More Help! Car Now Cutting Out

Evening all

I am having yet more problems with the car. I drove her to work today, 1st long trip since putting the engine back in and it seems to have developed a cutting out fault. On the way to work it cut out once but on the way home this evening it must of cut out 6-7 times.

Basically the car starts fine and then drives fine, but after a short while when driving it splutters and loses revs then cuts out. The car will not immediately start again unless i pull the choke fully open in which it will start with obviously high revs. I can then drop the revs, carry on until the next time it starts to lose revs and cuts out. I can then do the same and it goes again.

Does anyone with any experience with these engines have any ideas what the problem may be? It cant be fuel as the filter is full and the car drives for a while, but i cant for the life of me think of anything else.

Any info would be great as i need to use the car in the morning.

Thanks

David

Any advice anyone? I need some urgent help.

I'm guessing it's a 1.3 or something? May be worth looking at the distributor as oil can sometimes get in there and the car would cut out but not sure if pulling the choke out would get round it - just a suggestion

ianmac1 said

I'm guessing it's a 1.3 or something? May be worth looking at the distributor as oil can sometimes get in there and the car would cut out but not sure if pulling the choke out would get round it - just a suggestion

Yeah its a 1.3 carb engine.

I will give what you suggested a look when i am in from work.

I have scoured the tinterweb and alot of the symtoms appear to point to something called 'Carb Icing'. Does anyone know much about this or how i can tell if i am suffering from it?

Also is there a chance it may be the fuel pump?

Everything else is new so cant think of what else it may be. Although running rough, it was doing this before the engine came out.

Thanks

if it is the dizzy if you clean the oil out and replace it would be ok temporarily but would probably need a new oil seal (my mk1 1.3 driver suffered from this).
If you think it is a fuel supply problem could be worth dribbling some fuel into the carb and see if it runs straight away, could still be a fuel filter probelm…has it been changed recently? (in line?)

why was the engine taken out?

ianmac1 said

if it is the dizzy if you clean the oil out and replace it would be ok temporarily but would probably need a new oil seal (my mk1 1.3 driver suffered from this).
If you think it is a fuel supply problem could be worth dribbling some fuel into the carb and see if it runs straight away, could still be a fuel filter probelm…has it been changed recently? (in line?)

why was the engine taken out?

I took the engine out as it started to fail to start as it was getting colder (About a month ago), so figured i would revamp everything including headgasket and clean the bay up. It is since putting it back in a few days ago (Now icey mornings) that is has the problem.

I have replaced pretty much everything. Headgasket, Thermostat, Oil seals in Cylinder Head, Fuel Filter, Spark Plugs, HT Leads, Dizzy & Rotor Arm.

The car starts fine now, will idle ok when warm and will initially drive fine. As soon as i get up to speeds it then cuts out. I can then start it again a few mins later only for it to do the same thing further up the road. Although it was getting cold before i took the engine out it wasnt icey like it is now. Having googled my problem this carb ice thing keeps popping up. I also do not have the manifold cover with the pipe coming off of it. Doe you have any experience with this at all?

Thanks, your time is much appreciated!

I did have aproblem with mine when i got it
mine ended up being the seal under the airbox letting in air made a new rubber seal and problem has gone away
Hope this helps

Dub_geezer said

I did have aproblem with mine when i got it
mine ended up being the seal under the airbox letting in air made a new rubber seal and problem has gone away
Hope this helps

Another thing i can check, thank you.

No probs good luck with it

Check for crap at the fuel pickup, and does it have a fuel seperator bolted to the carb ( 3 pipes )

TT

twinturbo said

Check for crap at the fuel pickup, and does it have a fuel seperator bolted to the carb ( 3 pipes )

TT

It is a completely standard carb so no seperator as far as i am aware, certainly not 3 pipes bolted to it anyway  :? What would having a seperator achieve or not achieve?

Does anyone know how easy carbs are to strip down? This whole business is getting slight tedious now  

Can anyone advise me what the black tube coming directly out of the back of the carb is? It is a short pipe but mine doesnt lead anywhere it is capped off with a screw?

Cheers

David

Bump!

Pic?

This definitely sounds like carb icing - it doesn't need to be sub-zero for it to happen - as soon as you're around single figures (in centigrade) it will happen

There are two measures designed to overcome it - the first (and most effective) is the warm air intake from the exhaust manifold heatshield - if this isn't connected, you WILL get icing

Also, if the vacuum tube to the air control flap in the airbox is disconnected, the air will still be coming from the cold air feed, rather than from the manifold

Secondly, the inlet manifold is heated by exhaust gas - make sure you still have the small-bore pipe running from the bottom of the inlet manifold to the exhaust downpipe - again, if this is disconnected (blanked off) you won't stand a chance when the weather gets cold

Incidentally, carb icing is worse on damp cold days (as opposed to dry cold days)

My advice would be to get the inlet system back to standard

Thanks for all of the advice so far, i am going to get on with it this afternoon as soon as i finish work.

I dont suppose anyone knows of any pictures floating about of the standard set up?

i have had all theese problems about a month ago my 1.3 kept cutting out and i also had to yank out the choke to get it to stay runing.

i checked the timing. adjusted the mixture as it was a bit weak, new plugs and cleaned the contacts 4for the earth cable from gear box to chasis leg.and changed the advance and retard thingy yanked fuel pipe of the carb and cranked engine over to check the fuel pump(which was fine).

hope this is of any help.
 good luck.
and i havent a problem since :mrgreen:
p.s for got to mention i cleared out the breather pipe as it was full of gunk.

Just a quick update on my problem.

I think it may be solved, and those of you that suggested carb icing i think are correct. Following on from peoples suggestions of carb icing i took my K&N bolt on off and re installed my old air box. I then hooked up the vacuum pipe which someone had capped off previously and the ran a test bit of hose from the manifold area to the air box (Test piece was a Dyson hose as i dont have a heatshield for the manifold or a proper pipe yet   ) but after doing all that it appears to be going ok.

It was abit jittery to start with, but i have now driven around 80 miles without too much of a problem.

I am however having a cold start issue, but it could be me with the choke as its my first manual choke car. We will wait and see, but there may be another problem post shortly!

Thanks again to everyone who helped.

David