[Spridgets] Troubleshooting..

[Ron Corry]

My fuel pump sorta failed, and gave me exactly the same type of result.

As Bud says, check you have these things right:- atomised Fuel, Compression
and Spark (at the right time). If those three are right for all four
cylinders, the engine should fire up nicely.

On changing to a new fuel pump, my engine ran just fine.

My  b,0.02


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bud Osbourne" <abcoz at hky.com>
To: "'Dean Hedin'" <dlh2001 at comcast.net>; "'spridgets'"
<spridgets at autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2013 4:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] Troubleshooting..


> Had a similar problem, last fall, with the MGB I was putting together for
> my
> wife.  To make a very long story short, it was nothing more than fuel
> starvation, caused by a partial blockage of the hard line that runs under
> the car.  Before you do anything radical, like pulling the head, make damn
> sure you don't have a fuel supply issue.  Look at the simple, inexpensive
> items first, before working your way up the "food chain" in order of
> expense
> and difficulty/complication.
> We all have a tendency to out-smart ourselves, on occasion, when trying to
> diagnose problems on these cars and it's a very easy trap to fall into.
> Some guys never escape it.
>
> Bud Osbourne
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: spridgets-bounces at autox.team.net
> [mailto:spridgets-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Dean Hedin
> Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2013 10:45 AM
> To: 'spridgets'
> Subject: [Spridgets] Troubleshooting..
>
> Last year before I buttoned up the Sprite for winter I took it for a usual
> weekly ride.
>
> About 4 miles from home I was waiting to get around a tree service crew.
> As I passed them the car began to stumble an run really rough.  It felt
> like
> it was running on two cyclinders along with a pinging type of sound.
>
> I limped home and parked the car for winter.  I figured that perhaps
> something was wrong with my home brewed MSD box.  I would deal with it in
> the Spring.
>
> So today I'm out troubleshooting the thing.  I started by making a little
> harness that allows me to swap out the MSD box.  I figured this is a good
> thing to have anyway.
> But the MSD box
> was not the issue.  In fact spark is not the issue. Plenty of spark on
> every
> cylinder even without the msd box.
>
> It seemed like at idle, I could pull cylinders 1 & 2 spark plug boots and
> not see an appreciable drop in rpms. So I thought maybe something was
> wrong
> with the front SU carb.
>
> I opened and drained it's float and removed the bell.  I then took canned
> air and reverse blew through the main jet to make sure the tube was not
> clogged.
>
> That was'nt it.
>
> Now I'm worried, so I pull the valve cover to make sure none of the rocker
> adjuster had'nt worked loose.  No problem there...
>
> So now I'm thinking either valves or head gasket.  But the failure was
> sudden.  Has to be head gasket.
>
> I Googled "symptoms of blown head gasket between cylinders" and I find
> this...
> http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&threa
> d=102462
>
> Which has a link to this video on youtube...
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k1zNcXUq834
>
> Which is almost EXACTLY what my Sprite sounds like right now.
>
> Guess I need to finish up that 12G295 head in a hurry. Ordered all the
> bits.
> Need to get this done
> before the 55th shindig...
> ------------------------
>
> spridgets at autox.team.net
>
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