Change of Distributor type

[gouldsborough7]

Since changing the carburettor on my 2 litre Pinto from the jumbo Granada one to the correct Weber for the engine, I have never quite been satisfied that the engine runs as well as desired.
It now starts more reliably, ticks over reasonably, and doesn't cause any embarrassment in traffic.

I think the Grannie carb camouflaged various deficiencies elsewhere, such as ignition timing. Now that I have changed or adjusted all of the usual bits without spending a heap of money, the only obvious fault is that the engine is not always happy when accelerating hard or going uphill. It is either 'pinking' or making noises like slack in big-end bearings or piston-slap. Easing off on the go-pedal, and the noise goes away. Granted the engine is in theory 28 years old, but who knows what original internal bits it still has?

The camshaft is a Piper 270, so I have been advised that the dizzy is probably not suited and/or may be suffficiently worn to cause a few timing snags. I guess that it is a 'standard' model - how do I tell? If I took the plunge and replaced it with one specifically designed for the camshaft, Aldon Autos quote around £230 for a new one.

There are one or two used models on e-Bay for RS2000 Escort, tweaked up Pinto etc, for a fraction of this cost, but it is all a bit of a gamble whether I will end up with any improvement.

Anyone had experience in this direction? Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Cheers
Mike

[CosworthCabrioLee]

Re: Change of Distributor type

Hi Mike what carb did you take off your car ?? I am after 38D gas/gav for my pinto berli

[stephenhimsworth]

Re: Change of Distributor type

Hi Mike, the piper 270 is not that wild a cam so from previous experiences it seems to me like your dizzy could be over advancing!!??. I dont have a haynes or similair to hand to quote figures, but the timing can easily be checked out with data to hand and a digital timing gun, preferably one that can be zero`d at the start of test. (I have one you are welcome to borrow that i could post to you.) The end result could be as simple as the vacuum diaphragm not working/siezed, or the bob weight springs too worn/weak allowing far more advance than is req`d. Another easy check is the overall condition of the dizzy itself, you will have to remove it and then check for play between the rotor shaft and the housing at the base of the dizzy.
Any wear in this area will affect the points gap/dwell angle which will also affect timing. Good luck hope this helps, Regards Steve

[gouldsborough7]

Re: Change of Distributor type

Hi Lee
I sold such a carb on e-Bay to a guy who is in the re-con business. As it was the carb was inclined to flood, and of unknown history. I got rid of it because it became a pain! It would probably have needed a complete overhaul to make it reliable. I bought a brand new 32/36 from Fast Road Cars for around £150 to avoid any future troubles.

Hi Steve
Interesting what you say, and thanks for the offer of the loan of strobe. I had bought a new strobe light of the type that gets its power from crocodile clips on the car battery. I had previously timed the engine with this, and all was well for a few months.

I did wonder whether something had gone wrong with the internals of the dizzy. I experimented with the vacuum pipe, clamping it, and changing the bore ID. I concluded that when accelerating from a standstill, the pick-up was smoother with the bore ID reduced from 5mm to 1mm. Still not perfect, but no major transmission jerking as before.

Not sure of the condition of the mechanical bits, springs etc, but makes some sense if something has gone wrong there. I have reduced the degrees BTDC from 12 to 10 to 8. It ticks over better at the higher figures, and I need to compensate with mixture and tickover screw to get it to tickover better, particularly with 8 BTDC.

Tempted to buy a brand new dizzy with advance-curve matched with the Piper cam, but it tops £200! Secondhand on e-Bay there is one potentially at around 20% of this cost, but I might inherit more misleading snags. It also has NO vacuum facility, so I am unsure for domestic mileage whether this is a good or bad idea. Might go this route, if only to give me some scope to experiment. I don't want to immobilse the car by dismantling the current dizzy, and it drops apart on the bench!

Cheers
Mike

[GaryW]

Re: Change of Distributor type

Hi Mike,
Is your dizzy points based?
If so, I have a new one that came with a replacement engine I recently fitted. Since the remainder of mine is electric I stuck with my old dizzy. If you wanted to borrow the points based one to experiment with you're more than welcome. I'm only a county or two away.
Let me know gary(at)woolridges.net