Loooking for fuel injection opinion

[sheetsofsound]

Thanks. That will speed things up considerably when I get a chance to work on things today.

Beans: That is one beautiful looking engine!

[Beans]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by sheetsofsound</i>

...Beans: That is one beautiful looking engine!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Thx, it indeed doesn't show it was rebuilt over 20 years ago.
And when that picture was taken it had covered over 70.000 kilometres,
without being touched for anything but basic maintenance ...

<center>
<font color="blue"><i>1976 TR7 FHC (needs some TLC ...)
1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, a.k.a. Kermette)
1981 TR7 FHC (Sprint engined a.k.a. 't Kreng
</font id="blue"><b>[url="http://www.tr7beans.blogspot.com/"]<u><b><font size="3"><font color="red">My full Blog</font id="red"></font id="size3"></b></u>[/url]</b></i></center>

[sheetsofsound]

Alright, this has strayed far from the original topic, but if you're still with me...

Got the distributor back in place and the car runs again. Whew. I can now advance the timing toward 2 degrees ATDC, which was what was advised, except that when I get to about 6 degrees BTDC, the engine starts to stumble and eventually quits, sometimes with a backfire through the carbs.

At about 8 degrees BTDC, it will idle, but not below 1000 rpm. Anything closer to TDC and she won't idle at all. At 8 degrees BTDC and 1000 rpm, it idles pretty well until, for no apparent reason, it will start misfiring and quit. I have repeated this process many times - idle, sudden misfire for no reason, then quit. If I rev the engine and let settle back to idle, it will idle below 1000 with a terrible stumble and then quit. If I try and apply the merest load, it immediately quits.

Any ideas? I have used search, but found nothing that seems relevant except maybe I have rust or water in the tank? I did drain the tank completely and checked the old gas for sediment, but I did it with the car level, not jacked up on one side.

[Workshop Help]

Try backing the distributor another tooth. With the camshaft slot lined up and #1 cylinder top dead center, the rotor must be pointing at the back bolt on the intake manifold.

Mildred Hargis

[Stag76]

Backfiring through the carbies is generally an indication of lean mixture.

Is there an ignition timing setting that the engine will run properly at? ie. idle OK, accelerate, cruise and run under load without pinking/pre-ignition?

TR7 Convertible
Sprint Motor
MegaSquirt EFI

[sheetsofsound]

Yes; about 12 degrees BTDC. Problem was high HC readings at that setting

I will try backing off one tooth tomorrow.

[Stag76]

Can you adjust the carbies to compensate for the high reading, ie. lean it out a bit.

If you can adjust the timing from 12 Degrees BTDC to 2 Degrees ATDC with the distributor in its current position, moving it is not necessary to get the correct timing.

TR7 Convertible
Sprint Motor
MegaSquirt EFI

[sheetsofsound]

Where the distributor was, I couldn't get past 10 degrees BTDC. I have leaned things out as much as possible at this point.

I have moved the distributor one gear back and will try and start her up tonight. (I have spent the day prepping another TR7 for sale today and moved the battery to the other car.)

Update: Moved things one gear back. Idles pretty well at 6 degrees BTDC. Can't advance it any more than that.

At that timing, it idles ok @800-900 rpm. When I say ok, it is still missing occasionally and the exhaust pulse is occasionally uneven. In other words, I'm basically back where I started, although the timing is slightly closer to 2 degrees ATDC. So, idling along, and then, for no reason I can discern, it will suddenly just quit. Sometimes it will miss badly and sputter before dying, other times it will just... die.

I have changed all the vacuum lines. Vacuum gage shows 18-20. I am wondering what the symptoms would be if the vacuum unit at the distributor was failing. Could this explain what's happening? Any other failings with the distributor internals that could explain this problem? Now that I have finally got the distributor in the right place, it would be funny if I had to pull it again to fix the internals.

The distributor is very similar to the Lucas distributors pictured in the Haynes manual. I tried to check the air gap, but the internals are different from the Lucas. I am not sure if it is an Allison unit that came with the aftermarket ignition. I have tried to find pics and manuals of Allison stuff, but so far I haven't found anything relevant.

I'm almost ready to light this thing on fire, except I like the car too damn much.

[FI Spyder]

Idling then missing and dying, not sure of the internals of you particular setup, but it sounds like a wire in the distributor that is broken. They usually break were the wire goes into the connector, hard to see as the break is often covered by the insulation. The later cars came with a Delco distributor not Lucas and in Canada they were electronic I believe (UK ones were points). All the different types are covered in the TR7 OEM manual. Lucas points, Lucas electronic, Delco points, Delco electronic.

- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Stag76]

How long does it idle before stopping?

Are you able to start it immediately after it stops, or do you have to wait?

TR7 Convertible
Sprint Motor
MegaSquirt EFI

[sheetsofsound]

I can start it again right away, and the length of time varies widely; its run as long as 15 minutes before quitting and as short at @ 30 seconds.




This is the inside of the distributor. Turns out it is an Allison/Crane optical pick up. The screw at 11 o'clock in the second photo was slightly loose and I must have moved the pick up at some point. Going to adjust things this afternoon and see if that was the problem.

Update: Well. Turns out that the optical pick-up was just slightly out of adjustment. By adjusting it properly, I am now able to get the car to idle at 2 degrees ATDC, which was impossible with the setting it was at when I got it. It also doesn't seem to be missing any longer, or at least not as badly. I have it leaned out pretty far, which I hope is the reason it hesitates slightly under acceleration at low rpm's. Once its over 2500, it feels really good, very smooth. Hopefully now I can get it through emissions testing and get it on the road. I won't get a chance to test my theory for a week as I'm out of town with work until month's end. Damn job really gets in the way.

Huge thanks to all who gave suggestions and pointed in the right direction.

[Hasbeen]

"Damn job really gets in the way."

I can understand that, being retired now, I can't imagine how I ever found time to fit work into my life.

It would be nice though, to still have that income.

hasbeen

[Workshop Help]

Using your REAL camera, please provide a view of the exhaust manifold side of your engine. Yes, there IS method to my madness. I will explain as we go along.

Mildred Hargis

[sheetsofsound]

Here they are, although I feel like I've been asked to show my underwear or something. I haven't had a chance to clean up the engine bay yet.[:I]

[Hasbeen]

Are you sure you are looking in the right place?

I had a 4 year fight with a failing Lumenition module in the 7. It would not fail completely, like a good bit of electronics, just annoy.

It started with a hesitation, which cleaning contacts would cure for a year or a month, depending on it's mood.

It progressed, after about 3 years of annoyance, to a full miss, which again seemed to respond to various fixes, which never lasted long.

Finally it started cutting out completely for a second or three. This was only when cold, in the first 3 or 4 kilometers, after which it would run all day, or until it got completely cold again. It would of course never exhibit symptoms when anywhere near any expert, who could have traced the fault. Being 25 kilometers from town has advantages, but many disadvantages too.

Ultimately I was advised of a mobile expert, who came & tested the thing from fully cold at my home. He soon located the fault to the module.

After fitting a complete new system, I have had no further trouble.

If only finding a suitable expert weren't so hard, classics would be everywhere.

Hasbeen