Loss of power above 30mph

[Morgen]

Hi,

My sisters Minor has recently developed a problem which I think sounds like it could be the beginning of the end for her current head gasket but as I can't get to her car just now I wondered what others would make of this description:

Her car apparently lost power suddenly while driving at a steady 50 and over the next mile or two seemed to 'wind down' to a stop. There was no 'chugging'. After a couple of minutes the car started again and seemed to take off fine, up to 30 when the power loss became apparent again and the car once more slowly ran out of puff. On a third attempt to get home the car started and my sister drove back without any problems (albeit with less power) at around 25mph.

Any thoughts?
Thanks, Morgen

P.S. I know this would really belong in another thread but she is changing her wings soon and I wondered if anyone had heard of plastic wheel arch liners to sit under the wings that would fit a Minor? I have ones on my Mini and they haven't half helped with wing/scuttle/a-panel and front panel longevity!

[kittyfell]

The power problem may be fuel feed shortage due to sticky pump, or vacuum forming in the tank. It's also possible but unlikely that it was icing in the carb. When the head gasket goes the engine shakes violently and can barely move the car. I agree that plastic liners would be good, but I haven't heard of any suppliers.

[hotrodder13]

[quote="kittyfell"] When the head gasket goes the engine shakes violently and can barely move the car.quote]

when i blew my head gasket it could get up to 25 mph and no more

[aupickup]

also accompanied by more noise and very rough running though will go

[charlie_morris_minor]

on your other question..

i seem to recall a private individual made up some wheel arch liners a few years ago and was going to make more to sell but have not heard / read anything since

[chickenjohn]

If there is no chugging it will not be the classic head gasket gone between cylinders 2 and 3. Try the points gap- if it has closed or opened too much then the car will struggle, also, while in the distributor change the condensor as modern repro condensors are poorer quality than they used to be and sometimes don't even last the 1 year between service kits!

On the subject of plastic liners, they didn't prevent the bottom of the wings in my "other" classic (944 S2) from rusting out. Plastic liners can also trap moisture and mud and encourage rust (seen this on a Punto as well). Just keep the under wing area hosed clean of mud and regularly waxoyled/ dinitroled. I prefer active prevention to passive protection where you can't see what is going on.

[Morgen]

Thanks everyone, will investigate for potential dizzy and fuel supply problems.

The only reason I thought it could be the head gasket is that I once had a similar break down. I've had four head gaskets going in different cars and three of them are as described here. However, one in my mini went once and at first I would never have diagnosed it as the head gasket since the car kept running more or less fine with only intermittent stuttering/power loss. I was quite far away from home so just drove steadily at about 40 and it was fine - then I'm assuming the gasket suddenly burnt through and the car shook, within a minute the temp hit the red, it was obvious then that it was the gasket and I stopped (on a tiny B road - it was a long cold wait to be trailered home). If I hadn't been far from home then the initial symptom wouldn't have led me to the gasket.

All things considered though, sounds like this one is not the gasket.

Thanks again.

[washer-bottle]

Is the coil getting too hot to touch when the Minor stops? If so check the rotor arm is not shorting the spark to ground.

Wheel arch liners were made up by one of the more active local branches and advertised in MM a year or so ago. I can't remember which one.

Al