Changed the oil and filter Saturday. Nine quarts of Mobil 1 15W-50 and a Wix filter. Lola’s ready for another 3,000 miles, or one year, whichever comes first.
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Two huge improvements yesterday. I swapped my UM needles out for UB. This was due to poor idle especially when very hot. It would slowly drop from 800 to below 500 then stumble and want to stall. I believe due to the plugs starting to foul. With the UBs I was able to back off each mixture screw 1/4 turn or more and still have plenty of power under load. I think I might have to back off a bit farther but I’ll wait and read the plugs. Idle is smooth at 700 though. I don’t bother trying to reach 500 as I’m still running a generator.
Even more joyous though is I finally solved my final squeak. I’ve been misattributing it to the belt, suspension bushings, rubber seals, and everything else I could think of. But with my ears up to the carbs I finally realized it was coming from the glass washer bottle. Despite having rubber buffers on the top strap, the bottom of it was sitting on little bent up metal prongs and it was scritch scratching against them. Why does the carrier have little bent up prongs instead of just being flat? I solved it for now by just sticking a strip of rubber between the glass and the metal. Small victories.
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Small victories are the best!
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Today I pulled the E-Type out of the garage and parked it in the street. Normally not a significant event but bear with me on this. I think the subject of Google Street View has come up, maybe unduly paranoid on my part, but I have often worried that somehow google would catch my house with the garage door open, the Jag in view, might as well put a “Steal Me at this Address” sign on it. Today I needed to shuffle the cars around to make room in the garage for the Saab to get some fresh front brake pads. The E-Type almost never sits on the street, but not five minutes after I parked it there the google camera car drives by. And of course my son’s Vette was right behind it. Sheez, talk about timing!
Yes, right you are Jerry. Go to google maps and enter your address, then go to the Street View. In the lower right corner there is an option “Report a problem”, click on that and there are a number of other options, one is car/license plate. So I will have to keep checking to see when the new image appears. Thanks for the tip!
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Today I go ahead on the bonnet to be closer from the painting.
I ve placed back and definitely the wings on the bonnet…
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My engine is doing exactly the same thing. Especially bad when the AC compressor is engaged (hot day…duh). Are UM needles original equipment? Where did you get the UB size?
Remagnetized my speedometer and calibrated it for 60MPH. Car is apart at the moment and will have a 2.88 differential. Looked up the tire size I will be buying and got out a calculator. Bought a new right angle drive with 1:1.5 ratio that gets me very close in MPH and miles. But these old magnetic speedometers do tend to indicate low after 50 years and need to have the magnet refreshed. Only try this at home if you have some way to accurately measure RPM… https://youtu.be/D-Ocb7n_ywU
Yes UM is stock and it comes by default with rebuild kits. UB has the same diameter at the idle position, but is slightly richer at higher positions. This allows you to lean out the idle while maintaining the same mixture at speed. I ordered from Burlen in UK, about $50 with shipping.
Thanks. I just spent the last couple of hours reading archives on this subject. My engine stumbles every 5-10 seconds at idle even with cool outside temperatures and with AC off. So that’s one data point. Otherwise it’s great throughout the power range…acceleration, high rpm, cruise. The Harley guy across the street thinks it’s over fueling at idle, although there’s no associated tail pipe smoke.
But then there’s that high under hood temperature problem where idle rpm slowly bleeds off (AC on or off) to where the engine would stop if I don’t work the accelerator pedal. Seems like the build up of under bonnet temperature when the car has no forward motion amplifies the problem.
One thing I’ve long suspected as a contributing factor is the aftermarket in-tank electric fuel pump, which I believe has enough pressure to overcome the float valves in the carbs…also mentioned in an old post from Jerry Mouton. Another thing I wonder about is the potential impact from fitting 8:1 pistons during the rebuild.
Please advise if the UB needles address the hot temperature problem. Thank you for the parts source. Looks like a good price.
My guess is that your neighbor is correct. It won’t really smoke at idle unless it’s exceptionally rich, like running with full choke. What it does instead is gradually slow down and then stumble. When it’s lean it chuffs, kind of a small puff you can feel on the back of your hand. You can make it idle fine with the M needles by leaning it way out, but then at speed it will stumble or backfire indicating it’s too lean.
I’d guess you are quite rich at idle and the plugs are gradually fouling up. Since they are self cleaning plugs it will burn off at speed or if you rev it. It gets annoying having to keep gooseing it at lights though. A few years ago I ran with UE needles which again have the same idle diameter but are even richer at speed. Ultimately they were too rich as the plugs were coming out black.
The best tune method for me is to lean out the carbs in sequence until it chuffs, then turn it back in 1/8 turn. Do either front or back one first since you can identify the pipe it’s coming out of. When those two are good, lean out the center one and then it should chuff out both pipes.
If your fuel pump was a problem I’d expect that you’d see fuel coming out the overflow pipes and also see it pooling in the carb. My car came to me with gross jets which failed to shut off at the right time and I saw fuel in both those places. I can’t offer an opinion about the different pistons except that if the mixture is correct it should still idle.
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Thanks for the analysis and for the tuning pointer…clever technique…hereby adopted.
‘Steal me at this Address’
My anti-theft protection where i store the Jag is the 4 cars, 2 RV’s, and a boat, parked in front of me I’m always ‘first in last out’ something I hope to change in the next year.
Starting to swap the stombergs for triple SU’s! Drained coolant, disconnected fuel, disconnected hoses, undid choke cables, removed carbs, removed secondary manifold. All went well until encountering a few of the underside manifold nuts. PITA !
Eventually got them all off, but manifold is stuck on. Soaked with penetrating oil overnight and I’m ready to bring out the heat gun and dead blow hammer. I’ve pulled 3.8 manifolds in the past, the 4.2 is a different situation altogether. But I’ll get there. Watch this space!
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Today I go ahead on the bonnet preparation to be able soon to paint the under bonnet with the old english white paint.
First I ve applied the stonegard coat on the areas which cover the front wheels.
Previously, the same product has been applied on the body.
I have welded also the 2 wings at the front of the bonnet jyst it was done at the factory.
Next step on tomorrow morning.
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Got the car back after several months.
New PS pump and lines and a new Rack/Pinion. Also a fresh alignment. Finally, we think AC maybe ok with the new drain lines— but it’s January so who knows.
Car drives great!
Car is getting real close to being done in my opinion. Need to redo the stereo and then it’s on for a complete detail and ceramic coating.
Any idea how to adjust the steering position (up/down, forward back) on a 70 S2?
Thanks!
Hi David,
good to hear you got the issues sorted out.
My S3 has the knurled Bakelite “nut” just below the steering wheel boss which, when lose, allow me to adjust the steering wheel in and out. Believe that is on all series, but not 100% sure.
Up/down is a mechanical adjustment where I’ve read others have inserted washers between the mounts and the bracket on the column. No personal experience.
Hope to see you on the “East Coast Oil Leak” in June.
Cheers … Ole
Thanks. Figured out the in/out. Way easier than expected :-). I’ll look at up/down another time.
I did move back to static, modern, seat belts va the inertia reel. I didn’t like the way the reel mounted on the back. If my daughter was seated in the back she could very easily smash her head against it, so back to the static belts.
Finished up installing the floors, inner and outer sills, prop shaft tunnel and lower front bulkheads on my 67 ots. I have nothing but praise for the combination of Robey floors and inner sills combined with Monocoque Metalworks outer sills , closing panels and rear bulkhead dishes. I had a few fitting problems but those were due to my lack of experience and the car being twisted. Once I got that straightened, and after a couple of consults with Chuck from MM everything fit perfectly. FWIW. If you are using these particular parts and they are not going together properly you are doing something wrong. Figure out what it is and it will go together properly.
Next up is lower quarters and then doors. I have been warned that the quarters take a bit of tweaking. My doors have nice rust free replacement skins on them. Unfortunately this was done by the same shop that put the body shell back together out of line in the previous restration so it mat take a while. I can only hope that the poor fit of the doors was due to the wonky body.