series 2a cutting out

hi all ive been looking at the forum for sometime and thought its about time to register.

i rebuilt a series 2a a few years ago, i fitted a recon military petrol engine, the problem im having is when the engine is cold it runs fine, when its hot its fine, when the temprature gauge starts to move and the engine begins to warm up it constantly cuts out no matter where the choke is, ive tried replacing the zenith carb and fitting a webber, no difference, ive have put the timing in every position i can, same with the mixture, all to no evail. this problem only occurs when the weather is cold?

i remember years ago my dad had a series 3, and he had the same problem, yet a friend of mine as one and as never had this problem. as anyone experienced similar probs, or anyone got any ideas

cheers all

My 2 1/4 petrol IIA had a problem with similar symtoms, but not quite the same. It would start from cold O.K., ren fine when cold and when warm, but if I switched it off and did not restart it within about 10 seconds it would not start again for about 30 mins. The problem was that the needle valve which controls the flow of fuel going into the float chamber was a bit worn and was letting the level go too high so the extra fuel was pouring into the inlet manifold and flooding the engine. I've had this problem with the Webber carb as well as a newly recondioned Zenith carb. To check to see if that is the problem get the engine hot, switch it off then take the air inlet pipe off the top of the carb and open the throttle and hold it there shine a torch into the venturi of the carb and watch to see if fuel is dripping. Note when you open the throttle then the accelerator pump will squirt in some fuel - ignore this and see if any more fuel drips in.

If that's O.K. then when the engine is hot and playing up take out one of the spark plugs connect the HT lead to it, earth the plug and spin the engine over to check for a spark. If there is no spark then it could be the coil or condenser. Another thing you might check is to take the Distributor cap off, and the rotor arm and pull the shaft from side to side to check for wear in the distributor. Might aswell check the inside of the distributor cap carefully for scratches too. If none of this turns up anything then use a strobe light to check that the timing is not jumping about all over the place. Good luck with it

hi fenby cheers for the advice

i have replaced the distributor, cap, plugs,coil everything really, its really annoying as when you go round a corner it cuts out,or pull up at a island, its dangerous until i fully warms up, it strange why it only does it in the winter, never a problem in the warmer weather, lets face it it must get to that temprature in the summer?? its a weird one

cheers

So it runs O.K. when it's cold and when it's fully warmed up but not when it's somewhere inbetween? Weird.

Sounds to me a bit like it could be good old fashioned carb icing. I've very little experience of petrol Landies, most of mine have been diesel. However I've had these exact symptoms on a petrol Fiat 127 and a Ford Sierra in the past. The Sierra was cured by wedging open the flap that chose between cold air intake and preheated air intake (off the exhaust manifold), the Fiat 127 was cured by creating an aluminium shield around the carb (which stuck out of the front of the engine in the direct cold airflow).

On petrol LR's, is my memory correct in thinking there is a preheating waterway through the intake manifold which should be hooked up to the cooling system? Is this plumbed in? Also, is your oil bath filter OK and topped up with clean oil? This should have the effect of taking some of the moisture out of the air which is part of the cause of carb icing. Failing that, you could try knocking up a shield around the carb out of a scrap bit of aluminium. Failing all of this - you could try a radiator muff during the winter which should reduce the amount & velocity of cold air floating around the engine bay.

I used to get these problems when I lived on a main road ... so my vehicle warm-up time was always 'at speed'. The previous owner of the Fiat 127 had lived in the middle of a town, so warm-up was always in traffic, and had never had the problem.

Good luck.

TheSmiths88 said:

Sounds to me a bit like it could be good old fashioned carb icing. I've very little experience of petrol Landies, most of mine have been diesel. However I've had these exact symptoms on a petrol Fiat 127 and a Ford Sierra in the past. The Sierra was cured by wedging open the flap that chose between cold air intake and preheated air intake (off the exhaust manifold), the Fiat 127 was cured by creating an aluminium shield around the carb (which stuck out of the front of the engine in the direct cold airflow).

On petrol LR's, is my memory correct in thinking there is a preheating waterway through the intake manifold which should be hooked up to the cooling system? Is this plumbed in? Also, is your oil bath filter OK and topped up with clean oil? This should have the effect of taking some of the moisture out of the air which is part of the cause of carb icing. Failing that, you could try knocking up a shield around the carb out of a scrap bit of aluminium. Failing all of this - you could try a radiator muff during the winter which should reduce the amount & velocity of cold air floating around the engine bay.

I used to get these problems when I lived on a main road ... so my vehicle warm-up time was always 'at speed'. The previous owner of the Fiat 127 had lived in the middle of a town, so warm-up was always in traffic, and had never had the problem.

Good luck.

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They came as standard with a shield similar to that but it's bolted to the inlet manifold and doesn't really stretch up to the carb, so you could use the mounting holes for that. I think a lot of them end up going missing.

I'd definitely give the radiator muff idea a go because it's so easy - you could just cut out a piece of cardboard and put it between the grille and the front pannel and see if it solves the problem before buying a purpose made one (they are available).