Glen wrote:
>This is interesting. I have noticed that when the engine is colder (after a
>start or letting it sit for an hour or two then getting back in for another
>drive) the slipping/starvation/timing problem is not present. After at least
>15-30 minutes of hard driving the problem returns.
And originally, Glen wrote:
>At high revs in all gears I intermittently get a drop off in
>power that feels as if my wheels are slipping in water.
When I read your first post, this sentence struck me as odd, because
it seems to imply slippage, yet the rest of your message seemed to
point to a 'real' power loss. Plus, you noted that you just
installed a new clutch, so I quickly concluded that the English
language just wasn't serving us all that well at the moment, and that
you were experiencing an engine problem of some sort.
But your most recent post mentions slipping again and so I think we
need to re-examine what the car is doing. If you have fuel
starvation, the engine should suddenly sort-of 'gasp' and then all
power is gone and the engine is no longer running. I have had a
clogged-line problem before (Datsun B210) that was intermittent
it
had to do with sediment in the tank that had been stirred up. After
the car sat for a time, you could drive it again, but eventually the
sediment would clog the line again and the car would gasp and lurch
when you put a load on it, but usually ran okay going downhill.
With an ignition problem, you could get more erratic running, random
misfiring,backfires and thus a loss of power, or it could simply die
suddenly. Ignition problems can be load-related as well, if I'm not
mistaken.
The key is this: Both of the above conditions, in any and all of
their various forms, would cause the engine to lose revs, and thus
power. In some cases, the engine might lose so many revs that it
would actually stop running. But if you are perceiving a 'loss of
power' while the engine suddenly revs HIGHER, then we're not talking
about a either of the above. We're talking about slippage at either
the clutch or the overdrive. Neither a fuel starvation problem nor
an ignition problem would ever cause an engine to suddenly gain rpm
while losing power.
Pay attention to the rpms next time you're out. If the rpms drop
when you 'lose power' then you're back to either fuel or ignition.
But if the rpms increase with the perceived loss of power, then
you're talking about slippage in the drivetrain somewhere. That is,
the engine is still running fine and producing power, but the
drivetrain is not putting that power to the rear wheels and so it
feels like the power is suddenly gone.
--
Pete Chadwell
1973 TR6
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