Unhappy TR2

[Piers]

Hi, 

Whilst driving Sybil (SYB 666) last year, the engine suddenly lost power as we accelerated out of a roundabout. We’d been driving her quite hard for about an hour to see how she coped after fitting a new radiator. Limping into a lay by and looking under the bonnet we found that a bolt from the rear air filter had fallen out and the filter had swung round on the other bolt to restrict the air intake.

We secured the filter back in position. However, the car continued to splutter the rest of the journey home, feeling like it was running on two cylinders.

A friend of mine suggested that the lack of air might have caused the valves or vale seats to melt… my heart sank but a rose again following a compression test that showed that all four cylinders were between 120-125 psi. Apparently, this is a reasonable pressure.

I’ve since checked and replaced the following, but to no avail: Checked the spark plugs for any signs (they look ok), checked all carburettor linkages are working as expected, removed and cleaned the petrol filter and debris trap, removed and cleaned the petrol filters and debris trap on both carbs, removed the rocker box and checked the tappet clearances. I also bought a new fuel pump, points, condenser, and plugs but not fitted them yet.

Sybil has sat in the garage gathering dust since September, so we really need to give her some TLC and get her back on the road. My gut feel is that the air filter swinging around was a red herring as putting it back hasn’t fixed the problem.

Any ideas or recommendations would be gratefully appreciated and help kick start us into action.

Many Thanks,

Piers

[rcreweread]

Piers - Have you checked that nothing went into the carb/inlet manifold when the incident happened and is partially blocking the inlet tract? Not enough to affect compression, but enough to interrupt fuel/airflow mixture into the cylinder - this blockage could in fact be in the head itself before the twinport siameses into 2 separate ports.

Cheers Rich  

[Piers]

Hi Rich,

Good thought - thank you . We will check,

Piers

[roy53]

do you think that any nut/bolt from the air filter could have been sucked in ?

Change the plugs as i have had a lot of problems of late with what i can only assume are fake plugs.Use the search box there is a lot about this issue in there.

 

Roy

[Rodbr]

1. Check the filter gasket was complete and not broken and missing ans swallowed into inlet.

2. Check both piston lift and drop cleanly.

3. Check dizzy cap for cracks change if you have a spare.

Plus one on plugs.

4. Also have you checked plug leads leads and connection to cap and plugs.

5. check HT lead spade or screw connector to coil. a source of intermittent ignition issues

Fit plug leads loosely enough that the car will run (ish) and pull off leads in turn when running to isolate cylinders giving issues.

Just a few things to try but don't do them all at once as you wont know the issue that you fixed for the future.

Rod

[RogerH]

Hi Piers,

on many filters there are distance tubes inside to stop the whole thing collapsing when being tightened up.

Do you still have the the tubes (2 per filter)

 

On the SU curb (HS6) there are two holes on the front face that allow air into the workings. 

Have you  refitted the gasket upside down or the whole filter upside down.

Regarding plugs I have changed back to Champion L87 as the ngk were going duff far too quickly.

 

Roger