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Rover v8 non-starter...

The rover v8 in my tr7 is refusing to start. I'm getting sparks to all cylenders, and there's a faint wiff of fuel from the exhaust so /some/ is getting through.

The first manifestation of this was a flat battery, but having charged the battery, the engine turns on the starter but doesn't fire. I've also tried jump-starting it from another car, which got the starter motor spinning noticably faster, but the engine still didn't fire.

Recent history which may be relevant:

I had the carb off (Holley 4160) for strip down and cleaning, as there was crap coming through the fuel line from the tank. The carb was reinstalled with a new fuel filter, and the engine fired up ok. It was then driven to a local mechanic to have a new fuel tank and rear bushes fitted, and I brought it back. The mechanic who did the work put a quarter tank of regular unleaded in it (I usually use super) and it did a 30 mile trip with no problems. I filled it up with Tesco super unleaded as usual during that trip.

After parking up in my garage for a few days, the battery was flat, and it now refuses to fire (even with a charged battery).

The plugs, leads, rotor arm and dizzy cap have less than 100 miles use, as they were replaced to find out why it wasn't firing properly, and as they had no effect I had the carb off for cleaning.

I'm a bit confused, to say the least - all I can think of is that either something has blocked the carb again, or this batch of tesco's super is crap. anyone with more sage advice?!

Cheers,

Reply to
James Dore
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try some neat petrol in the carb & see if it fires.

Reply to
Duncanwood

What type of ignition, or make and model of distributor?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

It's got what I would call a standard distributor in that externally it looks no different from the photos in the SD1 3500 haynes manual, but it's been modified for electronic ignition, with a toothed wheel and an optical sensor which takes the place of the points. This tells a small grey box to fire the LT side of the coil.

It's got vacuum advance, and the connector pipe is ok (no leaks) and the coil is less than a year old.

Cheers,

Reply to
James Dore

Amplifier?

Reply to
a.n.other

If there is a good spark to all cylinders, then it rules out the ignition components as the cause of the fault.

Does it have a mechanical or electrical fuel pump ? Test if you have fuel getting through to the carb.

Reply to
NT

The fuel pump is electrical, and I can hear it pressurising the system when I switch on. There is an in-line fuel filter just before the carb, which is full of fuel, and when I floor the gas pedal, (or work the throttle linkage on the carb) I get jets of fuel from the holley's centre-squirter. But the engine still doesn't fire.

Since I had the carb off and in bits for cleaning, I suspect that there's some dislodged crap got into the jets or somesuch, so it looks like the primary float chamber and metering block are coming off again....

Maybe I'll ask if the local mechanic can blast it out with their air line, as I've only got tins of compressed air, and the pressure isn't good from them (even with them sat in a bucket of warm water for a bit).

Anyhow, I'm sure I'll be back after t'weekend!

Cheers,

Reply to
James Dore

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