Touring the North West Coast of Scotland in two Austin Sevens, as a family

[Ivor Hawkins]

A brilliant account and incredible scenery, I’m sold!

[Bob Olive]

Completely mad, mad, mad, and yet wonderful at the same time!  Oh, to be young and foolish again.. Well done all of you especially those three girls.

[Duncan Grimmond]

What a fantastic trip, hats off to all of you!

[Stuart Giles]

Ruairidh, Your holiday is certainly a real family adventure, and from the photos you've posted the scenery is really stunning. But are you sure you don't have a heat range, rather than a mixture issue with the spark plugs. if a sparking plug is too soft/hot it will always indicate a weak mixture even when the motor is running really rich as any normal deposits simply burn off the overheated spark plug. I have experienced this, but fortunately it was with a motor on the dyno, so it was more obvious what the actual issue was.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

The spark plugs were not sealing in the head, this allowed air into the combustion chamber, Stuart. Do you think this would weaken the mixture and cause the issues, we experienced?

FYI, both cars were running identical plugs (D16) from the exactly the same source

[Stuart Giles]

The spark plugs were not sealing in the head, this allowed air into the combustion chamber, Stuart.

Would have thought that a plug leak would have a lot more effect on power than mixture; because of the pressure differential between the partial vacuum on the inlet stroke versus the 'squeeze' effect of the compression stroke and also the huge pressure rise at the beginning of the power stroke. Whatever, a leak at the plug seat isn't good, might be worth using some PTFE tape on the threads/plug seating to stop/reduce the leakage until you can get home and sort the plug seat spotfacing issue sorted permanently.

Do you think this would weaken the mixture and cause the issues, we experienced? FYI, both cars were running identical plugs (D16) from the exactly the same source

IIRC, Champion D16 is equivalent to the NGK A6 plug, so not especially a soft/hot plug for an A7. So it does come back to weak mixture. Assuming an SU carb, is the fuel level in the carb visible just below the jet? float fuel level is probably the biggest governing factor for mixture on these carbs, this and the piston spring or piston weight has much more effect on mixture than the carburettor needle. But stopping/reducing the plug leak must be worth doing even if it isn'the root cause of this issue.

All the best for the rest of your family holiday.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Hi Stuart,

The holiday took place a few weeks ago and I am only now telling the story of how it went. 

Since returning home, I have resolved the leaky plug issue and will explain how, shortly.

The carb is a full d/d SU that has been used successfully on the car for over 100k miles.  I only had issues once the new head was fitted. 

Since the plug leaks have been cured, the original (weaker) needle has been reinstalled (this was first fitted to the car in 1990 by Colvin Gunn for me). Reverting to this original set up, without leaky plugs, has resulted in excellent running, and good mixture readings, ever since.

I hope this explains the situation, many thanks.

Ruairidh

[Stuart Giles]

Hi Stuart,

The holiday took place a few weeks ago and I am only now telling the story of how it went. 

Ruairidh

Wasn't aware of that fact, my apologies for cluttering the thread.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Not at all, you are very kind with your time and thoughts, apologies that it was not clear.

Thank you, again.

Ruairidh

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Day 7

We slept well, despite the rain. Putting down a tent and packing up all our gear, in the rain, was not something we were looking forward to, but our destination that day was a bit of a family pilgrimage. Achmelvich is a wonderful, golden sandy beach, a few miles on from Lochinver. I first went there with my parents in their Chummy and have been revisiting ever since. The campsite is small and bookings are normally necessary to ensure a place is available. Tanya had booked our stay there some months back, and today we would need to move on or forfeit the booking.

In the tent we packed all our sleeping bags and mats into bin bags we had bought from the local shop, the trailer was reasonably water tight but the continual rain was really testing it’s ability in this area – bin bags would hopefully help stop our bedding get damp.

In silence we packed, showered and placed ourselves into the cars. Our first task was to retrace our steps into Ullapool to refuel the cars and ourselves – a restaurant provided some shelter from the stair rods and also warm food. The girls bought two new rugs, a peaked hat for Tanya to use in the Ulster whilst I bought some waterproofing for the tent – just in case! Not your normal summer purchases…

   

Tanya led from here, she had been looking forward to driving the famed “Road to the Isles” since she last did so in our Chummy 13 years ago. The weather did not let up and we only stopped briefly as the Ulster would soon start to fill up with water, if stationary. Every so often shards of sunlight would appear out at sea, but never near us, it seemed! The Road to Isles leads from Achiltibuie to Lochinver – the last 2/3 follows the rugged coastline tightly, allowing many coves and beaches to be viewed. Very little traffic uses the windy track and only a few cars passed us, they all waved cheerily from their warm cars!


       
           


Despite the weather, the road was exceptionally pretty and fun to drive along, we arrived at Lochinver during a brief dry spell and I nipped into the shop to look at the provisions we could buy for dinner. When I got back outside, the Ulster was nowhere to be seen. Eventually I found a very cross Tanya, unbeknown to me it had absolutely poured down whilst I was in the shop, so much so that there was no time to raise the roof and both she and Willow had sat, getting completely drenched. Driving about had not really helped much – I was in the bad books, again.

Arriving at Achmelvich was bitter-sweet. We’d made it, but by gum was the weather awful. The far part of the campsite, the only area with space for us, backed on the Atlantic Ocean and it was blowing full tilt, at us! Family strength was needed here, everyone took a handful of pegs as we unfurled the soaking wet tent, these were placed quickly into the loops and hammered firmly in. The large centre pole was erected and I climbed inside to put it into position. It was absolutely soaking wet inside, as I raised the pole all the water pooled into the centre of the groundsheet, an inch deep in places! I returned outside and, already, guy ropes were being unfurled and secured, soon every single one was taut and secure, we’d done it and hugged each other firmly. The tent was too wet to put anything in so I suggested that the girls headed into the toilets to stay out of the wind and rain, whilst I worked out exactly how to dry the floor, at least.

The tea towel was my saviour, it required maybe 30 rungs out to remove the larger part of the water that had collected inside – I now retreated to the toilet block, leaving the tent door open to allow the wind through to try and help with the last of the moisture. We discovered that hot air hand dryers make remarkable body warmers, when necessary!

Eventually I was happy that it was a dry as was possible in the conditions and the bin bag wrapped luggage was transferred from the trailer and into the tent, the bags had done the trick and our bedding was still dry. Whilst the girls huddled in their sleeping bags I cooked tea and wondered what an earth we were actually doing!