1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

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Hugo
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#21 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by Hugo » Thu Aug 10, 2017 8:08 pm

Both fuel and electrical problems can give rise to these symptoms. Here are a few suggestions, most already made; 1) check fuel cap vent - pop the fuel cap open when the engine has stalled & see if there's any suction in there. 2) check that fuel is getting to the carbs - slacken a pipe off somewhere & turn the ignition on momentarily. Gasoline takes an astonishingly high temperature to make it burn (about 600 deg C I think), but it is very volatile and a spark or flame will set it off straight away. 3) If the answer to (2) is yes, move on to electrics; if no, find out whether the fault lies with the pump or an obstruction. 4) Both coils and condensers can be temperature sensitive. They will work perfectly when cold but start to fail when they get hot. Too small a points gap will cause the coil to overheat. Make sure you have a 12 volt coil if no resistor is fitted. 5) modern rotor arms can be a pain in the wotsit. They can track the incoming current to earth. For some reason that I'm not really interested in, they can sometimes do this as they get hot. Red rotor arms seem to be ok.
All of these items are very simple and cheap items to replace. I wouldn't mess around trying to test coils and condensers - or rotors - just replace them. Replace only one item at a time or you'll never know what was causing it.
Similarly SU carburettors are a work of art - elegant in their simplicity. There are no 'dark arts' involved in that department. They are very forgiving. But they won't cause the problem you describe.
Hugo Miller - rebuilding an imported Series II OTS & converting to RHD

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Mich7920
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#22 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by Mich7920 » Fri Sep 01, 2017 3:28 pm

Hi Porkman

It could be interesting to have some news about your problem.

MIch
Michel
1965 E Type FHC - On the road / 1963 E Type OTS - on the road after Angus Restoration

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porkman
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#23 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by porkman » Wed Nov 15, 2017 9:46 am

So far I have only collected together a red rotor, coil, resistor and points from the suppliers very helpfully suggested. I will replace these items systematically and report findings.
The trouble is finding the time.

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porkman
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#24 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by porkman » Sun Jul 15, 2018 2:47 pm

First of all, sorry for the massive gap between posts.

Today I planned to replace the rotor arm and the condenser as the first part of the fault finding.
I removed the rotor and set about removing the condenser.
The screw holding the condenser to the baseplate looked a bit worn and two screwdrivers I tried turned in the crosshead but weren’t moving the screw.
So fearing making things worse, I just replaced the rotor arm with a new red rotor.

The car started up and ran nicely for about 15mins.
I then detected slight misses and a progressively lumpier idle.
Eventually it idled really poorly and though I tried to save it with a bit of throttle, it ignored this and conked out.
It would not restart, and, if previous incidents are anything to go by, won’t restart until it cools down.

So here I am waiting for it to cool so I can get it back in the garage. What a pain.

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cactusman
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#25 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by cactusman » Sun Jul 15, 2018 3:04 pm

Might be the condenser. Might even be the coil. If you have resistance plug caps check they are around 5000 to 10000 ohms max. If not then chuck them out. Definitely use a red rotor.
Julian the E-type man
1962 FHC
1966 MGB....fab little car too

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Heuer
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#26 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by Heuer » Sun Jul 15, 2018 3:12 pm

Coil most likely the culprit - as they get hot the winding's start to break down. Start by replacing the coil and go from there. If the condenser has gone it is unlikely the car will start but you should replace the cap if you can.
David Jones
S1 OTS OSB; S1 FHC ODB
1997 Porsche 911 Guards Red

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#27 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by porkman » Sun Jul 15, 2018 4:49 pm

Car started fine after about 30 mins and is now back in garage.

I will do the coil next as suggested.

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porkman
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#28 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by porkman » Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:51 pm

Well, minor update; my replacement coil had the wrong lead connection socket. Press in rather than the correct screw on type. Picture of my current coil ...

Image

If someone can point me in the right direction to find a high quality version I'd appreciate it.
I got all my other bits from Distributor Doctor but unfortunately he doesn't do coils.

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politeperson
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#29 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by politeperson » Mon Jul 23, 2018 9:04 pm

Its true, but Enzo never said it
Too many E types
XK120 SUs

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phil.dobson@mac.com
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#30 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by phil.dobson@mac.com » Tue Jul 24, 2018 10:01 am

The distributor doctor supplied me with the correct impedance Flamethrower coil. They have a great build quality reputation. I have put a few thousand miles on it and so far so good. Including the recent trip to the lemans classic in very hot temperatures.

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#31 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by porkman » Tue Jul 24, 2018 1:08 pm

Blast - the listing is hidden in the Electronic Ignition section which I didn't go in to.
I will definitely be getting one of these (to add to my growing coil collection).

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#32 Re: 1961 3.8 OTS hot start woes on newly restored car.

Post by porkman » Sat Aug 11, 2018 1:51 pm

I replaced the coil with an Ebay 'DLB100 Genuine Lucas' job, identical to the one on the car. I know these are not the best quality but they have the correct screw-in HT cable socket.

(The Distributor Doctor was very helpful but does not supply the screw-in variants. None that he can source come up to his expectations which is fair enough).

Anyway last week I ran the engine for about 25 mins in the hot weather and it showed no sign of conking out.
I was even able to restart the engine straight away.

Today I ran the car for about 20 miles without issues and was able to restart at one stage after I stalled it.
So this little chapter seems to be over.

Thanks for all the great help and suggestions.

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