Vikram's 1960

[94touring]

Brakes work.  Falls flat after about 45 so I need to tweak some things.

[MiniDave]

4500 rpm or 45 mph?

[BruceK]

Looks very nice indeed!

[94touring]

Miles per the hour.

[94touring]

Car is headed your way!  Your wheel never showed up so I'll ship it to you.

[MiniDave]

Vikram, post some pics when it gets home!

[Vikram]

Will do!
I need to replace the spark plugs, initial research says ngk bp6es for a 1275. Does that sound right?

[94touring]

Thems the ones. 

[Vikram]

Well I'm sorry its taken me so long to update. I took delivery of the car a few weeks ago, and have since been putting the rest of the car together. Went through NYS inspection safely 2 weeks ago.
Since then, I have been dealing with an issue that I have been trying to fix myself but with little success.
When I got the car, it had a used set of spark plugs on it that Dan put on just to tune the car. I replaced them with NGK BP6es plugs about 10 days ago, and pulled the timing back a little. The car ran well, but after a week it suddenly spluttered and died on a hill. Fortunately, I was able to get out of the situation. Here is the problem:
The car struggles under acceleration frequently, especially uphill in third gear. The engine sounds like is spluttering, drops rpm and dies. The car also struggles to start back up.
After a while the car will fire up, and sound like its running fine only to die a few moments later.
Originally I thought it was a fuel pump/filter issue. I checked the pump, and can continuously hear it operating. I also checked both fuel filters and replaced the rubber hoses, and they were perfectly clean. It's also a brand new electric pump (Mr Gasket 42S).
Yesterday, I removed the new plugs I had recently installed and they were black.
So I guess its running too rich? I can see a small white puff from the exhaust when I rev it (I assume unburnt excess gas)
Could someone please advise me on how to tune the car? I have heard that it's 12 flats down from the flush starting point, is that correct?

[MiniDave]

That plug doesn't look that bad, it's not wet, is it?

I think you still have a fueling problem, you may have water in the fuel.....add a bottle of Heet at your next fill up (pour the Heet in first, then add the fuel to mix it up good) and see if it fixes your problem.....it won't run on water!  ;D

[Vikram]

No the plugs were not wet, just black and sooty. But they were brand new, so how can that be ok? I changed them out for another new set that I had, and the car ran better before developing the same problem.
How could water have gotten into the fuel? Is it possible that my pump is bad?

[94touring]

I wouldn't think the tank has water in it.  White smoke though is a water issue.  Does your oil cap have a milky film on it?

[Vikram]

I would have to check the cap when I get home from work.
I may have made the white smoke a bigger deal than it is. It's just a small wispy puff that comes out of the exhaust when revved, no big clouds....

[94touring]

If it still puffs white after it's been running 5-10 minutes and warmed up, probably a head gasket about to go.  Initially it ran too rich and had fouled plugs when I started tuning it. After leaning it out it was running pretty good.  Timing was too retarded and was back firing through the carb.  A few tweaks later it was running pretty good on those old spare plugs.  If it's getting worse and white smoke, it's water in the tank or that head gasket. 

[MiniDave]

The reason I suggested the Heet was that it's inexpensive and will rule that out as a problem.......the other thing to do is a compression test, carburation is the last thing you check.

[Vikram]

Well after more investigating, I took the air filter and a good part of the carb apart. The jets were at different levels, so it's definitely a mixture issue.
The problem is I can barely turn either jets adjusting nuts,, one is impossible. I've taken the choke cable off too.
Any ideas?
Oil cap is clean so no head gasket issue.

[MiniDave]

Sounds like you need to take them off and give them a good cleaning......

[94touring]

They are pretty clean from when he went through them  8.gif. Plus the nuts moved fairly easily and I synched them with my fancy carb balancer.  Did you happen to adjust the idle up or down by only adjusting one carb?  Only thing hard on them was the choke, which took a good yank.

[MiniDave]

Are you trying to turn the wrong nut to adjust the mixture? Maybe find a good YouTube vid on how to adjust them and spend some time watching it till you're familiar - remember, like Dan says you can't just adjust one setting - first you have to disconnect the linkage between the carbs so you can set them individually......

Then make sure you're adjusting the right thing in the right sequence.

[Vikram]

Oh, I didn't disconnect the carbs from each other. How should I do that? Is it the throttle linkages?
And yes, the carbs are very clean...and I am adjusting the right nut I'm following videos exactly and they make sense..

[Vikram]

Answered that question myself. Disconnected the throttle springs and was able to turn the nuts more easily. Currently have them set at 12 flats below flush and will work from there. I need to refill the dash pot oil, is it true atf is a suitable lubricant?

[94touring]

Atf works.

[MiniDave]

ATF is a little thin, but will work.......so will good ol 20W50, which you should be running in the engine anyway.

[Merlin]

ATF is a little thin, but will work.......so will good ol 20W50, which you should be running in the engine anyway.

So basically Mini ATF :D

[Vikram]

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been spending time working through the car trying to solve this issue of the black sooty spark plugs that lead to eventual engine spluttering, stumbling and dying. I will systematically go through all the debugging I have done so far.

Spark:
NGK BP6ES and unballasted ignition coil.

Air:
I have new K & N conical air filters that are very clean. I remove them when tuning, so I'm pretty certain that air is not the issue.

Fuel:
I am using the Mr. Gasket 42S electric fuel pump that supplies fuel at 2-3.5 psi which I believe is correct for twin carbs. I can hear the pump performing fine and I use 2 fuel filters, a metal one immediately after the pump and a plastic one in the engine bay just before the carbs. The pump is located under the boot floor, just below the tank in the perfect position and it is well grounded. To be sure, I removed the rubber hose right after the metal filter, turned the ignition on and the pump operated perfectly, pumping fuel into a catch can I had on the ground. I then reconnected the hose, and removed the hose in the engine bay (just before the carb and after the plastic filter).  Once again, the pump performed perfectly and fuel filled at a good rate into a catch can.
So I can assume that my fuel pump and filters are not the issue.

Carbs:
I have twin HS2 carbs that I rebuilt using the minispares overhaul kit. I have them set at a base of 12 flats below level, before I fine tune. For fine tuning, I get the car running and lift the pistons individually to see what happens to the idle. Currently the idle drops but levels out once the pistons return, indicating the car is slightly lean but I am trying to do so to keep the plugs from fouling. When I tune the car rich, the exhaust pops and there's a fine wisp of unburnt gas from the exhaust as expected.
Important: the pistons do seem to take a little too long to return, is that an issue? I assume this is down to the springs and the dashpot oil. The springs are grey and I use 20w50 as dashpot oil.

Timing:
I have not fiddled much with the timing, I only retarded it slightly after Dan's tuning. The car idles at around 1000 rpm, and fast idle is at 1500 rpm. The idle is perfectly smooth. I also have pointless electronic ignition.

Oil cap:
The underside is perfectly clean with no milky deposit indicating no head gasket issues.

The picture shows the plugs with the plug on the right being closest to the rad fan.

I have followed nearly every instruction on the internet down to a T yet I still have this frustrating issue. My car ends up being very unreliable because after a few days the plugs foul and the car dies. There is no indication of when the car will die, leaving me with little confidence in driving the car as it can cut out in a dangerous scenario.

Now, I only recently removed fuel hoses and tested the pump. Is it possible there was air in the lines earlier causing an issue? I can try running about now and seeing if its better, but I fear that this issue will just re-emerge....
Any and all help would be much appreciated!