July 12th - Engine Problems Again

After fitting a replacement electronic ignition unit, on July 12th, I set off for "Spitfire on the Green" at Sedgefield. I got about 15 miles when the engine started intermittent rough running, so I gave up and turned for home to investigate.

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July 18~20th - Investigating Engine Problems

July 18th - After a full day working to fix the problem, all I achieved was to burn two and a half gallons of petrol for no gain. I did manage to clock 12,000 miles since getting the Jeep in April 2005 ( Oh, and several burns and lacerations ).

I changed the condenser three times, the points, the coil, dizzy cap, bypassed the ignition switch, stripped and cleaned the carburettor, checked plugs and gaps, even added 15ltrs of new fuel in case of a bad batch. Still misfiring. All that was left to do was to pinch the plugs and ignition leads from the Ford GPW to see if that made a difference. Rain late in the day stopped further investigations.

July 19th - I tried different plugs, different leads, different distributor, still the same. I've now replaced every component in the ignition system. The Firewall fuel filter was been emptied and cleaned, fuel pump is pumping fine, but was checked for dirt and the air filter checked for obstructions. I also checked that all the valves were moving. The problem persisted!

I decided to try the 24v coil again, but on points ignition, and a 16 mile drive at 50mph went without any problems. By this time the rain was belting down all around, so I parked the Jeep up in the garage. One last job of the day was to do a quick compression test. This showed number one cylinder to be low, but I would look into it more the following morning.

July 20th - I checked out cylinder compressions again on Jessie. No 1 is significantly lower than 2,3 and 4. I reset the valve clearances which were a bit tight, but it was still low, so I suspect burnt valve seats. At best, this is going to be cylinder head off and re-grind the valve seats. At worst, the whole engine block will have to come out for machining and new seats fitted.

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