International Lancia Forums

To keep all of you who posted in the previous thread informed:
we checked the fuel supply, the only thing which we found was the float in the carb sitting a bit low, this was rectified. The fuel pipes, and the pickup in the tank was OK (the tank was repainted, and cleaned 5 years ago). Fuel pressure fine. The ignition was checked again, the rotor was changed.
The behaviour on the road has not changed, under load in 4th it is as if the car was sucking for air, and not getting enough. So next idea is to check and reset the camshaft drive. Too bad we did not do it when the engine was out of the car, one month ago! We always found that the engine was less reponsive than a B24's, and not just because of the additional weight, maybe the timing was badly set a long time ago.

If you think its the cam timing, why not try checking what it is in the car? Check the intake and exhaust maximum opening against TDC. Maybe that will tell you something.

Geoff

Well, at least we found something, and it makes quite a difference.
We reset the camshaft drive, and the timing was 4 teeth late, on the starter ring. The ring has 121 teeth according to litterature, so that makes a change of 12°. We do not know when the engine was done, but it was in the car since we got it, around 1980!
I drove the car this afternoon, and the engine now revs easily to 5000 RPM in 3rd, more in the bottom gears. The sucking noise is gone, power is certainly more than before .... but it could still be a bit more potent. So I assume that the cams are a bit tired. Next time we have the engine out, we shall look into that. However, for normal use, and we do not go on the track, the behaviour on pick-up under load is quite sufficient, and much nicer than before. So we shall let the subject rest for a while.

PS: Or does someone want to comment on carb jets? (should we increase size from the 135 main jets which are fitted - and specified?)

And a big thank you to all of you who took interest in that story, and posted a reply!

A happy ending at last !

Thanks to a remark from Martin Cliffe, of Omicron, we checked the carburetor linkage, and the throttle actuation. And we found out that the screw on the brass collar of one throttle axis was loose, so that one of the throttles did not open as it should. With the screw tightened and the throttles synchronised, the engine is now back in form.

We are now waiting for the weather to clear, and rain to stop, to do a thorough test drive.
Thank you Martin and Ian F. who gave us that helpful hint.