23 replies to this topic

[Steve220]

Start with fresh fuel and go drive the car and get some heat into it.

[myredmini]

Had this issue before, try fresh fuel before you do anything.

[mattj99]

Right so I think stale fuel is the answer. I syphoned out as much fuel as I could. A dip stick showed about 2cm left in the tank. I then put in a 5 litre can of fresh fuel which took our up to maybe 10cm in there. It still took the full choke to start and ran like a dog for about 10 minutes but I started to hear a noticeable change. It was running better - it was still rough - but I was able to lower the revs from 3000 to about 1500 which I couldn't get near on the weekend.

It's still running rough but it's a big improvement and I think that's probably because there's still some stale fuel in there. I'll get another can of fuel tomorrow and try and mix it in with my dipper and we'll see how well it goes.

[cal844]

Try and get some 99 octane fuel from a Tesco station that should help if its stale fuel

[mattj99]

Yeah will do.

[cal844]

What I'd do is just keep mixing the remaining fuel that's in the tank with fresh 99 octane for a few weeks (or every time you run the car)

Dont do what my mate did and use any safely contained 99 octane in a 2 stroke mower... It blew its guts out 😳😒

Edited by cal844, 11 February 2021 - 09:48 PM.

[mattj99]

Quick update on this. You know how it's never the coil? It was the coil.

 

After a week of topping up with 99 octane fuel the car was still not running properly. It would take 30-45 seconds of cranking to start then it still need a massively rich mixture and full choke to run.

 

When I sat down and looked at everything that had been changed or checked I realised the only thing left was the coil. So I chucked on a new one and she started within seconds. Looking at similar posts on here where there was a coil issue most seemed to recommended converting to a non-ballast coil so I did that at the same time.

 

I'll need to go back through and set the mixture properly and recheck the timing but it's looking much better now.

 

I've got one last question, the spark plugs are really sooty now, presumably from the rich mixture, can I clean them or should I chuck them? I know they're cheap as chips but they're only a few weeks old so if I can clean them up then I'd like too

[gazza82]

Just clean up the sooty plugs ..

[cal844]

I'd just clean them up. I keep all my old plugs if the motor ran well on them, they go in the tool kit in the mini incase of issues on a run