Vacuuming the long way around

[SixasStandard]

Hi All,

On the off-chance that this might be of interest to some (although I'm not holding my breath)........it recently came to light during a conversation with a Mk2 Vitesse owning friend that there is a difference between the routing of the vacuum advance pipe between the Mk1 and Mk2 Vitesse 2 Litre. On the Mk1 the pipe follows the route of the fuel line around the front of the engine to connect to the housing of carb #2, whereas on the Mk2 the pipe straddles the top of the rocker cover to reach the same point on the induction system. I'm not sure why this change would have been made, other than perhaps as an economy measure by the bean counters at BL. Personally I think that the longer route looks better, and have now returned my car to this spec. The pipe was a quid for a metre off of E-Bay, so didn't break the bank.

Ian  

[Pete Lewis]

yes  bean counter upgrade , cheap pipe no clips less time on track to fit ,  

probable partly inspired by the arrival of small plastic tubing  

and a shorter pipe gives a very marginal response time 

Pete

[dave.vitesse]

The vacuum pipe routing was a carry over from the 1600 engine. The original pipe was metal, at some stage during the production of the Vitesse 6 this changed over to plastic which may have proved to be vulnerable to heat at the front of the engine.

Dave

[SixasStandard]

7 minutes ago, dave.vitesse said:

The vacuum pipe routing was a carry over from the 1600 engine. The original pipe was metal, at some stage during the production of the Vitesse 6 this changed over to plastic which may have proved to be vulnerable to heat at the front of the engine.

Dave

That's an interesting point Dave. The pictures are from my original Mk1 2 litre owners manual, and obviously show a plastic pipe with the routing around the front of the engine, so time will tell if this causes any issues on my car. I certainly wasn't aware that the earlier cars had metal pipe, and can see how the change to plastic could have resulted in an increase in warranty maintenance returns to the dealers in period.

Ian 

[JohnD]

I have an original GT6 WSM published 1966, same time as the chnage from Mk1 to Mk2 Vitesse.

It shows the run of the vacuum tube the same as in Ian's original picture above, confirming a change in production at that time.

[Colin Lindsay]

56 minutes ago, dave.vitesse said:

The vacuum pipe routing was a carry over from the 1600 engine. The original pipe was metal, at some stage during the production of the Vitesse 6 this changed over to plastic which may have proved to be vulnerable to heat at the front of the engine.

Dave

I think the Herald was the same; I have a metal pipe from an early Herald that is shaped to go round the front of the engine.

[dave.vitesse]

A 1962/3 Vitesse 6. Then a 1966 Vitesse 6. As stated the change to over the rocker cover was made on the MK2.