18 replies to this topic

[ianbunyan]

Hi All,

When I swing my Mini round left hand corners she begins to die unless you floor it - which is cooL! LOL - but not all the time.

Put it this way, if I dip the clutch when swinging her round right hand corners, the engine continues ticking over, as it does in a straight line too.

BUT, when I dip the cluth and swing her around left hand corners, the engine will die.

By the way, I don't coast round every corner! LOL - I am just trying to troubleshoot this problem!

I have changed the coil on the suggestion of my mechanic... but not a jot of difference.

Help please!

Thanks

[minimadjonesy]

got enough oil in it? could be because when you go rount the left hand bend that the Oild in the sump moves away from the pickup pipe and you lose oil pressure!

[mattpink]

Any oil in the carb dashpot?

What sort of carb is it? HS carbs with external float are prone to this problem - swopping to an HIF will help.

[Jordie]

Any gaps or cracks in carb, gaskets or manifolds?

I had this problem, turn'd out to be a whopping crack in the carb base next to the bolt.

[CharlieBrown]

Carb problem, thats what I was thinking too.

As the HS4 has an external fload chamber when you go fast round a tight left hand corner the fuel is forced to stay in the chamber and cant get to the carb.

Its only happend to me once though when I was driving rather silly, with the clutch down as well.

(Im not tech expert so I could be wrong.)

[dklawson]

I second the float suggestion. On dual (HS2) carb setups this is a fairly well known problem.

[austin68]

How fast are you taking corners?

That was an old racing problem because of the carbs. Change to hif38 or 44.

[cowboy]

:grin: try puttign it into the gear before you start going round the corner, then go around the corner without your foot on the clutch :grin: :grin:

:grin:

slam your foot hard on the gas pedal when your around the corner than change gear :grin: :grin:

[ianbunyan]

Hahaa... like I said, I don't drive like that! I am just troubleshooting. Thanks for all your replies. I have just got back from a 2 week holiday... but anyhoo, engine oil is fine, I have oil in the dashpot, and my carb has an external chamber as suggested. I have done enough tinkering and reached my limit technically speaking... I am naff at this stuff! So off to a specialist I reckon. Oh, and I have no idea what carb I have... can you tell from a picture?? The float chamber is external from what I can tell... (don't laff... I KNOW I am dumb at this stuff!) LOL :wink:

Attached Files

•  carb.jpg   87.48K   5 downloads

[mattvallins]

Right, it sounds like the way Spitfires used to have engine problems in negative G turns and dives in the 2nd world war.
It was all the fuel being pulled away from the float bowl. Either you take these corners REALLY fast, or have a problem with the float bowl on the carb.

[ianbunyan]

Nope... I take them slow, or normal... in fact, if I put my foot down, after a LURCH the engine runs just fine... but it is not always ideal to be accelerating round left hand bends LOL :grin:

Could it be that when the pedal is to the metal, it sucks fuel through DESPITE any problem with the float chamber? But not so at lower revs/acceleration?

[mattvallins]

Could well be. It may in fact be choking it a little bit at full throttle (depends on the carb, I dont know about Mini carbs with respect to this) so effectively you are getting a richer mixture than is intended. Try looking over the carb for any holes/cracks, it could be some kind of air leak into the carb/manifold, just magnified by the float bowl being slightly damaged/not functioning. Or even just by it being the other side to the way the fuel is trying to move.

[JamesM]

Yes but Matt Spitfires had a negative G capabitities with there engines, Minis don't

Mmmn Mini with a Merlin, be back later

[mattvallins]

*useless fact no 1 (unless you ever get the chance to fly one of the last 55)*
Spitfires were never able to pull negative G manouvres, due to their float bowl carbs. The opposition had injected engines, so could escape by pulling heavy negative Gs, without the engine suffereing fuel starvation and cutting out.

[Dan]

Absolutely correct, and hence the stunning looking manouver of a wing of Spits turning on their backs before a steep formation dive. And why you can't fly an 'outside loop' in a Spit.

But they still couldn't really escape, a Spit can still turn much faster than a 109, even on it's back.

I've got to play with Merlins at work in the past. Unbelievable noise when it's next to you turning out 1000 BHP.