cliff.b

My Spit has a full width radiator which I have realised is leaking around the insert the drain tap screws into. Thought it was the tap thread itself first, so refitted with PTFE tape, but definitely around the insert. During normal running at this time of year it was just a slight drip but while working on another issue and the car getting hot in the garage, I noticed steam coming out, so needs sorting. Just wondering if anyone has experienced similar, what the insert is made of, can it be prised out and refitted with some sort of sealant or will it disintegrate?Alternatively, anything that might be up to the job of a permanent repair applied to the outside?

Maybe I will buy that impact wrench I was going to buy to get the nut off 🤔

Mine was showing no sign of coming loose and I couldn't shift it with my longest bar. I had previously wedged a bar against the chassis and used the starter motor but it just stalled it. On Thursday though, I accidentally did something I would not have intentionally done, leaving the socket & ratchet in place with enough space to gain momentum and the engine to catch. There is no doubt the nut was on pretty tight, but still possibly not as tight as it should be. Can't know if that was causing the noise and all I can do is put it back on properly and listen 🙉

The manual says that nut should be done up to a massive 150 lbf ft and I doubt I achieved that when I previously replaced the lost one. But I have a decent torque wrench now and the plan is to make sure it definitely is that tight this time. Maybe some loctite as well, just to be on the safe side lol

That was my assumption. If the noise has gone then I suppose the only way of proving if it was the oil is to put the old oil back in again lol I don't see myself doing that so is anyone running their car on a tight budget and interested in some barely used Castrol Classic 😊

No, I'm not planning to drive it anymore without the pulley nut, although I may start it again tomorrow without the pulley to see if I can hear anything. (Or more strictly speaking, not hear anything) Regarding refitting it, I was wondering if some loctite around the woodruff key might help eliminate any potential movement in that area. No idea if that is a good or bad idea as outside my experience. I'm guessing someone wiser than me will comment shortly, explaining why it's definitely not a good idea 😊

And no, I don't have a paper filter. I do have one of those glass ones before the fuel pump. I didn't find any sign of debris in the carb, but the float valve felt like it was sticking. After I dismantled and cleaned it moved easily.

Yes, well, regarding the noise. I think I said near the start of this that I had a similar noise when my crank pulley nut fell off and I wanted to remove the pulley again just to confirm it wasn't causing it this time. But I couldn't shift the nut so decided to check other things out first, assuming as it was so tight it probably wouldn't be the cause. Anyway, when I got fixated on valve gear yesterday I was turning the engine with a socket on this nut but forgot it was there and started the engine. A bang and a clatter and on the floor was the socket, my ratchet drive and the nut lol Today, I ran the engine briefly without the pulley and couldn't hear the noise, but had to stop as the engine was getting rather warm (no water pump) Once I sorted the carbs out I went for a test drive with the pulley on and no nut, and it did clatter a lot but the noise was not that different to before. So the next step is to put the pulley back on with the nut torqued up properly and listen carefully. The thing is, I will have inadvertently changed 2 things at once, so if the noise has gone I won't know if it was the pulley or the oil masking a bearing issue 🤔

Well an interesting day. The bad running is now cured. There was very little fuel in the front carb float chamber and I suspect the amount getting past the valve was not enough to meet demand. Valve cleaned and all running fine so clearly, as suggested, it was just a co-incidence. While there I balanced the carbs, which were way out and reset the mixtures as the rear carb was running weak. On my test run I found the new oil seems to be giving almost twice the hot pressure for any given engine speed with hot tickover pressure of 15 to 20psi now.

Ok, that's interesting to know. Thanks 👍

Thanks Pete 👍. I've not been too well and got very cold outside all afternoon. Think it's fuddled my brain 🤯

Just thinking about this again, surely the vac unit can't physically give an extra 14deg of advance but maybe that was in part due to the increase in tickover speed adding centrifugal advance as well. Also, trying to understand if it is possible for a carb to generate excessive vacuum and then I wondered, if the front carb has a fault, could that increase tickover speed even though the butterfly on the rear carb was closed?

Only had the rocker cover off after the misfire started. Fuel hoses not disturbed for over a year. But based on other comments I'm now thinking carb issues may make sense.

Aha, you have got me thinking straight now. The number 1 plug was dry and very white, so maybe fuel supply issues to front carb🤔 Also, regarding my question on vacuum advance, I checked the ignition timing by strobe, but forgot to disconnect the vacuum pipe and the mark was off the scale at about 26BTDC. When I pulled the pipe off at the dizzy end I could feel it was sucking and the strobe now showed 12BTDC which is what I was expecting. So I actually wondered if this was connected with the original problem and took the car out to warm it up with the vac pipe disconnected to see if it made any difference to the noise. But I never got that far because a few miles down the road the misfiring started. And reconnecting the vac pipe made no difference.

Ok, I'm even more confused than normal now. Changed the oil this afternoon to Miller's Classic Sport 20w60 and as I went out to warm her up, I could see that the oil pressure was immediately much better, but then I got a really bad misfire with the car barely driveable. Then it cleared, then it came back again so I stopped to investigate. Sounded like it was running on 3 cylinders and removing plug lead 1 kept things the same, so assume the issue is with that cylinder. But I have a spark there and swapping to a spare dist made no difference. So decided to limp home, a difficult even to pull away, then it cleared again until almost home before re-occurring. Unless this is a huge co-incidence this has only happened since I changed the oil. Could it be affecting the valve operation in some way? Had the rocker cover off and everything is moving with plenty of oil spraying about. VID_20230223_160834.mp4

Just a question while I am checking things out, how much vacuum advance should I be getting at tickover? Difference between pipe disconnected & then connecting it.

I would love to get on with it but I have other work to do on the house which is unfortunately more pressing at the moment. Or at least Mrs Cliff thinks it is 😒

Yes, that's the plan 👍

Been too busy to look further at this problem but have invested in these to monitor temperatures at various places under the bonnet while I am driving. Says they work up to 110C and were £3.47 the pair on eBay, including batteries and free delivery. Once I have resolved the problem I might just use one as an ambient temp gauge, maybe the other as a cheap oil temp gauge with probe clipped to the oil filter. I know it wouldn't be accurate but would give an indixation if temp rising or not 🤔

Looks like these have started up again after being cancelled at the end of last year due to illness. Near St Ives in Cambridgeshire. Had a lot of cars attending last year.

I suppose there is more chance of that with a six lol I wonder how they got on with adjusting the tappets on a Merlin engine, orca 28 cylinder Pratt & Witney. I was going to say the 16 cylinder Napier Sabre engine, as fitted to Hawker Typhoons, but then remembered they wouldn't have tappets 🤔

Yes, guess it achieves the same thing. I just find it useful to have the optimal sequence to minimise crank turning written down in front of me. And as long as I can remember which one I am currently adjusting I can just carry on to the next one until I get to the bottom of the list 👍

That's a good idea. Also worth asking local motor factors if well established. On a few occasions I have found local ones had a dusty box on a shelf that they didn't even know was there until I asked "have you got one of these" 😊

For the 4 cylinder engine, the Haynes manual appears to follow the rule of 9 with the sequence suggested giving the least possible crank turning. Think it's only 2 complete turns. I assume their manuals for 6 cylinder cars would have something similar.

I'm sure I will have a good laugh when I find out what is actually causing it 😒