The 'E' Type Forum

Hi, i am having intermittent trouble with my E. I picked it up from the garage last week after I treat him to a new shiny respray : ) the car has been stood in the garage since the 2nd week in Jan.

I started the car as i usually would with choke out and it started first, not to my surprise as it always starts 1st time. The car was running and sounded perfectly fine, i went to put some fuel in the car at a local petrol station and still the car was running fine. However, after i had driven about 4 miles i was just about to set off from a set of lights when it made an almighty racket and back fired, and quite a bit of smoke, at this point the car was still running so i carried on driving for about a mile and then that was it the car back fired once again and cut out. I could not get the car started again especially when it was pitch black outside. I started the car this morning to move it and it was ticking over perfectly okay and no sign of there being a problem.

Could anybody possibly explain what the cause may be? i thought it was maybe overfueling/fuel pump not working oe something to do with the immobolizer. The carbs do need re=setting...could this be it??

It has stromberg Carbs and the diaframs have been replaced,

Sounds like dirt in the fuel tank. If the car has been standing then sediment (and rust if the tank was not kept full over winter) will have collected at the bottom of the tank. When you filled up it will have stirred it all around and probably blocked the fuel tank filter. Leaving it overnight allowed it all to settle back. You need to check out all the filters and (unfortunately - because you have just filled it) the tank sump filter which means draining the whole thing. It may happen again under spirited driving or next time you refill the tank.

This does make sense as it only happened when i put fuel in the car, although it wasn't left empty over winter there was fuel inside the tank but it wasn't full. Would this cause the car to cut out? just what i needed....why is nothing straight forward with E-Types : /

Hi, I have stripped the carbs down today and rebuilt them but this hasn't stopped the problem. It only does it when the car isn't on choke? Do you think it's still Sh1t in the tank?

Only one way to find out! This is what another member here found in his tank sump:



And this is the filter that gets all clogged up:


Part of routine maintenance I'm afraid.