Re: The Manhattan Project
Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2019 4:36 pm
I finally got a fairly dry day on Sunday, so it was time to give the car a test run.
The plan was to take if for a short drive to get the engine temps up, check my mods to the oil level sender had worked whilst topping the oil up, reset the idle CO level and take it for a spirited run.
On the warm-up trip the engine pulled really well even from cold and drove much better than I've previously had. No sign of a flutter in the 2K-3K range!
As part of the oil level sender modification, I'd drained just over a litre of oil out of the oil tank, to allow me to reintroduce the oil slowly to check the gauge.
With the level just under minimum the gauge showed in the red, at a third between the min and max on the dipstick the gauge showed a third the way between red and max.
Finalising the oil level to halfway between min and max the gauge shows halfway.
Result - much better!
I next checked the CO level at idle with my Gunson, and it appeared quite high, so despite the car running well I quickly tweaked it down.
Back out on the road the driveability had worsened and it felt to be running too lean. A quick check with the Gunson again and the CO level measured very low this time.
I think I'd not left the Gunson to warm up long enough when I made the first adjustment and should have probably left well alone when it was running so well.
Oh well - A further tweak and it ran better but I ran out of time in the day to dial it in further.
I think it suggests that the correct fuel pressures have made a big difference and that I just need to fine tune the mixture now to getting it running 100%.
One for another dry weekend.
Another issue to add to the list is one I spotted quite some time ago but that I keep forgetting to fix.
I would find that on some instances after applying the handbrake the engine idle would unexplicably rise.
I soon realised that the handbrake gaiter is somehow fouling with the hand throttle and moving it. Despite tightening the hand throttle lever to make it hard to move the effect still happens.
When I first stripped my car I noticed that the gaiter had two 'tears' lengthening the slot on both the hand throttle and heater lever sides. I'd assumed these had torn over the years through use and so bought a brand new gaitor ( free of tears ).
I'm now wondering if the tears were in fact a modification to stop the same problem happening when new. If I can't think of a better solution I'll add a cut to the hand throttle side to try to fix this.
The final item on the snagging list is that my gearlever knob keeps falling off during brisk driving. I'm guessing there is some technique to fitting it with the supplied retaining ring, so that's something else to research.
Oh well - there's always a snagging list.
The plan was to take if for a short drive to get the engine temps up, check my mods to the oil level sender had worked whilst topping the oil up, reset the idle CO level and take it for a spirited run.
On the warm-up trip the engine pulled really well even from cold and drove much better than I've previously had. No sign of a flutter in the 2K-3K range!
As part of the oil level sender modification, I'd drained just over a litre of oil out of the oil tank, to allow me to reintroduce the oil slowly to check the gauge.
With the level just under minimum the gauge showed in the red, at a third between the min and max on the dipstick the gauge showed a third the way between red and max.
Finalising the oil level to halfway between min and max the gauge shows halfway.
Result - much better!
I next checked the CO level at idle with my Gunson, and it appeared quite high, so despite the car running well I quickly tweaked it down.
Back out on the road the driveability had worsened and it felt to be running too lean. A quick check with the Gunson again and the CO level measured very low this time.
I think I'd not left the Gunson to warm up long enough when I made the first adjustment and should have probably left well alone when it was running so well.
Oh well - A further tweak and it ran better but I ran out of time in the day to dial it in further.
I think it suggests that the correct fuel pressures have made a big difference and that I just need to fine tune the mixture now to getting it running 100%.
One for another dry weekend.
Another issue to add to the list is one I spotted quite some time ago but that I keep forgetting to fix.
I would find that on some instances after applying the handbrake the engine idle would unexplicably rise.
I soon realised that the handbrake gaiter is somehow fouling with the hand throttle and moving it. Despite tightening the hand throttle lever to make it hard to move the effect still happens.
When I first stripped my car I noticed that the gaiter had two 'tears' lengthening the slot on both the hand throttle and heater lever sides. I'd assumed these had torn over the years through use and so bought a brand new gaitor ( free of tears ).
I'm now wondering if the tears were in fact a modification to stop the same problem happening when new. If I can't think of a better solution I'll add a cut to the hand throttle side to try to fix this.
The final item on the snagging list is that my gearlever knob keeps falling off during brisk driving. I'm guessing there is some technique to fitting it with the supplied retaining ring, so that's something else to research.
Oh well - there's always a snagging list.
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