A compression tester will arrive today, courtesy of amazon, and I have one of those top down compressor tools to remove the collets so you can take the spring off. It's the "Rope through the plug hole" trick to stop the valves falling down. It is this one:

Morning All. :D Oh Gosh Monday again! Bad news on the Mini front. It seems she's got a 40-a-day habit. :( People following behind me yesterday reported that when giving it some beans and then coming off the throttle there were clouds of smoke. I cannot see them from inside the car at all, so...

Fantastic news. Very pleased for you indeed. Congrats! :D

Back from the show. The club was well represented with at least 13 cars on display. The organisers goofed and some were placed away from the main group. But overall it was a great show. This is one of the club member's cars. A classic with a different engine.... A Nissan Micra engine...

Morning All. :D Me and Gwen are off to a show today. :) Catch you all tomorrow. Will try to get some pictures. Have a great day! :D

Wow! that's PROPER tent....and a half! Do you always have such a big erection in your back garden? :)

Yes, I am heeding what both you and @landowner and others are saying. It is a 50 year old Mini with A-Series technology with no ECU etc. etc. I only need to get it running sweet not "perfect". That'll do me fine. I am pleased to have got it with clean plugs and not wet, sooty fouled plugs...

Congrats WL, a good call. :D

Sorry, the pic of that plug was from the guy AC DODD who you professed a dislike for. His day job is tuning SU carb'd engines. I am going to be doing a bit more miles tomorrow going to that show so I will pull the plugs after that round trip and take a look. Dodd does all his stuff with a...

Morning All. :D Off out for a paper, BBRS. :) Supposed to be a nice day, very still and cool ATM. Have a good day! :D

I know the jet does not move, the jet should only be used to set the idle mixture only. But if you go hog-wild and wind it down too far you affect more than just the idle mixture, you affect the first few station positions too. :(

@Stanleysteamer well, well, well. Here is our SU carb "expert tuner" showing us all a perfect plug after a tuning session. Just like the guy in the YT clip advised look at the fire mark/band on the earth strap of the plug. 100thou' band just above the thread of the plug.

Yes I know. If you wind the jet DOWN the mixture is enriched across the entire needle profile as the needle moves up and down. Contouring the needle at the relevant "stations" affects the mixture at the station-specific rev-range. The needle he "made" for the car was a terrible HACK that...

I had noticed that the pre-ignition "bang" seemed to always occur when trying to accelerate from a low (15-20) speed. I know generally how the SU carb works and I realised that if the throttle was suddenly opened that the dashpot would rise and that if it rose too fast then the "accelerator...

...that like the Chinese said about the success of the French revolution on its 200th anniversary "It is maybe too early to tell"; but, since advancing the timing slightly and changing the 20w oil for 30w oil in the dashpot the mini has not had a repeat of the intake-side pre-detonation. I am...