Atmo..........................

Regarding Thermostat,
Im with John on this one.
If you remove it will send all water to rad keeping temps low, the purpose of rad is to improve efficiancy to allow the engine to get up to temp quicker before opening and routing water to rad.
If in doubt remove.

Regarding Thermostat,...Im with John on this one...........If in doubt remove.

Dave, I have changed my mind on this one since seeing the Alp`s stat. See Members Only Section for details, also I`ve sent you a PM

Don't just remove the stat, firstly you need to close the re-circ circuit with something, and second you must use a restrictor plate. If you don't the flow rate through the rad will be too high and you will lose block pressure and cooling capability - need a little latency time to lose heat. Use a simple plate with a 13-15mm dia hole, adjust to suit

John,
Haven't looked at your post in the members section yet.
Typical that the french numpties would devise a system that needs a thermostat to stay cool hahaha.

Dave

John,
Haven't looked at your post in the members section yet.
Typical that the french numpties would devise a system that needs a thermostat to stay cool hahaha.

Dave

Simon....With respect to your persieved high fuel consumption....there are many more factors than carb adjustment that will affect that. Before you touch the carb, it is more important to:- check for fuel leakage...check plugs & gaps....check condition of leads, distributor cap & rotor arm, once you are happy with all of these...... the most important check is the IGNITION TIMING and make sure that is spot on, if all these things are not perfect, poor fuel comsumption can result.
Like I said to you in my PM, you have very little control over carb adjustment..... if that adjustment (mixture) is say too rich, it will only be rich at idle revs and will have no effect what so ever once the engine revs are raised above idle. So the percentage of time the engine is running rich is minimal, and therefore its effect on fuel consumption is also minimal.
I also asked if you had a manual on the carbs, as it is very important that you fully understand its working principles before you do anything to them. Remember these are fixed jet carbs and therefore unless someone has changed the jets or adjusted the linkages there is little you can do except keep it clean and linkages lubricated. As far as the cold start part of the carb is concerned, unless someone has started bending levers or adjusting linkages, it works extreemly well, but you would do well to understand the accelerated idle circuit before tampering with it.
Look....what I will do is PM you my phone number and if you want a chat about the carbs give me a call any evening and I will try and talk you through their workings.......10 mins on the phone is better than hours of postings and PM`s....but its entirely up to you

Cheers

John

First stop - float level, floats (make sure not pin-holed or cracked), and float valve - must shut off and not bleed fuel under pressure. This is the starting point; if these parts aren't serviceable then you are going to get nowhere fast....

Correctamonda John!

You can lead a horse to water.............

Correctamonda John!

You can lead a horse to water.............

To be honest I'm more donkey where it comes to the carb set up on these, however, the dizzy cap and points are good the leads high performance and new the timing was set up by strobe. The carb was rebuilt although it would appear the fast idle has gone up the shoot. I think it may be possible I have found part of the problem with this. I removed the cover and the two two sprung loaded arms were a little seized up I freed these off and they now move freely. I will see how it starts in the morning before taking it for a CO test. I will try and get the mixture adjusted and the idle set up.

I have a manual and the carb set looks a little daunting to say the least....in fact I think it loss easier to drop an even fire injected lump in rather than tackle that. To be honest I don thave the patience time or energy to even know where to start with it so I hope I get some improvement tomorrow. I have always had a problem with tick over. If you drive the car from cold the throttle response is terrible, far too rich until it warms up after that it drives quite nicely Just some hesitation at the bottom end. Is it possible that the auto choke not coming off properly and over fueling. When idling the car often smells of fuel.

The car has three branch manifolds fitted, would this have a large effect on consumption when driven carefully?

Calling Belfast do you have any balls, clee's balls have all been sold and he suggested I asked you Simon says?

I am hoping Simon says.......yes ??? Gear linkage balls that is !

Si21

I'll have a look for you Simon.

Please trust Jonh and I. The CO. has zero effect to your MPG.

Jetting has everything to do with MPG

3 branch manifolds have nothing to do with CO or MPG

Your choke staying on has everything to do with your MPG and CO.

Carbs are simple, you only need to adjust the CO come MOT time and keep everything lubricated.

If 'they' have adjusted 'things' then you have to revert back to the setting in the manual.

Hi

I am not disbelieveing what either of you are saying and I don't believe that there is that much wrong with the overall set up of the carbs and whilst I do not totally appreciate or have a good understanding on how the whole set up works o do understand the principles of fixed jets and that fueling only increases with size of jet.

When I was first putting the carbs on the engine it was noticed that the mechanism for the fast idle was totally seized up, the spring clip was removed and the parts cleaned up lubricated and reassembled and forgotten about . It was not until last night when I took the cover off did I remember what had happened a year and a half ago or more. I am hoping that this was making the cold choke stay on slightly and run rich. We have obviously tried to get a nice tickover and adjusted the Co and air screw to try and make it as drivable as possible. However the fact that the car will not tickover nicely or does not respond very well to the air screw suggests go me that the mixture is so rich it does not matter how much air you add it will never compensate for the fuel, when driven from cold the car has no throttle response until it warms up and I mean is as flat as a pancake, I assume from this its because of the cold start being over enriched.

I don't believe there is any thing wrongs with timing ignition etc plugs are all new. When struggling to get the car running initially the car regularly sooted up its plugs I put so many new sets in as it kept fouling them up. The ignition module was replaced (good second hand) and this helped matters a hell of a lot. I believe the rough tickover is due to fueling. Well I guess ill find out exactly what it is doing that's my whole reason for getting the checked before trying to get the car tested.

My dad is away now but I will endeavour to get the ignition timing double checked especially as the car appears to be running a few degrees hotter than I would like as per johns recommendation.

As always thanks for your all your advice its always gratefully received

Si21

Simon, there is an easy way to check if the cold start is working correctly. When the engine is cold the flap which is situated above the throttle butterfly of the single front carb should be closed, when the engine has reached full operating temp, the flap should be open, also no adjustments should be made to the mixture untill the engin has reached FOT with the flap open and the engine has been running for at least 20mins (from cold) see page B-41 of manual "Anti-pollution system for Europe", also check adjustment "1" of "Accelerated Idle Adjustment" B-39 in manual.......the chances of adjustment "2" being out is pretty remote,so I would not touch at this stage

Simon, there is an easy way to check if the cold start is working correctly. When the engine is cold the flap which is situated above the throttle butterfly of the single front carb should be closed, when the engine has reached full operating temp, the flap should be open, also no adjustments should be made to the mixture untill the engin has reached FOT with the flap open and the engine has been running for at least 20mins (from cold) see page B-41 of manual "Anti-pollution system for Europe", also check adjustment "1" of "Accelerated Idle Adjustment" B-39 in manual.......the chances of adjustment "2" being out is pretty remote,so I would not touch at this stage

Been to the MOT station this morning.....not good news with the idle mixture screw fully in the CO reads 12. something the something seems quite irelevant since its nearly 4 times over the max so much for my car being set up and rebuilt

It would look as if the cold start is operating the flap correctly from what i have seen last night in respect of Johns comments ... I feel like making some adjustments with a sledge hammer, I cant believe its so far out


The touble is I dont know any of the history on the carbs that are on the car, I bought these second hand as a pair that came of a PRV that had been fitted into a kit car all I know is that the engine ran, I spent money and had the single choke rebuilt and I am still having serious problems. it must be thre choke set up, but then I could spend all that time trying to set it up and still not suceed and I just dont have the patients, knoweldge, money or time TBH

On the upside at least the I know where the fuel is going and once fixed the economy can only improve

si21......I like a challenge - currenly learning to play golf with a single choke Solex carb and a sledghammer for a club

New to me carb set up courtesy of Big MVS will be cleaned up and fitted over the next couple of evenings ....then its test time Saturday

Everything crossed not just my fingers

Carbs look untouched not messed around with and I am hoping that they will run on my car as they did on the previous owners sweet, low emissions and reasonable economy.

I must be able to get more than 18 MPG on a steady run surely

Si21

Good stuff Simon! Hope it gets you up and running nicely so that you get some real pleasure out of your car soon Bonus - you have some Summer left Great! Get to it then.. nothing better than a bit of Big Ms rejuvenation service