much as it should.
Thanks again for all the (sensible) suggestions.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 558 Threads: 19
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Location: Hampshire UK
Hi
It sounds as though you had the sense of rotation of the plug leads reversed on the distributor cap. This will make the engine run on 2 cylinders e.g. 1 and 4, the other two will get a spark at the top of the exhaust stroke, which may or may not ignite the unburnt mixture on its way out to the exhaust and cause popping and spitting.
I'm surprised it idled properly, but glad you got it sorted.
I recently spent the best part of an afternoon trying to get a friend's Jaguar XK120 6 cylinder engine to run up on all cylinders, after sitting for 5 years after a rebuild while the rest of the car was restored. Eventually we found out that he had bolted the flywheel on 180 degrees out. The true timing was only discovered by watching one of the exhaust cam lobes through the large hole for the oil filler cap.
