Trial fitting the EFI plenum

When I was working on the engine and the carburetor inlet manifold was off the engine I took the opportunity to trial fit the EFI intake. 

I tried both directions and it looks like the EFI inlet manifold can be put in place both ways without too much work involved.

 It also doesn’t interfere with the bonnet so that’s good news. I tested this with a piece of cardboard and adhesive tape and there is at least 5mm space between plenum and bonnet when closed.

The other good news is that I can keep the frech air induct there's plenty of space left.

Even the strut bar can be left in place without any modifications; the only thing I need to do is to cut off a part from the gas cable lever.

I prefer this setup because this way there is no interference with the bonnet stay-up. I only need to fabricate a support for the flapper but this can't be too difficult.

On the other hand having the air intake on the left hand side makes life easier because I wouldn’t have to change the plumbing of some flexible hoses. We will see how it will work out; this will be done during winter period in the meantime I have to buy some other parts like an EFI fuel tank and high pressure pump and some other things.

Steering shaft and connecting joints

When I drove the car there was a rattling sound at the steering column; an inspection showed that the connecting joints at the steering shaft were worn and that this was causing the vibration and the rattling at the steering wheel. Replaced the shaft and connecting joints and all vibration and rattling was gone; another problem solved.   

I had a flexible clutch pressure pipe made by a company; the pipe could resist 850 bar but just to be sure I replaced it by another one with a metal surrounding (picture above) to prevent damage caused by friction. 

To make sure that the steering shaft wasn’t rubbing the exhaust pipe I asked a company to make me some spacers. The spacers are laser cut and are 1cm thick now there is about 5mm space between steering shaft and exhaust pipe and a few mm between exhaust and chassis rail; very tight fit but it doesn’t rub anywhere. 

Thermostat problem

One of the last problems I had to solve was the water temperature rising to high and the loss of engine coolant;

took out the thermostat and drove the car a while without thermostate and temperature was fine so I bought two new ones (one for the carb setup 82°C and one for the EFI setup 88°C  ).

New and old part ; left 82°C side and right side EFI 88°C

Before I could instal the 82°C thermostat I had to drill a little whole in it (4,5mm) for the airbleed.

 After that I installed the thermostat and all coolant and heating problems were over.

Noise problem solved

When everything was back in to place I started the engine and straight away  there was this noise again. By now I was definitely sure that it could no longer be the release bearing making this noise.

I drove to the workshop and asked the guy to have a look at the car. It didn’t make that noise anymore but after revving the engine a few times al of a sudden it was there and we noticed straight away that it was not coming from the gearbox but it came from the front of the engine. We found out that it was the alternator belt making this noise; the tension was not high enough. This means that as well as the old belt and the new belt were making this noise. Ok this is my fault; I don’t like to put on to much tension on a belt to prevent to damage the bearings.

In any case; making this faulty diagnose showed me that there was a problem with the clutch witch I wasn’t aware of; so in the end it was not such a bad thing to get the gearbox off and I also had the opportunity to change the rubber bushings.

Leak at brand new clutch master cylinder

I changed the slave cylinder and put in a new release bearing just to be sure. In the meanwhile I also changed the rubber gearchange bushings by new yellow ones and I put in fresh gearbox oil.

I also had a look at the brand new clutch master cylinder

and found out there was a small oil leak ???

 I dismantled the master cylinder and gave it a good clean and you can see some small traces in the cylinder.

I put it back together and it doesn’t leak anymore so I guess there was some debris from the old slave cylinder between rubber cap and cylinder wall and the small traces are not big enough yet to  make it leak.

Gearbox noise

I changed the release bearing and the problems where gone…

but just when we came back from a 450Km trip the noise was there again.

The first time the noise was there after about 500km’s now it was back after another 450km’s so I guessed something was pressing against the release bearing all the time.

   The only thing that I did not change was the slave cylinder although that I didn’t had the impression there was something wrong with it I took it off and took it apart; on the inside there was a large surface that was corroded this prevented the piston to go back far enough when the clutch pedal was released.
This could be the reason for the clutch being slightly burned and the burned release bearing... 

Burned release bearing

The water leak stopped but the screaming noise was still there from time to time;

I had the impression it was coming from the gearbox so I took the gearbox off and found a burned release bearing.

Water leak after long trip

We went for a longer trip a few weeks later and I had some water leaking from the water pump at the end of the trip the leak was quite severe and there was also a strange metal screaming noise from time to time.

I bought a new water pump and belt and overhauled the alternator to make sure everything was fine at the front of the engine.

Passed the MOT !!!

Now the car could go to the MOT and it passed straight away without any problem.

After the MOT it made its first official run; car registered and matriculated and insured for the next year.

Preparing for MOT

First thing to do now was giving the car a good clean so it could go to the MOT;

 It has the standard wheels on because they don’t like wide rims at the MOT.

Found it !!!

My final guess was that the problem wasn’t to find in the carburetors but probably in the ignition causing the misfires.

So I called a friend who had some spare ignition parts and I changed the ignition module and coil and all the symptoms disappeared.

  After this I changed the friend coil with my special Moroso coil and the misfiring was there again; so it was the brand new coil that caused the problem all this time.
The resistor was Ok it was only the coil going crazy from time to time.

Backfiring; wrong timing?

When I was searching for what could cause the carb problems I saw that the valley gasket was deformed due to the backfiring of the engine so I took the carbs and inlet manifold off to see what the damage was;

 the valley gasket was just bend and could be reused for the moment. Having the backfire it made me thinking about the timing; did I made an error at the timing gears?

I dismantled the front cover and checked the timing but all was fine.

Three different books and three different drawings don't make it easier.

But in fact they are all the same and it's as good as impossible to get them wrong.

 So what about the cam shaft; did I had the right camshaft? I checked my bills and numbers and it seemed I had a camshaft for a 3.9 EFI but after doing some research on the internet I found out that this camshaft should even be better than the original 3.5 carb camshaft giving the engine more breathing.

Right hand front brake not working good

Before going to the MOT I noticed that the car was going to the right when under breaking load I checked the brakes and bleed them again but things didn’t change.

When I dismantled the brake pads I found them a bit greasy so I degreased everything a few times and all was well afterwards I guess some grease must have dripped on them when the car had the greasy rust prevention sprayed on.