2 door VAE 306H

[kevin s]

more or less finished the win carb installation, opened up the hole the exhaust passes through, re-creating the return flange, then primed and brush painted it.

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now have reasonable clesrance to the manifold.

lengthened and angled the breather can so it clears everything.

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[kevin s]

next up was to add abrace between the inlet manifold and block.

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then welded a lambda sensor boss to the downpipe.

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put it all together, connected the fuel lines and servo and it fired straight up, seems to run very nicely, I've only run it for a few minutes as its in the garage, seems a bit rich (afr of around 12:1) but that will change as it warms up.

hopefully get a chance to take it for a spin and a tune up over the weekend, I need to load new software on my laptop do I can get an accurate engine speed out of the ignition controller too.

[kevin s]

spent yesterday fiddling with it, found with the idle set at an afr of 14:1 full load acceleration was fine with it running around 13:1 but at light throttle it stumbled and went off the weak end of the scale(17:1). Took several iterations but eventually managed to modify the needle do it runs in the 13 to 15:1 range pretty much accross the range.

still need to fit the air cleaner and pcv system and do something about the exhaust knocking on the axle but it's slmost there now.

[kevin s]

Twin carb installstion is now completed and running nicely, turned my attention to some other issues before it goes up to Humberside where my son has moved to.

1. knocking over bumps, I thought this was the ESM sports exhaust hitting something but it turned out it was the new telescopic dampers knocking on the top mounting rail, some re-profiling with angle grinder adressed the issue.

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2. drivers door widow is very stiff to do up, this turned out to be the regulator, there is a little circular spring inside the winder gear which I think is supposed to stop the window dropping , it had broken and was binding, in one direction,

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I'm going to try putting it back together without the remains of the ⁶spring and see what happens.
3. Re torqued U bolts, springs etc.

Still a few other odd jobs(some wiring to tidy up and a little area of welding on the B pillar) but its pretty much done now.

[kevin s]

Cleaned up the internals of the window regulator.

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Put it back together without the small spring, used tacks of weld where the tabs had broken off, went back on the car easily enough and seems to work OK.

Next thing is a leak round one of rear side windows (add some sealer) and the drivers side bonnet hinge leaks through the bulkhead, looks like seal is splitting, I'll probably take it off make a new one and fit it with windscreen sealer.

[Sleeper]

" still need to fit the air cleaner and pcv system "

Just might alter the mixture a tad....

John

[kevin s]

I was deliberatly doing it in steps to understand the relative effects but strangley it didn't have much effect I've still got the AFR gauge on it and its pretty much the same. That said I haven't done a sustained high speed run since fitting them though this is where I would expect the pcv to have the least effect, the air cleaners are pretty large (2 mgb ones) so I don't expect them to offer much restriction.

There is a slight fluffiness for a second or 2 where it initially goes lean when you do a light tip in at around 30 mph in top no worse than many carb cars but after 35 years developing new cars I am a bit fussy, I'm going to try some thicker oil in the dash pots which should help.

[MikeNash]

Kevin,
Can you tell us more about your AFR kit that you're fitting? I've always fancied one, and now the prices have come down I'd appreciate advice from an experienced user on what's in the market that's is good/not so good.
Regards from MikeN.

[kevin s]

I'll check the details tomorrow, it certainly makes things easy compared to messing around with colourtune tailpipe and spark plug colour!

Today I sealed between the rear side glass and its seal hopefully that will fix the leak.

Also undid the bonnet hinge from the bulkhead the gasket was in shreads.

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For some reason the hinge had bolts and nuts rather than studs so I cut them down to form studs.

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Refitted it with a piece of inner tube as a seal and plenty of screen sealer

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[kevin s]

This is the gauge I am using with a wide band sensor.

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reads fron 10:1 to 17:1, it won't be the ideal 14.7:1 all the time with a carb, but if you can keep it between 13:1 and 15:1 thats pretty good for a carb and it will drive nicely.

Been attending to a little area of rust,

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cut it out and made a repair piece.

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fully welded and primed.

[kevin s]

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.

also had some surface rust on the kick plate where the door seal rubs.

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For now I've treated it and primed with epoxy, if it continues to be a problem It might be best to replace with stainless parts, for now I'm going to stone chip paint then overcoat with topcoat them and the bottom inch of the body which keeps suffering from stone chips.