Well, it's only been 4 years or so that I've been trying to get this thing
running in my copious "free time". It would run, but not well.
Last week, I had inquired about re-torqueing the head bolts because I knew I
had to do it, I just didn't realize that I was so late in doing it. So I
resolved to, over the long weekend, get that done.
During the dismal Indy 500, I, with the help of another British car fan
friend, started 'er on up and got 'er up to temp before tearing into the top
of the head. Ran ok, for 15 minutes or so, then we got the valve cover off,
rocker arm shaft off, and retorqued the head bolts in the proper sequence.
All felt good, so we got the rocker arm shaft back on and proceeded to
re-set the valve clearances. All the valves were still in spec except for
one which was just *barely* out, and one other that, if it was out of spec
at all, it was only out by tiny fractions of a thousandth - so I left it
alone.
While we had the top end opened up, we decided to put my electronic
distributor back in, thereby finally removing the points type distributor so
generously loaned to me by Clark Nicholls those many, many moons ago.
(Clark, are you going to be at Lime Rock for the Ferrari Challenge races
this year??)
Got that in, buttoned everything back up, and fired 'er on up again. She
was running pretty well, but we tinkered with the timing and idle a little
bit. Got it to run pretty well (remember, this is up to full operating
temp) with an idle of about 1700-1800 and the timing at about 18 BTDC +/- 2.
We figured that with the new, tight engine, hotter cam I have in it now
(the Kent hot street cam set with dual valve springs), higher compression
pistons (9:1), etc., this would be the best we could expect. For now.
There were the joys.
We made plans to do a longer distance (vice just around the neighborhood)
road test yesterday (Memorial Day). But at the appointed time, the Spit
wouldn't start. It tried a few times, spit, sputtered, chugged along for a
few revs, but ultimately died. I know it only takes three things - fuel,
air, and spark. I know I've got fuel because we found some leaking out the
bottom of the jets (Dang!! Another stupid problem to fix - why did I bother
to have these professionally rebuilt??? SU HS-4s, by the way), I know I've
got air (duh), and I'm pretty sure I've got spark because it was trying to
fire a few times. And because it ran the night before (Crane XR-700, btw)
These *are* the sorrows.
What I haven't done yet is pull a plug to verify the spark (though it was
running beautifully the night before), or look inside the dist. cap to see
if it's doing some funky things in there (which I doubt considering how well
it ran the night before).
So now I'm soliciting suggestions. Obviously, I have a jet leak to fix
(#%*&!), but where do I go from here???
Why would it run so well the night before, but not even start the next
morning (when nothing has changed)???
Thanks,
George P.
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