101 power loss, WAS Cross your fingers

Curiously, I have a similar problem with my Unimog 404. Despite seemingly endless tinkering, I've not been able to fix it. I'll be very interested in whatever anyone has to suggest!

I know this sounds daft, especially at this time of year, but it could be that the carburettor venturis are icing up.

Ice forms around and in front of the mainjet bridge, reducing the amount of airflow, as the fuel flow is unrestricted, the engine gets progressively richer and richer.

Stop the engine and residual heat from the manifold melts the ice and you can carry on a bit further.

Happens a lot with K& N filters on Minis.

John

I think this is unlikely due to the 101's engine bay layout it's like a sweat house so Ice isn't going to form in a million years once the engine is hot.

Possibly could be a leaking gasket somewhere.

I've just had a similay 30 mile trip in Morph to the point that I got out...reconnected one of the blasted spark plug leads which keep jumping off (new too :-( )

And then drove around 10 miles tweeking the Dizzy until I got the best running I could....engine hood removed...my ears hurt!! My Dizzy is always slightly loose on the clamp as I literally can not get to it because of the compressor pump fouling and attemps at access.

I had the 15 mile an hour up a slight hill ..then the pinking in the other extreme. Eventually I've got it set after about 10 miles of stop start running better than every. It was fine when I went to Gaydon having previously gone through these motions but I suspect I may have inadvertantly moved the Dizzy when changing the plug leads.

So is there any work Warrens done where he may of leaned on the Dizzy. If the bits where you get flat spots are the hills then I'd go with this line of attack first. Only other thought is the pump up to the job. I.e. If it fills the bowls from start then empties them until it reliant on the drip feed from the pump should it for some reason be restricted.

Morph now pulls 60 without obliterating the throttle but 45 50 is more comfortable. Especially as the bar grips are only rated to 50 anyway.

The good news after my round trip I now have a straight pair of rear bumperettes...the origional purpose of my mission..THANKS CLIFF!

:-)

Lee D

I have little/no 101 experience so just ignore me if this is nonsense... could it be that the petrol system has got sealed up somehow? ie. vac. is building in the tank, making it harder to draw petrol to the engine, when you park up vac slowly leaks away....

easy check, try running without the petrol cap.

Just a thought, see it > Drove the 101 back from Sheffield to Barnsley this afternoon. About 2

On or around Fri, 04 Jul 2003 14:31:36 +0100, Tim Hobbs enlightened us thusly:

summat like the coil breaking down when it gets hot? if it's got points ignition, could be the condenser ditto... If it's electronic, same could apply, but in that case it'd be the amplifier module that was getting upset, not the condenser...

if you fit or have fitted electronic ignition, you'll need the correct coil.

running an "electronic" coil on a points system as I did is a bad move, after about 5 minutes, the coil was breaking down. discovered the error when I incautiously touched the coil and burnt meself, it was, in all seriousness, too hot to touch. No wonder it went wrong.

meanwhile, running a "points" coil with an electronic distributor will cause "interesting" symptoms, but probably won't cook the coil.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I can eliminate (I think)

fuel pump (it did it on the old pump and now it does it with the new pump) timing (it did it before Warren touched and it does it now) icing (too bloody hot in a 101 engine bay) fuel tank vacuum (cap is nowhere near sealed, and I've tried it with the cap off anyway)

The carbs have been cleaned up by Warren. Overall the truck runs much better, but still this problem.

My bet is on the ignition, but given that Billing is so close I'm going to change the carb as well.

Cheers

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

Ah, I wondered why the local police chopper was hovering overhead...

Warren dropped around earier and we were mulling this over...

Apart from obviously needing a bloody good service, your beloved is currently running on my old, old (but far better than your existing) jets and needles...

If it helps, you can have my old (but quite new) strombergs - but although they're in (very) good nick, I still think the SU HIF44s are far, far superior.

I hadn't realised that the kit Warren had mentioned was the Webber + LPG - if it's still going, GET IT - or I will for my GS :-)

Yeah, that's the odd bit. I had similar before changing the pump, well, more like it feeling starved at speed really, at up to 50mph it was fine, after that, it seemed to lose all aggression.

Above comment re Webber noted ;-)

I good run, on a regular basis helps in two way. Firstly you really get to know the 'feel' of it, but more importantly, you'll be freeing everything up and putting pressure on the weak bits. I reckon it'll be something easily fixed :-)

Move here?

Hi

I dunno sod all about the V8 in the 101 but I did have a Bedford Rascal van...

(OK you can all stop laughing and rolling on the floor now)

the Bedford Bastard was fitted with mechanical points (i.e. non electronic ignition) that were loose on their holding screw. As the engine heated up it would lose power until you were booting it along in a low gear just to get off the motorway....

Any chance that it could be similar points problem if the 101 does not have electronic ignition??

On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 14:31:36 +0100, Tim Hobbs made me spill my meths by writing:

I borrowed an Automotive components SU carb and their cast manifold kit and was running it on my SIIa standard 2.25 petrol engine. It was fine until I tried using a bit more gas etc. I found similar symptoms and eventually cured it by removing the inline fuel filter. I fitted a much larger one soon after and it was OK. I'm guessing the cheap ickle filter wasn't allowing enough fuel to draw through the filter, not a problem in standard form but the SU was a bit thirsty, and much faster.

Well, when I say fast it were only a snails pace but it were fast to ME...

I guess a few other factors come into play too, like the needles (I now have BAC for the 4.6) and also the travel of the piston in the carb (and the damper drying out, in my case, due to the LPG 'lifter'). I usually swear by, not at, the small in-line filters - but you're right in that their size does tend to mean they can get blocked very quickly on one tank of rather crappy fuel. I now use an additional sediment bowl thingumie (I say that, 'cos I can't spell agglomerizer at this time of night...)

You were lucky...

On or around Fri, 04 Jul 2003 21:32:47 +0100, Tim Hobbs enlightened us thusly:

just had a further though on this - similar symptoms on the 110 before it was remolished int o a V8 - never actually traced it 'til after the rebuild, but it would run fine up to a certain level of load, then progressively starve itself. Turned out to be a gas mixer wherein the mixer part had gotten itself misaligned with the hole in the tube that it fitted in, thereby creating a permanent restriction in the fuel supply.

now obviously, this is not your problem, but it could be something similar and it ties in with what Wayne (I think) said about fuel filters. You've not got a crappy inline filter somewhere, have you? similar faults on a mate's car once, too, due to a blocked fuel filter. would run fine for a while then progressively die.

Took me months to get to the bottom of my faults, but it was eventually found to be the dizzy. Although I did have other faults masking it. I changed the sock, emptied the glass bowl, rebuilt the carbs, and re-timed the engine.

It was still no better. I replaced the dizzy with a s/hand one as mine was well and truly shagged, only to have the same symptons, only less serious.

Eventually I changed the entire dizzy for a NOS Nato part, kindly supplied by NK Recovery. This solved all manner of dodgy running problems, although it was a complete change of coil, leads and plugs before the vehicle was back to it's former self.

It's worth buying a carb kit and doing them, pinholes in the diaphrams does not help running. Then get the engine tuned up on an analyser

Alex

2.2 straight-six petrol. Much like a 101, the engine sound is carefully designed to distract you from the fuel consumption ...

Magnecors arrive tomorrow. I suspect they will look fantastic, as if to distract me from the price :-(

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

They are going on this Saturday, if only to get me to Billing. Magnecors arrives tomorrow. Darren thankfully has fuel fillers in stock - the MPG is even worse when 30% of the fill goes on the floor.

Warren's on the case, so hands off. He's got to pull it off the vehicle yet, but it should be doable after Billing, which is Good News as it will fall into the next pay cheque. I'm amending the BACS records so my salary goes direct to WGB Autos.

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

It'll be an emotional reunion I'm sure ;-)

Hadn't realised you were talking about Billing 2008...

Ah yes, I've thought about doing similar!