hot, pinking, dodgy running

[jimbob-mcgrew]

took the car out for a road test and its pinking alot, low down in the revs and high up in the revs, only ever seen an engine pink at one end, what could cause this ?

tried advancing and retarding the ignition, but it didnt help much, just shifted those 2 pink points up and down.

i do have some vaccum pipes blocked off, one for the dizzy idle and one for the airbox heat flap if it could make any difference ?

and its running ferkin hot, stat opens at a quarter and its always above that, so it must be running open constantly ?

also, if i leave it idling by itself, after about 2 mins it'll cut out ?

could it possibly be a tooth out thats causing all this, even tho it feels ok ?

[dougie_boi]

could be drawing air by the sounds of it mate but would be worth while checking the timing is it ticking over ok or is it lumpy or that

[Guderian]

Is this an engine you have recently put together? Only reason i ask is i did get a similar occurrence with an old Cav which was running on '3 and a half' due to head gasket failure.

[djshaggeh]

Its a 16sv (8v carb engine from a mk2 astra) which he has just put in.

[AlexW]

The two blocked off vaccum things dont matter.

[jimbob-mcgrew]

could be drawing air by the sounds of it mate but would be worth while checking the timing is it ticking over ok or is it lumpy or that

what do you mean by drawing air in dougie ?
startings not very good, runs the battery down getting it going, but it idles fine once alive.
revs fine too, but has stutter points thru the rev band where it pinks, it will rev thru these pinks, but it aint doing the engine any favours so im driving it mild.

edit : could a restrective exhaust have any roll in any of this ? as my exhaust is a fkin joke, its made of 3 different exhausts.

[AlexW]

Lack of fuel?

[mowgli]

edit : could a restrective exhaust have any roll in any of this ? as my exhaust is a fkin joke, its made of 3 different exhausts.

considering I ran a e16se in a mk1 astra on a std 1300 mk1 astra sustem for a year with no ill effects, i guess the exhaust is fine.

[jimbob-mcgrew]

guess i need to get hold of a timing gun really, rule that out.

plug gaps ? no idea what there supposed to be

[dougie_boi]

guess i need to get hold of a timing gun really, rule that out.

plug gaps ? no idea what there supposed to be roughly about 0.8 mate. drawing air in through a gasket thats not sealed on like the inlet manifold or bottom of the carb. i would check your timing with a gun to make sure its spot on once you can rule out timing and drawing air out id then check your choke and fuel mixture mate

[jimbob-mcgrew]

nice one dougie bwwooaay ! will check that lot out.
+ rep for info all, and on my other nightmare thread. :thumb:

edit : soz mowgli, says i cant give you anymore, cheers tho.

[garyc]

An air leak will probably come out as a high pitched whistle, revving the ebgine will change the note. Spraying something like WD40 round the edges the noise will dissappear so you can fix the leak. Have you taken the sparkplugs out and checked the colour? Is the carb from the engine or something else?

is the top hose to the rad getting hot, could it be a stuck stat?

[jimbob-mcgrew]

yeh the carbs from that engine (im prety sure it is anyway lol)

havent checked the plugs yet, will check em tommora.

stats apparently new, and the temp. gauge drops when it hits running temp, but it only drops once, it only gets hotter after that, so i guess its constantly open ?

it doesnt whistle, but it does whine and squeek some, more so when its cold, but always there.

starts fine when its cold, but when its warm it doesnt wanna know, have to crank it and crank it before itll fire.

[dougie_boi]

yeh the carbs from that engine (im prety sure it is anyway lol)

havent checked the plugs yet, will check em tommora.

stats apparently new, and the temp. gauge drops when it hits running temp, but it only drops once, it only gets hotter after that, so i guess its constantly open ?

it doesnt whistle, but it does whine and squeek some, more so when its cold, but always there.

starts fine when its cold, but when its warm it doesnt wanna know, have to crank it and crank it before itll fire.
sounds like the choke sticking on mate is there any black smoke from the exhaust when warm

[novaguy08]

Sounds to me like its running lean, first of all check that there is no air leaks using the ol' carb cleaner test, then if you cant find any try looking at the carb mixture

[jimbob-mcgrew]

i checked the plugs earlier:

no.1 - normal / overheating
no.2 - overheating
no.3 - overheating
no.4 - normal / overheating

i think the chokes allright on it, it flicks back bit by bit as it warms up, till its vertical.
yeh, from what it says in the back of the haynes about the state of plugs, its probably ignition timing or fuel related, i need to read up on the 2e carb to figure out what screws do what before i fiddle with it, also need to get a timing gun on it, altho its not really gonna tell me much as im not 100% sure the cam mark is right, most of the time its 12 o clock, but my cambelt cover is at 11 o clock, ALTHO, the cambelt cover on the engine isnt of that engine, so .... it could possibly be a tooth out if its not the carb.

how do you do the old carb cleaner test ?

[garyc]

set yor bottom pulley on the mark, the top cam pulley should be at 12 o'clock ie straight up from the centre of the bolt (post a picture up if u can). Then put a timing gun on, remove the vac advance and check the timing. You would hear a air leak. I'd have thought an air leak will only really effecting things at small throttle angles due to high vac pressure.

[jimbob-mcgrew]

think im gonna have to sign up with migweb to find out the cam mark, 16sv is a rare engine on here

[jimbob-mcgrew]

sorted out the pinking now.
after i upped the richness to get some colour into the plugs, i noticed plug no. 4 was sooty compared to the rest, so i changed the ht lead on that cyclinder and its alot better now, fitted some bosch super-4 plugs to aid it a bit further. not quite sure what the prob was, as i did these things and changed the dizzy all in one sitting, but its running a whole lot better now, prety much just needs the timing and carb looking at, plus a ' propper ' exhaust sorting out, and an anti-freeze flush, and should be cool :thumb: