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Engine cutting out.


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Hi Everyone!

Yet again I find myself needing your expertise.

I've taken full advantage of this glorious weather, and covered just on 200 miles in the past 24hours, 180 of which were trouble free!

I got stuck on a couple of occasions in gridlocked traffic, and nervously watched the temperature gauge creep slowly towards the red. Fortunately though the traffic eased before I got too worried about overheating.

I then drove approximately 30 dual carriageway miles without the car missing a beat.

However, when I had to eventually slow down for traffic lights, the engine stalled. Started up no problem,but then it stalled again, and again, and again. In fact every time I eased off the throttle it stalled!

After letting it cool down for 45 mins, I attempted to continue my journey. It started up OK, but felt like it would stall the second I took my foot off the gas.

Managed to complete the last 10 miles home by keeping it in 3rd gear.

I'm a total 'dullard' when it comes to anything to do with cars, but something is telling me I have an electrical problem, rather than fuel related. Would that make any sense?

The reason I've reached that conclusion, is a split second before losing power, the radio switched off.

When you've all stopped laughing, I really could do with an idea as to what might be going wrong.

Engine revs without issue, and it not overheating. Oil pressure good too!

1971 CP model running on a Bosch fuel pump.

Thanking you all in anticipation...

Edited by pjc615ukuk
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A lot of things here..

First if your getting such high temps something is wrong??

What cooling do you have? Oil cooler, electric fan? Where is the pump located?

Might just be fuel cavitation as you got it so hot or could even be head gasket if your getting such high temps.

How hot was the fuel pump etc?

Check for head gasket problems when out next time and get your system right car cant run well hot and fuel system wont let it do much.

Tony

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What type of ignition do you have, electronic or points? If points the condensers break down and give heat related problems.

What make of ignition coil do you have? If Lucas the silver Lucas coils have a reputation for a short life with heat related faults.

 

 

Alan

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Hi Tony.

Standard fan set up, water coolant/ antifreeze etc.

When I say gridlocked traffic, I mean gridlocked! I moved about 200mtrs in 30 mins.

As soon as I got moving the gauge returned to normal, I'd hate to think it was head gasket related...

Didn't check the fuel pump temperature unfortunately.

Plenty of fuel in the tank too!

Its as if there is an electrical interruption, if that is possible???

Would the radio switch off if it wasn't ignition related - or am I really showing my ignorance???

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What type of ignition do you have, electronic or points? If points the condensers break down and give heat related problems.

What make of ignition coil do you have? If Lucas the silver Lucas coils have a reputation for a short life with heat related faults.

 

Hi Alan.

Running on conventional points. Lucas coil which I think is gold in colour?

 

 

Alan

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Pjc,

Could the radio cut out be a symptom? What happened to other electrical items? Gauges, 'ignition' light? Did they cut out too? That's a bad battery connection.

John

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Pjc,

Could the radio cut out be a symptom? What happened to other electrical items? Gauges, 'ignition' light? Did they cut out too? That's a bad battery connection.

John

Hi John.

Can't say I noticed what effect it has on other instruments. Driving along happily listening to the radio, then a split second after the radio goes off the engine has stalled. A quick jump start in 3rd gear, and it fires up again.

I just hope I'm not putting everyone on a bum steer with my diagnosis of an electrical fault???

When driving in 3rd gear for the last few miles, the engine doesn't miss a beat!

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hmmm 200m in 30m. Cant expect a lot from a PI engine with nowadays fuel, but even in the old days.

All valid points by the others regards points and coil too.

Get everything as cool efficient as possible, I personally favour an oil cooler, but that traffic would frighten most anyway on a PI.

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hmmm 200m in 30m. Cant expect a lot from a PI engine with nowadays fuel, but even in the old days.

All valid points by the others regards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

points and coil too.

Get everything as cool efficient as possible, I personally favour an oil cooler, but that traffic would frighten most anyway on a PI.

Another point I should have perhaps made clearer in my initial post was the 'slightly' overheating was some 3 hours before the stalling took place. Up until that point I'd probably driven over 40 miles with no problems whatsoever!

Could it be the coil?

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Another point I should have perhaps made clearer in my initial post was the 'slightly' overheating was some 3 hours before the stalling took place. Up until that point I'd probably driven over 40 miles with no problems whatsoever!

Could it be the coil?

Feel the Coil the next time it cuts out, if it’s to hot to touch it’s your problem,yes they do get Warm.
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Another point I should have perhaps made clearer in my initial post was the 'slightly' overheating was some 3 hours before the stalling took place. Up until that point I'd probably driven over 40 miles with no problems whatsoever!

Could it be the coil?

If you have points it is very likely the condensor.

Modern ones fail regularly, I carry a few in my TR2 and tend to replace them every year or two.

When they fail the car can be hard to start, miss terribly, no power and engine stalls. All this interspersed sometimes with running ok for a few seconds.

They often fail when they are hot.

If you have electronic ignition it is very likely the coil. Similar symptoms to the condensor.

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If it was me I would buy a selection of quality ignition spares - coil, breakers, rotor arm , capacitor etc.from the Dizzy Doc

Take the car for a 30 mile run to get it nice and warm. Then park it on the drive with engine on a fastish tick over to let it get very hot and see what happens.

 

Should the fault arise then change one item at a time. Starting with the capacitor in the dizzy, then rotor arm etc

 

Roger

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  • 11 months later...

Hi Peter,

Did you ever solve this?

I've just  come from a pre layup run through the hills and the same thing has happened to me. Runs fine for an hour. Cuts out on deceleration, then recovers after a few seconds. I'm thinking maybe the distributer advance weights are sticking.

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  • 3 months later...

Hello chaps.... thread resurrection,

The same has just happened to me.  I’ve just changed the points and taken the car out for 5 mile spin and then on the way back it just died.  It immediately started on the key but died about 300m later.  This was repeated until I got home.  It starts on the key but obviously doesn’t like something.  PI car on traditional points.

 

So some more details:

if I rev the engine in the garage to around 2.5-3k revs for a little while and then take my foot off the accelerator, the engine completely cuts out - engine is warm.  Whilst out driving, the car feels like it will stumble after around 200m of normal driving.  On restart, the engine idles at very low revs (around 0.5k) - was ok earlier when I initially went out. Fuel pump sounds no different to normal - it’s an old 996 Bosch.  I’ve done the tongue test and the mu holds vacuum and changed the coil but no difference to the problem.  

 

Last night all was ok.  This morning the problem started after I went for a test drive after I did some maintenance .... I checked valve clearances and disconnected the flap trap pipe and the mu vac pipe so as to remove rocker box.  I then changed the points and lifted out the dissy baseplate to clean the inside.  There was some old debris in there such as the little metal clips that hold the rotor on.  These look very old and I fished out the ones I could see with a magnet.  That was all i did before this problem emerged.

 

What do you chaps recommend I check next?

 

cheers

 

dave

Edited by aardvark
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After much deliberation and the car progressively getting much worse to idle, and rev, I used a dwell meter which showed 60 degrees.  Now I previously had diligently set the points gap and checked the dwell and ensured everything was tightened up properly before going on a test drive so not sure what happened there.  So I decided to put the old points back in.  Immediately I could tell that the new points were very rough in opening and closing such that they would ‘hang up’ unless ‘snapped back’ under full spring pressure.  The old points are much smoother in action.  

On starting the car with the old points, everything seemed to go back to normal; revs ok, no stalling etc etc.  I didn’t take the car on the road because it’s too dark now so it’ll have to wait for tomorrow. However I’m confident I’ve found the problem..... dodgy points.... arghh.

cheers

 

dave

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