Brief recap of the last year. I probably should make more of an effort to update this thread. I should probably also make more of an effort to work on this stupid thing too.
So i probably should start with a public service announcement for anyone reading this; whatever you do,
DO NOT BOTHER WITH THE FAJS WEBER COPIES; yes, even the ones that are sold by the engineer that was once a member on this site and sells lots of Gemini stuff. Supposedly they were checked over and float heights were set which i can confirm they most definitely were not. Ill elaborate on the whys further down.
Basically Ive always had huge issues with the car not running right. Its always been overly fuelly, leaning it out has made no change and its gradually gotten worse. Ive tried, Roddy has tried, even Lok gave it a stab at nationals. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Prior to Nationals we spent a fair bit of time with Rod trying to get it running correctly including potentially redoing the jetting but after talking with Thornbury Carbs they convinced me to leave it alone and try and what was causing it to be so rich. Put 2x genuine weber needles and seats into it, measured the float heights which were supposed to have been set to 11.5mm only to discover they are f*#cking all over the joint [one was 10.5mm with gasket, the other was 13mm] so reset them both to 11.2mm and full-extension on both is nigh-on 30mm. Managed to tear the top gaskets getting the float out which was annoying so another trip to Thornbury Carbs for gaskets. Whacked them on, reassembled the carbs and then Roddy came past and we reset everything again.
Zero'd the air bleeds, reset idle mixture, checked linkages, sync'd the carbs up and did around 500km in the next two days before putting it on the trailer for nationals. Still fuelly, but engine runs ok and sounds good. Bit concerned about running a fresh engine so rich but not much i can do about that. See here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt5tztIacYE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv0kc2hHS1g
Loaded it up on the trailer, met up with Roddy and Kelli in Yea then took off for The Entrance.
Got there and fired it up to get it off the trailer....except it doesnt fire. And when it does, its running on 3cylinders and pig rich. What. The. f*#k? Bonnet up [this would become a regular occurance] and try to work out whats going on. Plugs are wetter than a pornstar - rip them out, clean them up [Chris with the rota gem - thanks heaps mate; whod have thought a rotary owner would have the perfect tool for plug cleaning ], whack them back in and get ready for the cruise on Sunday. Took it for a quick run to some car show on that Saturday and it behaved so we should be ok.
Cruise rolls round and this is the first time the Mrs is going to get to rack up some decent ks in it, prior to this shed only done roughly 20ks in it doing a few laps of the suburb trying to get used to it again [its been 4 years since she last drove it]. Driving ok but it smells like its getting richer again so we open the air bleeds up a bit.
Get to the first stop for photos, go to restart and....surprise, it wont start. f*#k.
Bonnet up, work out its flooded. Get it going again and go to the next stop for lunch which means going over wisemanns ferry where it wont restart to get onto the ferry. f*#k. Swap seats with the mrs, I jump in and roll start it and get it going in time to drive onto the ferry. f*#cked if im turning it off though.
After lunch it gradually runs worse and worse. Something is seriously wrong with this thing and every time we go to start it, it either wont start or runs on 3 till the plugs clear up. Almost complete the cruise - ALMOST. 12ks from camp the charge light comes on and the f*#cking thing shuts down. At this point im f*#cking glad i trailed it up there - run back to camp, grab the jackaroo, grab the trailer and come get this. Unload it in the spot next to the cabin and leave it there for the next few days while we enjoy whats left of our holiday.
Sitting around bored and Roddy decides he wants to try and sort it out. Go to start it and....wait a minute, that noise sounds familiar. f*#cking thing is hydrolocked, plugs on 3 and 4 are f*#cking drenched. For f&*ks sake. bonnet up again.
This time we go through the whole f*#cking thing. Carbs apart again, check float heights, check floats actually float, check linkages, check accel pumps [one on back carb was mega sensitive] so back that one right off. Linkage has too much flex - is that causing it to trickle fuel in? Is the returnless setup overcoming the needle and seat and bleeding the pressure through while the car is off? Do all this s*#t, still garbage.
Anyway, Greg decides he wants to take some photos so we limp it 50m down to the water in the caravan park whilst i contemplate letting the handbrake down to let the f*#cking thing roll into Tuggerah Lake. Photos came out awesome but unfortunately car is still a f*#cking shitbox.
So since the 'nats ive done nothing with this apart from walk around it in my driveway, been way too busy with the little one and the house reno. Jonno organized a track day in Albury, paid up - now just need to get this going properly so i can use it - dont really want to throw the wifes WRX on the track.
The conclusion weve come to is these carbs are basically fit for the bin; currently leaning towards porosity on the casting allowing fuel to dribble into the cylinder as it keeps filling cylinders 3 and 4 with fuel when left to sit. Pulled 3L of fuel out of the sump when i drained it the other day. First things first though, im a bit concerned about the amount of fuel this thing has taken on. Being a fresh engine im worried that the over-fuelling may have hurt it and glazed a bore. Tried comp testing it in the driveway where it proceeded to shoot a whole heap of fuel out of #4 plughole, across driveway and 5m away to fence. Sump is full of fuel so dropped the oil and left it out with the plugs out to hopefully evap anything left in cyl. Pulled just over 6L out of the sump, which is fair going given that the sump on a Gemini only holds 3.2L without the filter! Rest was all raw fuel. Comp tester went on last night and results are....
140 140 100 140. f*#k.
Didnt get a chance last night to throw a bit of oil in the cyl and see if it comes up; if theres a spike in comp it pretty much garauntees the bore on #3 is glazed, if no change then it looks like it might be a bit wide in the valve clearance. Doubt it though as theres usually a bit of noise to go with the valve clearance being out of spec and theres no indication of that. Basically my only real option is to throw a working standard carb on it and go find some hills and put some real load through it and hope that it comes good. Otherwise, its engine out which i really do not have time nor inclination to do. Will hopefully get that on this weekend so I can run some k's through it and then hopefully get the thing to get some comp up.
Regardless of what happens with the engine [wether i have to pull it to re-ring it/hone it or not], im not leaving it with a standard carb. Its not an overly-worked engine but its hopped up enough to make use of some more air/fuelling. Plus it sounds better and the standard Nikki 2 barrels are aids. Thought about fuel injecting it as I have enough left over bits to cobble something together and then decided I was making it far too complicated for a car I give no f&*ks for so I was having none of that.
Plan A, and Plan B.
Plan A is a redline side-draft manifold currently fitted with Mikuni-Solex PHH40s. Yes, they are the dreaded "Type T" version which means gasket kits are expensive to get and they rattle the venturis loose. No, they arent going to be worse than the garbage I had on there previously. Someone that knows what they are doing has had a play with these at some point as the grub screws holding the venturis in are loctited properly and it looks like the screws been machined to a slight point with a corresponding divot being drilled into the venturi, because they are located f*#cking tightly. Theyve also had some epoxy put on the bottom of the throat and been ported to match the manifold. Plan B is just yer-olde faithful 32/36 Escort/Cortina weber on a standard Gem manifold, but thats boring so will only go on if i fail [again] to get twin carbies working.
Need a bit of a cleanup first however as they are properly manky...
Wasted the weekend a bit but did get some spanner time on this. Turns out the compression issues were valve clearances - nothing jumped out as being "too tight" but after having two goes at it i managed to get all 4 pots to within 5psi of each other - number 3 came up from just under 100 to 138 which was good. I knew i was on the right track when #2 dropped to 90 because i f*#cked the clearance up
What wasnt so good is the plug thread on 4 has finally given up the ghost. Has always been a bit dicky and difficult to get the plug in and started properly. Got two turns in and felt it start to bind...ffs. Looks like its time to get the thread repair guys out.
Anyway. The Saga continues.