Morris Minor Owners Club

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

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

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

Thanks both: will try this and hopefully will help.

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.