Morris Minor Owners Club

i glanced at my car today as i was walking away from it at school and noticed that it was [Don't swear or you will be banned - Admin] out water! this obviously isnt good at all. anyway i checked the water level before i headed home and it was good so i drove off.

that was all fine. at home i checked where it was coming from and it turned out to be the connection between that the block and the heater hose was leaking. just a dud gasket.

replaced that and the heater hoses, and the thermostat, and the fuel filter then bled the cooling system.

started it up, ran very rough on three cylinders, so i put some stuff in the dizzy that removes water. waited 5 mins and tried again. started and went good. so i drive off. i got all of about 20m and it dies then silence....then...boom! backfire. the damn thing wouldnt go after that.

tried a new battery with more charge and ended up just going boom boom boom! the neighbor called out what the F**k is that? lmao!

anyway tinkering found that the leads were all disfunctional.

weird how all the sparkplug leads died just from changing coolant. they didnt get water on them at all!

if anyone has a clue then i would sure like to know incase it happens again.

oh and now with the thermostat it takes 2km to warm up and sits at about 185°F constantly. used to take 10km to warm up and only got to 160°F

Sounds like the 'stuff' you squirted in the dizzy has done the damage!

the thing is, as soon as i changed leads it kicked into life!

No problem ever seems to have one answer!!(another of those deep philosophical sayings). I never cease to be amazed how its always a string of things that seem to happen in quick succession. You are not alone, and there is no applicable logic, so don't even worry about it, just be glad she's running sweet again!

I once squirted the well known water dispersant spray (wd40) into the dizzy on my ford 2.9 Sierra tried to start her and there was an enoumous bang, turned out the dizzy cap had exploded, talking about it to a friend and he told me that model aircraft enthusiasts squirt it directly into the carbs of their little engines when they are reluctant to start, its extreemly flamible a bit like the old deezy start spray and I suppose the WD 40 to air ratio in my dizzy was spot on for the points spark to fire it!

The WD40 is an oily substance - so flammable rather than explosive - but the gas propellant will be explosive if it doesn't have time to disperse before the cap is clamped shut!

The WD40 is an oily substance - so flammable rather than explosive - but the gas propellant will be explosive if it doesn't have time to disperse before the cap is clamped shut!

Any flammable substance well mixed in the correct ratio with air, and ignited in a confined space is EXPLOSIVE.
BME - you did once tell me you worked at a munitions factory! The first 15 minutes of any hazardous environment awareness course would tell you that. Maybe they don't need to tell you that if you work with explosives?

The usual example for the course is flour/air mixture that caused a fatal explosion in a midlands factory - ignited by a ceiling light. Most people wouldn't expect flour to make an explosion, but if you get the conditions right... BOOM!

Indeed - but the WD 40 itself is not going to 'explode' it's too thick/oily to mix with air - the gas propellant (likely propane) will very definitely explode. I don't think flour will work too well in a dizzy - but yes indeed - any fine carbon based powder (so not sand/cement etc) or any fine 'pure ie un oxidised' metal powder will explode. It's often the cause of 'secondary' explosions - where a small explosion throws clouds of fine flour etc dust up in the air - and then that explodes with much more force than the original bang! Yes - I worked in an Explosives factory , and before that in animal feedstuffs environment where the dry feedstuffs in huge silos were a very great explosion risk! I still have all my fingers!