[Healeys] car dies at idle

Bob Spidell bspidell at comcast.net
Fri Sep 30 12:50:11 MDT 2016


Ah ... that would explain the 'loading up.' Essentially, the engine is flooding. But, I'd expect to see some black smoke out the tailpipe when you blipped the throttles, and I haven't noticed any (but I'll be watching for it now). 

Bob 

----- Original Message -----



Bob's advice includes some excellent tips but one problem that I have encountered numerous times that causes the idle speed of a car with SU carbs to decrease until the engine stops is leakage of the float chamber needle valves. 
Oddly these valves will frequently only leak when the engine is actually running as there is no overflow from the float chambers when the ignition is left on with the engine not running. 
I have discovered that if you quickly remove the carb dampers and needles as soon as the engine stops fuel will be found to be leaking out of the main jet. 
I suspect that engine vibration causes the needle valves to leak sometimes. 
In the past I used to solve the problem by installing the type of needle valve with the synthetic rubber tips but those are hard to find these days. 

Michael S 
BN1 #174 



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