Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

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mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Tue Aug 29, 2017 10:26 pm

I had the noticeable dents ironed out of the driver's side doors this morning. No pictures because there's nothing to see! Although it would be true to say there isn't a single completely ripple-free panel on my car, including the roof, but usually you can't see that unless you squint down the sides or deliberately go looking.

I've uploaded a picture of my sparking plugs though. What do you reckon? Is it tuned right? They are in the order of the cylinder they came from i.e. number 1 on the left, 4 on the right. The ceramic nose on 1&2 looks a bit 'pinker' than that on 3&4, with 4 being very white.
Marina pics for uploading 029.jpg
Last edited by mickthefitter on Wed Aug 30, 2017 5:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

david painter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by david painter » Wed Aug 30, 2017 7:27 am

They look fine to me, if you being very fussy rear carb running slightly weak. Not enough to need adjustment though.
Dave

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Wed Aug 30, 2017 7:50 am

:D Thank you! That's just the reassurance I need!

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Sat Oct 28, 2017 6:34 pm

A 'what have I done today?' moment. I changed the engine oil and filter. Not that exciting, I know, but probably a bit overdue, even though the car has done very few miles since the oil change I did when I got it. But since then it's had over rich mixture pumped into the bores due to its poor running, prior to being set up and trouble-shooted by G&N Cars. Odd thing...I took it for a run to get the oil nice and hot and thin, and when I started work on it I noticed an oil leak from the fuel pump mounting flange - a pump I fitted myself, and fitted more than once because I chose to fit a spacer from a Mini that had a narrower slot, to deter the lever pivot pin from jumping out. I assumed to cure the leak I'd probably got to take the pump off and fit new gaskets, at some point (not today) but couldn't understand it because everything had been fine when I fitted it. I pressed on with the oil change, then towards the end I decided to try tweaking the nuts on the pump up to see if i could get away with compressing the gaskets a bit more. They were loose! Not REALLY loose, like hanging off or could be undone with the fingers, but they tightened up with a spanner very easily! What's going on? :eek: I swear blind I'm not the sort of person who forgets to tighten nuts up! But these moved quite a bit. Hopefully that's the leak dealt with - for now. I can only speculate that a combination of expansion and contraction due to heat, plus maybe the hammering of the fuel pump lever by the cam, on an aftermarket pump, might have loosened the mounting nuts off a bit. Spring washers are fitted - I think I may have even fitted new ones from some I had in my tool box....oh well,. time will tell.

Now the weather is getting cooler, the car takes a long time for the temperature gauge needle to get out of the blue zone, with that rebuilt super-efficient radiator I fitted. In fact the gauge needle only left the blue zone at over 50mph on the by-pass. Does anyone else who had a so-called Sherpa spec radiator fitted experience similar problems? I think my radiator is Sherpa spec-plus. The guy I took it to showed me a sample of matrix and said "We can do this to it" and I was so desperate to find a way to solve the overheating issues, I said 'yes'. It certainly carries the heat away. I see from my one surviving maintenance manual, the Autobooks one (the shabby Haynes manual that came with the car unfortunately got destroyed, in a non-car related incident I won't go into) that thermostats are reckoned to come in 82, 74 and 88 degree C versions. Standard, hot climate and cold climate respectively. I did not noticed what version my 'stat' was when I had it out, but I assume it's 82 degree. When I had a Cortina Mk5, I remember getting a variety of different make thermostats for that, when it had problems, but I believed at the time you just had to have one type, in terms of opening temperature, for that car, and both a motor factors and Sandicliffe Ford supplied me with 88 degree thermostats. I can remember Gareth talking about a 95 degree thermostat for his white 1300 saloon. I'm still wonderinmg if an alternative thermostat might bring my engine closer to its proper running temperature in cooler weather. I've no idea how many degrees C are between the dashboard gauge showing on the edge of the blue, and in the middle of the black.

Kind of linked to the cool running is what feels like an occasional misfire while driving on choke. It's as if the points are bad, but they're not, and once warmed up, the misfire goes. Any car I've had in the past with bad points will misfire at any temperature till they're fixed. And one thing my car has always been like, since it became usable in June - I can only describe the pick-up from idle as 'fluffy'. This is emphasised while the car is on choke, or still running cool (which is why I am thinking about other thermostats) but it has always been a bit like it when warmed up. Once it revs, it clears. Is this a twin-carb B Series thing or is my car still a bit off key? It certainly seems to pull well enough when it clears - well enough for someone in a black Range Rover today, waiting to pull out, to see me coming as I left a roundabout and think "I can beat that old thing" only to have him pull out on me and me have to brake to avoid T-boning him. It wasn't an emergency situation but I saw him, he saw me, I thought "You aren't, are you?" and he did it anyway.

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Morris McKinnon
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by Morris McKinnon » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:11 pm

I went through a few different rated thermostats when I thought my car was over heating but turned out to be the stabilizer. That's not to say your's is broken though.
I can't help with what causes mis fires and such. I think every car I've ever owned has either a flat spot, mis fire or cuts out before it warms up.

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:51 pm

Its liveable with. Previously the only multi carb cars I've had were a Jaguar Mk2 2.4 in 1986, and more recently a Triumph 2500TC. The Jag was iffy in more ways than one. In winter it was best to let it warm up before driving off. The Triumph was a pretty good runner. The choke could be pushed in quickly. The only running issue I had with that was when hot, the carb linkages could get sticky and it would tickover too fast when I pulled up, unless I blipped the throttle. Most single carb cars I've had, I've not had too many issues with that I didn't understand. Back in my youth I had a Mk1 Escort 1100L, for just two winter months before it got nicked, and on my route to college, even though it was running well, and off choke, it would always cut out as I down shifted for the same sharp right-hander, and I'd bump start it when the clutch came back up into third. Once round the corner it ran like a dream for the rest of the trip!

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Mon Dec 25, 2017 10:55 am

I said it couldn't be done, and I said I wouldn't do it. But I've spent Christmas morning wrapping something instead of unwrapping something. Last week I went into the garage and found the underneath of my Marina drenched in condensation. I used a fan heater run from an extension lead strung along the garden fence to dry it out, and very effective it was, but the open bedroom window for the lead, and rate of electricity consumption meant this couldn't go on. So the Permabag I bought in 2009 to protect a £1500 Mini held together with welded plates, was forced into action again. I'd bought a bag big enough to house a Cortina or a Viva (I never imagined I'd buy a Marina back in 2009) but when I put this car in this garage almost two years ago I believed I'd never get all the way around the car to pull the bag over the top. And I thought it would be best to keep it running anyway. But last year it hibernated with a sick engine, but I never noticed the damp on the car like this year. It's not easy pushing a big car over a bag, single handed, without running over the folded section that I've got to pull over the roof, but I managed it eventually. It'll be here now till the end of March. I know that's not everyone's idea of classic car ownership, but for me this is the best step for preservation in winter. Happy Christmas ;)
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mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Sat Apr 21, 2018 2:30 pm

It's out.
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mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Sat Apr 21, 2018 2:34 pm

Can you see why I bag it?
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mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Mon May 07, 2018 4:59 pm

Well I'm having huge fun changing my heater hoses. Which by all accounts, once I'd passed the point of no return, looked fine, but going by the wire hose clips on them, they could have been the 40+ year old originals, which is why I got some Kevlar ones off the club a while ago. Only trouble is, having chopped up the hoses bit by bit to get access and peel them off the heater box stubs in strips, rather than risk damaging the heater somewhere by pulling and tugging, I'm left with a stub of rubber held by an immovable, virtually inaccessible wire clip behind the heat shield of the twin carbs. No screwdriver will turn the screw, nothing I've so far tried in the limited space has succeeded in cutting off any part of the clip. I refuse to take off the carburettors to get to one hose clip! After my cup of tea I'm about to embark on another attempt to cut the wire with a broken off piece of 18tpi hacksaw blade. Its a bit like trying to saw through prison bars with a file smuggled in with a cake. Remind me why I love this hobby, because I keep forgetting...

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Mon May 07, 2018 8:07 pm

Miserable little......hoseclip
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Morris McKinnon
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by Morris McKinnon » Mon May 07, 2018 8:31 pm

oh, those things. I think they are original to the car and a far better than the usual jubilee clips but when they seize they're a right pain to remove, more so I'd imagine with the twin carbs in the way!

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Mon May 07, 2018 8:51 pm

Yeah I think the twin carbs was part of the issue. Not sure why you like 'em better than jubilees. I don't like the way they cut into the hoses. Suppose they're less prone to stripping though.

I couldn't cut it in the end. That metal pipe its fastened to that runs down the side of the block behind the manifold - initially it was quite tight in whatever bracket holds it in place. Its less tight now. As I got more frustrated, and angrier, I got more brutal, and in the end I was able to waggle the metal pipe closer to the bulkhead. At first I could only turn the hose clip screw with tiny molegrips on the thread, then, I could just manage to get a screwdriver in the screw slot. But it was a bit molegrips, bit screwdriver, bit fingers, bit back to molegrips. It fought me for every quarter turn. In comparison, getting the new hoses on was a cinch! Ended up just filling up with coolant and leaving checking for leaks and air locks (plus the first fire-up of 2018!) for another day. I'd got fed up and loads to put away. I'd started by replacing the carb float lids and trying a new spacer in the front carb to try to stop the float chamber wobbling. After Mr. Wotsisface first rate job on the carb rebuilds/substitute-carbs-from-a-box-of-bits last year. Highlight of the day, as I was about to push the Marina away, having cleared the garage floor of my debris (tools) was a geezer who came down the street in a lowered Mk2 Golf, appeared behind my car and wanted to take a photo. Nice guy too. Not the sort I'd expect in a lowered Mk2 Golf. Very beardy but slight build and very polite.

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Morris McKinnon
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by Morris McKinnon » Mon May 07, 2018 9:40 pm

Golfs and hipsters, they're everywhere :lol: Yes, you can get a tighter seal with those older clips without stripping the thread. Bicycle spoke cutters are good for getting those old clips off if the screw is dead.

mickthefitter
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Re: Mk2 1.8 HL Automatic update

Post by mickthefitter » Mon May 07, 2018 9:54 pm

Ah, I haven't got any of those. And I'm not sure what they look like. Limited access though, if it's a thing with levers, like pliers. Plus, that wire clip had cut very deeply into the rubber.... :problem:

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