Time for a time?

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joe27979

joe27979

Well-Known Member
Posts
1,354
Location
west Norfolk
Hi all,
I have a 1978 2.25 petrol s3.
it had a turner engineering head overhaul in 1996 with harder seats and improved gas flowing.

it is running very sweet after new weber carb and everything in ignition system replaced. on the odd occasion at idle, say every 15seconds or so she gives a tiny little miss, hardly noticeable to the untrained ear.

she's done 55k

So, is it time to check my timing chain etc?

if so what am I looking for? which bits wear? I'm told a couple of cogs could usually do with replacing while I have front end apart?


I've not come across any decent guides apart from one here:

Land Rover FAQ - Repair & Maintenance - Series - Engine - Timing Chain


can anyone lend any pointers/pics/links that may help other than my trusty workshop manual?
 
Not sure about the petrols but this happens on 2.25 diesels. The usual problem is the head gasket blowing across the push rod area. It is an injector out job on the diesel to re torque the head when head is replaced after work. I do mine after warm up and again after 500 miles. They can run for an age and not give any bother.
 
divie said:
Not sure about the petrols but this happens on 2.25 diesels. The usual problem is the head gasket blowing across the push rod area. It is an injector out job on the diesel to re torque the head when head is replaced after work. I do mine after warm up and again after 500 miles. They can run for an age and not give any bother.
Click to expand...

never done a head gasket, scares me... what other symptoms shall I look for?
 
If blowing to the pushrod gallery you'll have crankcase pressure, blowing out the filler cap, breather and/or dipstick. Not so sure it would cause an occasional misfire.

Easiest way to check is remove the breather pipe and see if it 'chuffs'
 
It sounds as though your condenser might be breaking down.

For a couple of quid it's easier and cheaper to change that than to start looking under the head for something that might or might not be there!
 
Hard to imagine a chain giving bother at such low miles. I'd investigate the simple things first. Personally, I'd take the points out again, clean them, and see if it still happens. If it does, I'd be thinking about something in the carb next.
I can recommend optronic ignition if you don't mind spending a bit on the old girl. Nice big spark every time, and not affected by cold and damp.
As mentioned above, if the head gasket has gone a bit, there are usually other symptoms.
 
Although I don't like sweeping issues under the carpet. If it's as minor an issue as you suggest, I think I'd be tempted to put it on the 'keep an eye on it' list and see if anything develops.
 
I had a similar sound on my Series II on tickover, and it turned out to be a build up on the HT contacts on both the rotor arm and the cap.

A quick clean up with a screwdriver in the cap contacts and a quick rub over the rotor arm contact with a matchbox cured it for a while.

When it started again I changed the rotor arm for a genuine Lucas and never had a repeat of the problem!

Hope this helps.
 
That happens when pattern rotor arms are used. The rotor to cap gap increases and gives the arcing , sometimes a tap with a punch is needed until a good rotor arm is fitted. But joe27979 is using electronic ignition.
 
divie said:
That happens when pattern rotor arms are used. The rotor to cap gap increases and gives the arcing , sometimes a tap with a punch is needed until a good rotor arm is fitted. But joe27979 is using electronic ignition.
Click to expand...

cheers guys, new accuspark dizzy, new dizzy cap, new accuspark sport coil, new plugs, new leads. Im fairley certain the electrical side is ok, alternator is ok and a brand new heavy duty bosh silver battery.

p.s anyone ever sealed up the dizzy to prevent splashes of water in floods?

thinking about some hylomar between dizzy cap and dizzy (no points so shouldn't need to open it. Maybe some silicon where the coil leads enter dizzy. HT leads rubbers are fairly tight.

anything else?
 
I might be a bit behind the times here, but the electronic ignition still needs a rotor arm doesn't it?

BTW, I always gave the leads a good smear of Vaseline! ;) ;)
 
Use a strobe, if the timing chain is fluttering you will see the timing mark jump around.

(mind you , they all jump to a degree so it's a question of deciding whether it's excessive)

Got/borrow a lambda probe to see if if it's too lean at the top end?
 
SpringDon said:
Use a strobe, if the timing chain is fluttering you will see the timing mark jump around.

(mind you , they all jump to a degree so it's a question of deciding whether it's excessive)

Got/borrow a lambda probe to see if if it's too lean at the top end?
Click to expand...

my timing strobe gives a nice steady timing mark on crank (I tippexed it so I can see better)

I will look at fuel mix next, are the gunson spark things any good at determining mixture? or shall I iget it to an MOT test station to setup on the machine?
 
I got a new dissy and "electronic ignition". And had two problems first I got the occasional miss like you at idling. I swapped back to proper points and it went away. However there were no other problems so I'm now back on electronic points for winter.

the second more annoying problem was that this dissy was utterly junk. The advance curve was all wrong. I measured the advance coming in far too quick to early then to sllowly for higher rpm. In the end I stripped it down and found that they'd used quite stiff but loose springs and the weights weighed a lot less than the ones in an original.

With that setup it was almost impossible to set the car up to not pink and at same time get decent performance.

in the end I got hold of a real NOS Lucas.45d and it runs so much better! It just starts to pink if you use scrappy supermarket fuel instead of shell 98 and is set for 9 degrees at 800rpm and doesn't run out of advance at 3000 rpm like the pattern one...

The reason I put "electronic ignition" in quotes is that these things really aren't full electronic ignition but just electronic points on normal mechanical distributor with weights and vacuum advance.
 
PS: Meant to say I don't think that the misfire thing is anything to worry about, it seems to give some "phantom" fires at low revs but not when pulling at speed. I suspect that the problem is that the points work by monitoring magnetic pulses from the collar on the special rotor arm, when its set to low revs I think it is double counting the pulses sometimes. I hooked up an oscilloscope at one point and all looked to be well at >1000rpm. and drives fine.
 
dominicbeesley said:
PS: Meant to say I don't think that the misfire thing is anything to worry about, it seems to give some "phantom" fires at low revs but not when pulling at speed. I suspect that the problem is that the points work by monitoring magnetic pulses from the collar on the special rotor arm, when its set to low revs I think it is double counting the pulses sometimes. I hooked up an oscilloscope at one point and all looked to be well at >1000rpm. and drives fine.
Click to expand...

Cheers Dominic,
I still have my old lucas distributor so I may put it back in with the electronic module in the top to see how it performs.

It pulls and runs fine (except it cuts out if I brake to hard for a roundabout, im guessing fuel surge in the carb bowl?)
 
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