potential engine knocking?

[dudload]

little update after Henry managed to make it to Glasto and back - after following the tuning advice (i just cannot get into the dizzy bolts to remove it to be able to put the oil pressure gauge in for the life of me) the car has totally lost the loud knocking noise when going up hill in 4th. however, it still has a very slight tinkling across all gears until it hits around 45mph where it disappears.

i assume this means i need to retard further, but will need to buy a new plastic pipe as suggested as the metal pipe won't let me turn any further anti-clockwise?

[bmcecosse]

Does sound like a tiny bit too advanced. Dunno why you find the dizzy bolts difficult. Should be right there and easy. You may need to turn the dizzy one gear tooth round (clockwise) to gte enough room for the oil pressure adapter. Plastic pipe sounds like a good idea.

[dudload]

Thanks, ordered the plastic pipe you linked and will install before the drive to national on saturday.

One strange thing did happen on the long drive however, shortly coming of the m3 I hit a slow traffic jam and had to crawl along in first. After about 5 mins the car developed a misfire and died - it started again first time but was a bit rough for a few minutes. Does that sound symptomatic of anything or could it just be a touch of overheating?

[bmcecosse]

Just a fit of 'the vapours' I guess - ie fuel overheating and the pump struggling. Was it hammering away 19 to the dozen?

[dudload]

On the motorway it sure was, Sat at 65 almost the whole way then very quickly down to crawling along in first at 5mph. Glad it's nothing serious!

[bmcecosse]

The real answer is to mount the pump much lower down in the engine bay - so it has 'flooded suction' from the tank - end of all the problem, Or - if the block has the opening - fit a mechanical pump from a Mini.

[dudload]

thanks - I guess it's a bit of an unusual situation that happened as it was very slow moving traffic all of a sudden. will see how it behaves on the way to the nationals.

on the dizzy - I can't for the life of me see how anyone can get at that back nut by the oil (pump?) and the pressure release valve pipe. working from on top, even the smallish spanners I have don't have enough room to move in there.

[bmcecosse]

Undo the two bolts and lift the whole thing out - sound like it needs to be turned one tooth on the cam drive anyway.

[dudload]

my problem is undoing those two bolts though - just cant get a spanner to fit in the extremely cramped conditions - especially for the back bolt. any tips on how to get at the blooming things?

[bmcecosse]

Just undo the single bolt on the clamp -and pull....... You are way overthinking this.....

[dudload]

is that not the bolt i'm not meant to touch for want of disturbing the timing? granted i can just take a picture and put everything back the way it was, but can it be removed once the timing clamp is loosened?

[bmcecosse]

Don't worry about the 'timing' - it's probably wrong anyway. But by all means mark it with white paint or similar.

[dudload]

just as an update - still haven't got round to fitting the oil filter, but planning on doing it at the beginning of august when i have a bit of time now.

one thing that has come up now that i've fixed the timing and don't have any pinking - when starting the car i do now need to keep quite a bit of choke and a little bit of revving to keep it going for about a minute or two. this is even in warm weather like today.

doesn't quite seem right to me as it used to start and run smoothly - spark plugs are a nice (light) tan colour. could it be i need to advance a little more or enrich the mixture slightly?

[bmcecosse]

Quite normal really - the first part of the 'choke' (it's not really a choke..) is intended to give you a fast idle - adjust the screw to get this - then after a couple of minutes you should be able to push it home, and the revs will drop to the normal idle speed.

[dudload]

sorry to be an idiot - must be testing patience, but can you just loosen the clamp bolt sufficiently to allow the dizzy to be withdrawn? i.e. the two bolts either side (that i can't get anywhere near) don't need to be touched?

[liammonty]

In a word, yes

[bmcecosse]

But much easier to just undo the ONE bolt on the clamp. The dizzy will NOT come out if you just slacken the two screws holding the plate to the block.

[dudload]

a long overdue update all!

spent some time today fitting the oil pressure gauge and got everything ready to put the new dizzy in, BUT hit a snag. the bloomin dizzy clamp was warped meaning i couldnt get the new dizzy all the way in meaning the rotor arm wouldn't turn when engine was turned over. beats me how the old one fit but the new dizzy doesn't (although it does explain why it was so bloomin tough to remove the old one!), but took the clamp off and tried to use pliers to get it circular again, but was marginally off.

anyway rain put paid to my work and for ease have ordered a new dizzy plate from moss europe.

one thing that may crop up - with the t junction for the oil pressure gauge now fitted, its very tight and i can see i wont be able to retard the dizzy very far at all. hopefully i won't need that much leway but it's getting cramped in there!

[bmcecosse]

So just turn it one tooth round as necessary. This mole hill is turning into a real mountain.......