Poor Running

Post by **AJT** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:41 am

Hi All,

my Morris is pinking when hot, with a considerable loss of power: it can have a tendency to run on as well. The car runs fine when cold with no loss of power.

Getting the timing right has been problematic since having an unleaded head fitted: after a recent visit to a MM garage it's considerably worse.

Having read the various threads here I'm unsure if I should if I should retard the timing (to stop the pinking) or advance it (to stop the running on).

Any ideas?

Thanks

Post by **Rob_Jennings** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:03 am

sounds like its over advanced, wind it back a little

you also might want to check that the vacuum retard mechanism in the dizzy is working correctly as that can have a big impact on performance once things warm up a bit

Post by **alex_holden** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:04 am

Retard it - pinking can eventually wreck the engine whereas run-on is just irritating.

Post by **AJT** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:00 pm

Thanks both: will try this and hopefully will help.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:15 pm

But it may only be 'pinking' because it is running excessively hot. You say it's ok when cold. Why should it be difficult to set the timing ? Sounds like a great 'MM' garage!
I would retard it and see if that helps - at least it won't do any damage. But could be seized up dizzy internals (and/or vac advance) - so changing to a known good spare dizzy may be worth trying.