Thanks everyone who replied to my original e-mail. Anyway I just pulled
all the plugs to see if I could find out any more about the problem.
Anyway it looks like they are all being carbon fouled, so that suggests a
mixture problem, they are not sticky black like they would be if being
oil fouled. Also what I thought was oil, I now think is petrol. The
threads on the plugs on No.2 and No.3 are wet and both smell of petrol.
I now think that it is petrol that I can see coming out of the plug
holes. Would this be at all consistent with a mixture problem? Any
thoughts?
cheers
John & Saskia the Spit 1500
http://www.spit1500.co.uk
--- Terry Thompson <firespiter@yahoo.com> wrote: > Is it possible that
you're just having oil come from
> between the valve cover (gasket) and the head and the
> oil is just accumulating near the plug holes?
>
> If oil is leaking into the combustion chambers then
> you should have some fouling and misfiring of the
> engine. And there should be some blue-ish gray smoke
> from the exhaust either all the time or when shifting
> gears. Any other symptoms, pinking? more than usual
> valve clatter? any drop or rise in revs when you push
> the clutch pedal in?
>
> Pull the spark plugs (you should pull all of them and
> keep them in order) and look for black goo on the
> plugs. If so you're either blowing oil into the
> combustion chambers past the piston rings or from the
> valve seats.
>
> You should also invest ~$20 (here in the US) for a
> compression tester, it threads into where the spark
> plugs go, and you disconnect the dizzy and crank the
> engine and it tells you how much compression is in the
> cylinder that you're on. What you want to check for is
> that all of the cylinders are within a 10 psi
> variance, preferably they're all identical. (I believe
> that with the 9:1 compression head, I use to get
> 165-170 psi). Any large variance indicates a leak.
>
> Sooty/dusty black on your plug ends is carbon from
> running too rich, but gooey, shiney or tacky black is
> from oil. If your plugs are getting oil fouled, it's
> probably time for rings or a valve job.
>
> If it's a bad valve cover seal, replace it and use
> some blue permatex (or whatever the British use as a
> gasket sealer), and if it's oil coming from the
> valves/piston rings, then it's time to think about
> engine work. Tightening the spark plugs won't help
> (except to keep the oil inside the combustion chamber,
> where it doesn't belong).
>
> If it were oil coming in from a cracked head, you'd
> almost assuredly be losing water at a noticable rate.
> So it's probably time for the ring job or new valves
> and seats.
>
> -Terry
>
>
> --- John Hobson <goalie_john@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > Saskia, my 1977 Spit 1500 is leaking oil from No.2
> > and No.3 spark plug
> > holes (and probably elsewhere that I'm not aware
> > of!). Has anyone else
> > had this problem? Could it be that the plugs need
> > tightening up? Could
> > it be a problem with the cylinder head?
> >
> > Another slightly odd thing happened a week or so
> > ago. I got a pair of
> > new tyres (Pirelli P1000, 155-80-13) on the rear for
> > a week or so after
> > having them fitted they seemed to rub when going
> > over bumps or round
> > corners. At first I thought it was the exhaust box
> > scraping on the
> > ground, but I now think that it's the tyres rubbing
> > on the wheel arches.
> > Anyway whatever this problem was/is it has now fixed
> > itself, and I'm none
> > the wiser exactly what the original problem was...
> > anyone else had this
> > problem, any thoughts on it?
> >
> > Any help, as always, very much appreciated!
> >
> > cheers
> > John
> > http://www.spit1500.co.uk/
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