J. Stovall wrote:
>
> Hey all,
> The other day I wrote that I had changed the oil in my dashpots.
> The intresesting thing about this is that the shop put in the special made
> stuff, and I put in regular engine oil, 10W-40. My hunch was that the
> reason we had been having problems with the car was becuase the special
> made oil was too light.
This one made me curious... especially since a previous message of yours
said it fixed the problem, but that the throttle response was slower.
I'd wondered if there is a difference in earlier and later Strombergs,
or if the specialty oil was lighter by intention, to speed up throttle
response a bit (at the expense of low-speed driveability). I checked an
older British Autopress manual for your year GT6, and found that the
recommendation in it is for SAE 20W.
> What about Marvel Mystery Oil? I was thinking of
> trying that.
MMO is probably too light... it has diesel fuel or kerosene in it, I
think, which is part of its reputed abilities to work as a penetrating
oil.
> Now for the gloating part! As I had figured, the shop set the
> timing dead on with the timing light. While that's all well and good, you
> then need to set it by ear, keeping it a close to the dead on mark as you
> can.
The "by ear" part I would be a bit concerned about. The book I mention
above says 12 degrees BTDC. That is a reasonably healthy amount of
initial advance. If the engine won't idle properly at the correct
timing, there could be something else wrong somewhere. Small variations
in static timing (1-2 deg.) either way might be necessary, but too much
advance can eventually cause real damage (and then your mother gets the
pickup <g>). Too much advance can burn holes in the piston crowns.
(!)
Does the advance plate turn smoothly by hand? Have you checked the
total advance with a timing light, and does the advance increase
smoothly? A sticking advance plate can make one think the car requires
more initial advance to run properly, because there's insufficient
advance as engine speed rises. Flyweight springs which have lost some of
their tension will cause a too rapid rise in advance, which will cause
pre-ignition when accelerating from low engine speed, which makes one
think less advance is necessary, which then causes the engine to be
boggy coming off idle.
Cheers, Jeff.
--
My other Triumph doesn't run, either....
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