Ticking?

[bmcecosse]

MOT man is not permitted to remove anything........

[chrisryder]

i doubt shielding the pump will be much use, if the fuel getting to it is hot the damage is already done.

a week ago i wrapped my fuel pipe in tin foil and cable ties (proper job!) to see if it would help my erratic pump. i think it may have helped, but not too sure. bit worried it may help to cook it further

i think i suffer more as i have an LCB manifold which comes out further from the engine, unlike the cast manifold which goes straight downwards.

[MikeNash]

Re costs per tick, Katie, my pump does 1860 ticks per gallon, which at £1.40 per litre works out at 0.34 pence per tick! Now if you count the ticks per minute at set speeds on flat roads you can plot glorious graphs of fuel comsumption versus speed! Oh, wot fun!
Regards, MikeN.

[bmcecosse]

You actually counted the ticks while the pump filled a gallon can Mike ?

[MikeNash]

Yup! Mind you Roy, I had one of those ancient electro-mechanical counters to help me. For Jackie’s info, when Roy and I and the world was young you could buy these things v cheap (Proops, Tottenham Court Road, anyone?) and on each electrical pulse, say from an SU petrol pump, they can click over a row of numbers like your mileage readout on your speedo. And fortunately it has a "set zero" button. To work out your miles per gallon you need to calibrate as above, find a flat bit of road on a calm day and drive at a steady speed and then over a half minute or so record the change in reading. Then repeat for other speeds. At the higher speeds, the strain of driving safely, watching your wristwatch and the counter can make you go a bit cross-eyed – but its worth it! For the last 30 years my counter’s been driven by a little semi-conductor circuit; I’m hoping one day I’ll find a electronic wizard who’ll make me a proper electronic readout with a built in timer to stop and start it. That’ll make life simpler. MikeN.

[xpress]

What about when my pump is ticking like mad, is that 34p a tick as well? And is the fuel vapourising 34p worth each tick!?

[Neil MG]

That's 0.34 pence! (or £0.00.34)

No, when it's ticking like mad there is air/vapour in the system, which is free . Although the rapid clicks on start up count as it fills the partially empty carb bowl!

[MikeNash]

Naturally I've a switch that isolates the counting system when I don't want it otherwise, of course, you'll have all the "fill up" ticks on starting etc as well as the counter ticking driving you mad when you don't need it. One aspect of it that I didn't expect is that when I used it when driving to work I'd find that overall consumptions for different routes might not be what I expected. Shorter journeys might not use least fuel 'cos of stop starts, hills etc, and while this is easily understandable the counter puts a figure to it.
MikeN.

[xpress]

mike, with all those ticks and analysis, would you be able to tell us how many miles per gallon you get during city, stop starting, lots of traffic lights and traffic etc? and how many miles you get for a fiver/tenner?

[Dean]

Also Mike... while answering xpress's question, can you tell us the best formula for proper cheese on toast?

[MikeNash]

Well Xpress, I live in the country so much of that doesn't apply. But I've got a curve of speed v mpg somewhere that I'll get out . But I'm off on hols for a fortnight so it'll have to wait. And, of course, its "somewhere safe"! You know the problem. Give me time; it cannot escape. Now re cheese on toast - ah well that's a bit tricky......
MikeN.