My 4.2 l engine for 1968 etype has been rebuilt with new rings and valves. Compression is verg good and about equal on all cylinders. Static timing is close to 10 degree btdc. Now trying to adjust two zenith stromberg carbs and finding very conflicting info on Air fuel ratio.
On one hand, the exhaust has a little smoke and smell which I assume would mean a very rich carb mix
I also have an exhaust tester which measures oxygen and reads out in air fuel mix. I have tested thiS device on another good car and get an afr of around 14.7 which is correct
But on my Jag, I get a very high reading of over 20 which means a very lean carb mix
Is this conflicting data possible or am I doing something wrong?
Incidentally screwing the carb mix screw in or out doesnt chane the engine performance much and always have apparent conflict of exhaust smoke and high afr readings
Any thoughts focused on this seeming conflict in info?
Iām not familiar with ZS carbs. On SUās itās easy to visually confirm that the mixture control - the rise and fall of the jet - is operating (per screw) correctly. Are you able to confirm something similar for yor carbs, before you look further?
Also if the car has new rings there might be some oil smoke present before they bed in - usually accompanied with an oily smell. Paul.
He can do the same piston lift test.
Lift the pistons one by one by 1-2 mm to make the mixture leaner, if rpm rises itās rich, if it falls immediately itās lean, if almost nothing (rise, then slight fall) itās correct and if it runs the same no matter what itās not working aka really lean.
Heās looking for less than 14.7 but he has to balance the carbs first etc. and also check both tail pipes.
The Strombergs are not blessed with easy or good adjustments in the adjustment department. One or both of mine were running lean. Pressing the jets up and down to change fuel flow is carb-out repetitive work - even then David and I couldnāt make it run nice. I bought adjustable jets and am happy with result - runs great. Thanks David
No one has focused on my question of how I can apparently have conflicting evidence of rich carb mixture (smoke, smell) and very lean mix (vrry high air fuel ratio) at the sam time.
Hereās a thought. Since you are apparently using a sniffer in the tailpipe itās possible that you have an exhaust leak somewhere down the line that is pulling in additional air skewing the AFM readings by the time it gets to the tailpipe.
I presume you are using an Innovate or similar wideband meter. I have found that these can give very strange readings on twin exhaust cars if used with a probe in the tailpipe - a leak is one possibility, but I have found bizarre readings if thereās no balance pipe, for example. I weld a bung near the collector on one or both sides to take a threaded Ī» sensor as outlined in the manual - the tailpipe probe is not always reliable.
Failing that, a brief rolling road session would be a good idea.
Itās odd - I had this problem on my 289 Cobra, and the only fix I could find was fixing a bung near the collector. There were no leaks that I could find - it was as if air were sucking back into one pipe showing a weak mixture.
If it is super rich, then it may not read reliably and simply read off the scale and so ā20ā may be āmeaninglessā rather than āleanā. Remember it is measuring spare oxygen and so if you can pull air into the exhaust, itāll give a lean reading regardless of degree of combustion.
If it really is that lean, your spark plugs will be very pale and there may be pinging noise in the inlet if ignition is overadvanced.
I donāt use my wideband O2 meter for absolute settings - those are done on a rolling road. I rig it up for temporary road use, so I can check for any changes in AF ratio under acceleration and load to give me a picture of the carb settings. I wouldnāt trust it for definitive initial setup AFR readings.
After gathering more data, my guess to my own question is that one of two carbs is running a little rich producing smoke and smell and other carb and three cylinders are operating very lean, giving an overall lean air fuel ratio in exhaust
I said to check both tailpipes but you have a 2+2 so I think on these it doesnāt matter since they mix. Yes makes sense to me at least! Just do the piston lift test and you will be able to confirm the theory.
Yes, but it is might be the other way around. A single non-firing cylinder from a group of three will take the AFR up to ~18+, so it is not easy to nail down which way around it is going to be. Since you donāt report a misfire or lumpy idle, everything is probably working, but there may be a big mismatch between individual cylinders for all we know.
