The 'E' Type Forum

Well the car has been in commercial storage for 4 years and has now come out of its second retirement. I have had other issues to deal with in the mean time. The car has been MOT'd by a local garage and I am now driving it on the road - a real milestone! I don't have room for it at home so it lives in an insulated shipping container somewhere else.
Details: Sep 1970 Series 2 Roadster. 76k miles.

I need to curb my enthusiasm since there are loads of jobs I still need to do myself. At this stage there are more questions than answers about things, but I will slowly find things out.

Here is a list of things I want to look at:

1. No idea when the cooling system was checked, seemed to be just water in the system. Drove car back from storage (45 miles) and car did not overheat. The top and bottom large radiator hoses made a crunching noise when you press them (like there are deposits on the inner walls). I removed the top hose and got all the crud out. Anyway, I flushed the radiator and cylinder block. Ran it through several times until clear water emerged. Used Radiator Flush as well. I need to do another clean with Cooling System cleaner. I have bought new thermostat and gaskets. I will flush through with cold water with thermostat temporarily removed. I could only get 13 litres of fluid back in the system before radiator overflowed. It should be 18 litres? Have I got blocked chambers in the block somewhere? Also, when I turn engine off from a long run, there is lots of noise of water trickling. That must imply there is air in the system and not enough water? When I have clened it out the best I can I will put blue glycol in with 50% distilled water.

2. I intend to change the original oil filter for a new spin on type. I have bought the conversion kit from SNG. The instructions are not clear. As with any car, how many times should I flush the system with oil before sealing it? The oil breather puke can is bone dry, but there is not blue smoke from exhaust. I will clean breather gauze anyway and replace with new gaskets. the smaller outlet from the breather assembly is blocked off. Oil pressure gauge reads just over 40 when driving and drop to just above 20 at tick over. I have bout Valvoline 20w/50 oil.

3. Bouncy tachometer. Stabilises at speed but bounces at low revs and REALLY bounces when heater fan switch is turned on. Lucas Sports coil with new ballast fitted some time ago - relevant or just poor earth connection?

4. Tyres. Loads of deep tread left on all but I fear these tyres are ancient. DOT code says FH TM A2N X 289. Does that mean 1989 or 1999 manufacture date !? They say Michelin 195-15. But I am not sure what the profile should be. Local garage say they can't get them - see Vintage Tyres instead.

5. Speedometer reads about 10mph lower than it should, but needle does not bounce like the tacho.

6. Brakes!! Brake lights only come on when I press brake pedal really hard. I suspect the brake switch in the engine bay. I disconnected the cable on the switch and put a multimeter across the terminals. They say open circuit when no brake applied and 7 ohms when brake pedal pressed. I have bought a new one and will replace. How much brake fluid will leak out? Hopefully this will fix the problem before I consider a brake pedal mechanical DIY switch. Brake squeal as well. Brakes feel very hard.

7. Reverse lights still have good festoon bulbs in. No voltage goes to these wires when reverse selected. Only one worked in the garage. Suspect faulty reverse light switch on gearbox? How hard is this to replace?

8. Opened up fuse box door on dashboard out of curiosity. Closed it. Now the clock hands don't go around.

9. I cleaned the hood the other day. Looks really good now and put Fabsil water proofer on it. It is just this fabric and has no rain protector underneath.

10. Bumpers refitted after rechroming. I need to get the front rubber strips sitting correctly.

11. Wing mirrors fitted. At least now I can see behind better on left and right.

12. Radio doesn't work. Least of my worries. It's the old Long wave and Medium wave push button one.

13. The car has two Stromberg CD175 carbs. I bought carb reservice kits some years ago and tuned engine. However, right hand exhaust coughs a lot on your hand and is quite cool. Left hand exhaust does not cough and the output feels quite hot. I think this is quite an important problem to fix.

14. I had rusty fuel issues last time around. I replaced the fuel tank (difficult), put new fuel filter in and new fuel hose (it had hardened).

That will do for now. My journey of rediscovery restarts and I will let you know how I get on.

Dan
Worcestershire.

Dan, when you buy tyres be aware modern wheel balancing machines won’t work properly with wire wheels, therefore you’ll need to either go to a specialist or buy these:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6367&hilit=Cone+Tyre

Which coolant are you using? Not the modern coolant. Search on here for advice of where to buy now.
Bouncy tachometer, consider a Spiyda conversion, again search on here.
Have your speedo sent to Speedograph Richfield for overhaul and correct calibration. Though do that after you’ve checked with the correct NEW tyres fitted.
Brake light, look in the upgrade section for the change to a switch under the brake pedal.

Good luck and happy, smiling motoring

Geoff

Thanks Geoff, all noted. I did search on various forums for recommended coolant. I have gone for blue glycol from a trusted car shop. Will go for 40% coolant, the rest distilled water. I told them the car age. Please expand on what you mean by modern coolant. I am doing the full clean and flush to tomorrow (flushing with thermostat removed). I will address other points in due course. Regards.

Ok, Dan, as you’re going for the Bluecol then that’s fine. Modern coolants are the ones used in new cars and are unsuitable for classics. I think they are red in colour, but don’t quote me. I’m not sure about distilled water unless you’re in a particularly hard water area, but no harm at all. Some people recommend vinegar as the acid to clean out blocks, though not malt vinegar, that’s for your chips!

Good luck and keep us aware of how you get on. Lots of helpful advice here, and the search engine is very good.

Geoff

My car is a similar age and history to yours including the 175 carburettors so I've met many of the problems you've listed. You can't be far away so if you wanted to meet up or call, I'm happy to share what worked for me. PM me.

Update......

Coolant system flushed again with 2 x 325ml bottles of Wynn Coolant Flush. Ran at 1500rpm for 15 minutes. Cooled and flushed through again with hose pipe. Water was still dirty. I really wanted to get the thermostat housing off and flush through with thermostat removed - I have bought a new one. Annoyingly the housing just would not move. I didn't want to force anything so I had to leave it. Anyway, the system now takes more fluid than before cleaning, which must mean the cleaners are working - now got 13.5 litres in (50/50 distilled water/blue glycol). System manually burped while filling. I will see how it all behaves now. BTW - radiator fans do come on automatically.

Brake switch in engine bay. I took the wires off it and shorted them out, then turned the ignition on. Brake lights come on fine, so must be switch. I have bought a new one from SNG. I tried to take the old one off (26mm spanner) but it is seized on. I will see if more WD40 does the trick, but I don't want to rip the fitting off. I am pursuing the idea of mechanical switch on brake pedal. Seems easy enough. This may be simplest solution.

I checked out the reverse light wiring connections with a multimeter. All continuities are consistent so it must be the reverse switch on the gearbox. Ongoing.......

Oil change and filter conversion is the next major job.

The car is running a bit rough. I think the carbs need looking at, balancing or retuning.....

John - good idea - I will PM you.

Dan

Did you have the heater on max when flushing the coolant? Otherwise that part will hold old, dirty coolant.

Geoff

Yes, throughout the whole process heater was on max. Fans were blowing hot air during cleaning stage.

Quick update....

The horn electrical connections in the steering column indicator arm are too far down the column for when the push button switch is pushed. Rather than faff with that, I put a momentary black push switch to the right of the radio (there was no cigarette lighter - just a rubber grommet). I diverted the indicator arm wires to the new switch - all works fine. I don't have to move anything apart from my left finger to make the horn work. Whole job cost £3.

I gave up with getting the old brake switch off in the engine bay. I bought a Normally Open barrel switch and fitted it in front of the brake pedal. I made my own metal bracket - fixed in place with the two nuts to hold the brake/clutch unit in place in the engine bay. New cable taken directly from old brake switch through existing hole in bulkhead. All is safe and neat. Brake lights come on at first press of pedal. Whole job cost me about £5.

The engine runs a bit rough. Still have issue with left exhaust outlet hotter than right - and right outlet blows stronger than left. I am taking car to an old-school retune guy a few miles away on 16th Sep.

The car was originally for US market and had two Strombergs, Secondary Throttle Housing and air crossover duct from exhaust side to carb air intake. The STH and air duct were removed some years ago in UK. The pipe from oil breather on front of engine going to the two carbs was also removed. All ends were blanked off. No sign of any oil in puke can. I cleaned the gauze filter back in 2017.

Should the pipe from oil breather outlet to carbs be reconnected?
What is impact if left as is?

After doing the cooling system, no issues with temperature. However I have just noticed a rusty puddle on the garage floor. It comes from a leak around the bottom radiator hose where the steel joiner pipe meets the rubber hose. This is annoying. I will have to drain system again and fit new bottom hose and joiner pipe - old connection looks a bit rough. Good time to revisit trying to get thermostat housing off and replace stat - housing didn't want to budge last time.

Dan

It is good that the STH has been removed but hopefully the carbs didn't end up too close to the cylinder head in the process.

Before "tuning" (really re-balancing ) on the 16th I suggest that you:

Check the diaphragms in the 175s have no splits in them
You have a distributor with a UK timing curve and vacuum advance (definitely not vacuum retard, no vacuum control is better then vacuum retard) and preferably electronic ignition with the timing set up on the "advance" side, 12 degrees or so at idle.
Good plugs, rotor arm, distributor cap and leads.

The oil breather feed is fine as you have it which is the same as '50s XK engines. Longer term it would be marginally better for the environment if you fed the end of the pipe into the space between the air filter and carb inlets as the factory did but it won't affect the running of the engine.

John,

Thanks for the advice. Today I took the car to Alan Green in Leigh for a carb check up. His first statement on hearing me arrive was 'that car does not sound like a Jaguar'. I replied with 'that's why I am here'. Four hours later, I left his garage with a transformed engine, running smoother, sounding much healthier and with more acceleration.

Jobs done:
1. Electronic ignition fitted - ballast resistor and sports coil retained. Bought kit from specialist ignition timing place in Bromsgrove.
2. New HT leads fitted - the 54 year old ones were past their sell by date.
3. New distributor cap fitted - this was the original.
4. Spark plug gaps were all too close. They were opened out to 25 thou.
5. Compression test done on all cylinders. All between 145psi and 150psi.
6. Engine timing fixed. He thinks it was retarded but now changed to 10 deg BTDC.
7. Rear carb was not performing well. So he balanced this against the good front one. Equal temperature out of each exhaust now and both exhaust outlet pressures against hand the same.
8. Diaphragms in carbs all good, no splits.
9. Dashpot oil added to correct level (3 in 1).
10. Carb mixture could not be changed since the jet in the carbs is fixed and not adjustable (since car originally for US market).

All at a very reasonable cost. I will be taking my other cars to him at some point. He does any type of work on cars - but not motorbikes or EVs.

Well done on all counts, having a series 1, I am very much in favour of the triple SU setup so easy to tune too. I also resorted to the brake light switch conversion as didn't want to mess with the stock pressure switch, bought the kit complete with bracket.

Danny,

I didn't know there was a kit you could buy for the brake pedal switch. I ended up sourcing everything myself with lots of metal bending and bashing in the workshop. All good now though.

I may consider swapping the two Strombergs for two SUs. At least I will be able to adjust air/fuel mixture, which the Strombergs won't allow me to do.

Great result and probably worth every penny.

Guys like that are getting increasingly difficult to find. Make the most of him while you can.

The guy who runs my local garage is pretty good with carburettors and distributors but the "young" 40 year old that works for him hates the old stuff but revels in throttle bodies and coil packs.

We're all dinosaurs.

Regards

Dan, I’ve not heard of replacing two Stranglebergs with TWO SUs as the normal E Type set up is triple SUs.
Maybe it has been done but you would need to do a some research to see if it’s possible and more importantly worth doing. Yes, triple SUs look great and take the car back to original, but just two, would they give any improvement on the Strombergs?

Geoff

PS There is a mod for the Stranglebergs which releases better power low down. I’m sure someone can either find it on here or over on Jaglovers.

Search on here for “Strombergs” then search within those results for “secondary”.
Read through as appropriate and you’ll find the common way of improving the performance.

Bought



Or even simpler DIY

Thanks for the photos. I used the lower photo as the blueprint for mine, but I decided to make it wider so it was held in position with the two bolts, not just the one shown. I was concerned about hitting the switch with my foot, but it's well out of the way. Painted with black hammerite.

Now if I can work out a way to make my feet narrower, so I manage the small pedals better........

Here some photos of various jobs my father in-law did when he received the car in 1988. It was originally LHD in Texas. He basically stripped the car completely, cleaned it and rebuilt it himself. More photos in successive posts.
Original carb set up
Engine bay before cleaning.
Engine bay after cleaning.

More historical photos...
Matrix caked in sand and dust.
IRS after his strip and service
Cleaning while IRS removed

More photos......
Gearbox service
I cleaned the fuel tank - crud in bottom!
When I serviced the carbs - fixed Stromberg not allowing mixture adjustment