I went genuine then upgraded to magnecore, I tried about 3 others inlcuding lucas and bosch and they were all ****e even when new. also the champion plugs which were once my fave have really gone down in quality so I only go for ngk now as I also had probs with bosch, a set of super4's broke up in my mate nissan too and wrote the engine off :doh:

Yep too right. I tend to go for NGK all the time. However I did win a large box of old Land Rover branded plugs from an MOD surplus auction house recently...which are basically the older Champion plugs. Aren't the new ones now made in India or the like?...I know they are a bit ****e.

Interestingly I've got some good HT leads on my bobtail (good= they havent let me down yet), but was looking at a set on ebay with longer insulation at the plug end... A bit pricey, but I'm thinkin of giving them a go if I get ****ed and decide to blow £75 on unbranded leads!
here;-

eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace

75 is nearly magnecores mate . you should just get some- they are warranted for 10 years!

Hi guys

The leads I got were from Poland, theyre the same idea with spiral wound stainless conductor. Only got standard boots on them though. They were a huge improvement over the cheapos I had on there, it would underwater quite happily. Ignition system has been getting worse recently, it was misfiring through large puddles etc, hopefully with the new plugs and cleaned up leads it'll be a bit better...

Shoulda known really that Champion were the underdog, cos NGK are the biggest firm on the game these days.

There's a set of magnecor on eBay at the moment, starting bid £50, not sure if they've been bid up since I last looked. I'm quite chuffed that mine seem to be in good shape still though.

All depends on how it pans out tomorrow!!

well folks, seems to be working fine again

todays jobs were to fit new hose and fill with antifreeze, then road test for ignition faults and set timing.

i drained the block coolant for the first time ever today, hadnt thought of that before (seems neither had the other guy cos they were feckin tight!). i was doing a full drain because the burst hose had caused me to put lots of plain water in, so wanted to get as much out as possible. it took about 12 litres today and probably a little more tomorrow when its cooled off so it must have been pretty empty

anyway, sorted that out and ran it up, then when full went out for a run. spot on.

decided to back my CO trim off to 1.01 volts instead of 1.2 volts, to get it as lean as possible within limits, for power and economy. it has been running 0.27 volts for the last 4 years though, maybe longer!

it seemed to drive ok so i decided to advance the timing. the dizzy is now as far as it can go advanced, as the end of the vac unit now nearly touches the waterpump. it doesnt pink, and reads 12 degrees BTDC at idle according to my timing light and the cank pulley (which may not be accurate apparently)

i assume from this that the timing chain has stretched a lot, meaning that i only get 12 degrees at max static advance.

its all a bit bish bash bosh at the moment, if i do get chance to get the top end apart for some upgrades then i'll know more definitely about whats been going on in there

anyway apart from that, its a case closed here folks, thanks for all your help

glad its sorted, watch yer rings with it running lean

I know, i need to do a compression test! I wouldn't say it's lean now but it was certainly way out on the CO trim before, even though it still wets the plugs. Odd engine this one.

Congrats mate. Glad you got to the bottom of it and have it up n running as it should now.
Nice work

Thanks joe!

Now for a cam upgrade...Glad you got it sorted!!

dirtydiscov8 said:

Now for a cam upgrade...Glad you got it sorted!!

Click to expand...

Cheers dude, yeah it does need sorting out, but for now I'm saving pennies and I'm happy it's running pretty good these days generally.

Cheers!