Advice needed for depressed MK1 owner.....

Hi,
I fitted a 1.3 lump with a weber carb into my 1.1 and all was good for a couple of days run really well…..Then after coming out of a shop she just would not run.
It would start but ran really bad then if you tried to move off / rev at all just cut out.

After 7 hours in the car park with friends and RAC (very good spent 3 hours on the car!) i was towed home thinking it may the coil breaking down under load?…. :dontknow:

I have now replaced the coil / dizzy / points / leads / condenser  / spark plugs and still no better just wont run smooth.

Taken of fuel supply and tried easy start straight down carb but no good. Rac blew out the carb so happy not blocked. I am going to carry out compression test tomorrow as feel this is next step but quite sure all will be good and no black smoke coming out and purchased both engine and carb through other mk1 owners on here so happy with history of parts.

Has anyone got ANY ideas / advice please  :dontknow:  
Thanks, Dave

There's not enough info yet to tell what it is but a compression test will reveal if its a head gasket failure or something else.

Unless the engine was new or had just been rebuilt, its completely possible its a head gasket - they don't last for ever. Its not too complex a repair though.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

Stuck at work so have not done compression test as yet, will do one night this week.

The engine had just has head gasket done an new bolts fitted but will still do test.

I have been doing a bit of reading With regards to the weber 34. Should this have anything else of the fuel line I read about a "Y" pipe fitted??? I have just got my pipes from the fuel pump to the carb?…

perhaps the seal under the carb not jointing properly so too much air sucking in?

No idea on carbs , but worth checking any vacumn pipes , or seals..also have a search on the forum through the old posts in that section ..........sure answer will be in there somewhere ?

Its not a vacuum leak, a car would start even with a vacuum leak, using easy start.

paul_c said

Its not a vacuum leak, a car would start even with a vacuum leak, using easy start.

It does start tho…

It just won't run properly

It sounds exactly like a vacuum leak somewhere….

I didn't get that impression from 333's posts, but I could just be reading things wrong. Anyway, as a general rule, vacuum leaks unless they're massive leaks, make it idle poorly (too lean mixture due to too much air) but the running gets more and more normal (tending towards normal running) as the speed and load increases (ie throttle is opened as it would be for driving) because the vac leak is typically a fixed amount of air, so with the throttle open it tends towards normal air:fuel mixture. That didn't come across as the case here in the original posts.

Anyway, plenty of things for the original poster to check out when he gets a chance.

In any case, if just a minor vacuum leak you can bump the mixture up as a "get you home" measure. I'd assume the RAC guy would have tried this in his 3 hours with the car? Who knows?

paul_c said

 running gets more and more normal (tending towards normal running) as the speed and load increases (ie throttle is opened as it would be for driving) because the vac leak is typically a fixed amount of air, so with the throttle open it tends towards normal air:fuel mixture. .

Ah I never thought of that….

Thanks for the posts.

It does start as such but running SO bad you turn it straight of anyway.

Wednesday is the day of action have a couple of friends coming to help and we are going to go through the lot. Ill post up the results.

I think air leak as well but when i have sprayed all round the mainifold etc when running (bad but running) and no change, i was looking for a change in note when spraying if there was a leak…..

this things are put here to test us!

Again thanks for the post, all / any suggestions welcome.
Dave

You MUST have the 'Y' piece fitted in accordance with the Weber instructions - it you don't, you'll be over-fuelling like mad and flooding the engine

Weber part number is 999000898 and Anthony at Fast Road Cars will be able to supply it 01495 244362 or sales@fastroadcars.co.uk

UPDATE…….

After a couple of weeks and no luck i worked out this problem ME!  :redfaced:

i had fitted the carb back to front so i turned it 180 and reconnected and all good. The issue was the vacuum pipe was on the fuel return. this had not caused a issue for a while as i was running around on a small amount of fuel.
Once i had filled the tank up there was less air in the tank causing the fuel to be sucked up into the mainifold !!!!
As i have never fitted one before i just did not think about what way it went round and i had had it up and running for a while and all driving ok. I think if it had never of started from when i first fitted it, i would of solved the issue sooner

now i have fitted this and the "Y" as well, all working.

thanks again for all advice. Dave