Another disturbing noise from Ruby

[John Cornforth]

Hi again Denis

I rebuilt my engine as a novice, nearly 20 years ago.

I too was caught out by the 360 in lb torque figure, which was an error in an Austin publication that has trapped many people over the years. I didn't stretch any studs though. Before fretting too much about the figure, remember that a good proportion of the torque is down to friction which in turn will depend on the roughness of the threads and any lubrication or lack of. As long as they are reasonably tight with a hand spanner, and re-checked frequently when cold, you should be OK. The front water branch has a paper gasket which can settle, so those two particular studs may loosen initially.

I remember that the bores were very oily until the engine had run in for a few hundred miles and the rings had bedded down. Even with the water drained, as soon as you separate the head from the block you will get a mess of oil and water, so genuine gasket leakage can be hard to spot. Any leakage would normally have shown up on a compression test.

The only last thing I can think of is that the block face has been raised a little around one or more studs, something a straight edge will reveal. The standard advice is to remove the studs and lightly chamfer the holes, but stud removal runs the risk of breakage and having to seal the threads against water leakage so not something to be undertaken lightly.

[Denis Sweeney]

As Willie Nelson sang “Ain’t it good to be back on the road again…..” so having put Ruby all back together again and had her running on the drive yesterday I took her out for the first trip today.
All seemed to go well and was impressed with the way she was pulling.
The timing was set at the mid point between 1 1/4 and 2” before top dead centre. I have made a pointer fixed to the crankcase and made a permanent marking on the fan pulley so this can be used at any point in the future.
However, the engine seems to be ticking over too fast. I checked the bolts on the carburettor and found I could tighten these further. I have backed off the throttle stop screw as far as possible also the interconnection screw so cannot reduce these any further. The air regulator screw is new and was set by closing this down as far as possible and turning this back one full turn as noted in the Zenith bulletin, but the tickover speed still seems to high. However there is a lag when you first accelerate, not sure if this is a carburettor or timing issue.
The other issue of note is the excessive smoking from the exhaust, now this is the first driving of Ruby after fitting new rings and honing. The plugs were very oily so I have checked the compressions and all are 120 +or- 1.
I realise this may be completely normal but any words of wisdom would be much appreciated.

[John Mason]

Re the entry by David Stepney about using fine emery cloth on the head. I would not do this as there is a good chance of loosing the flat surface we all strive for. I use a very fine flat sharpening stone which has a large flat area too keep things flat.

John Mason

[Reckless Rat]

Denis, do you have a manual advance dizzy or a later one with bob weights? If it's a later one your timing will be too advanced if you've set static at 1 1/4" or more. That's probably why it's running fast at tick-over. I'm sure the oil burning will settle once you've run the car a bit.

[Denis Sweeney]

Reckers, the dizzie is a DK4A with bob weights. The serial number of the dizzie, I am advised, means it originated from an Austin 10, but as far I can see is identical to the original DK4A which was a tad tired.