Thread: Carby Specialists Canberra/Queanbeyan

Originally Posted by garrycol

Pulled the sparkplugs out of my Haffie tonight - they are NGK Iridium BR7HIX which is a compatible plug to the original Bosch 225T1.

First off it is obvious which side is causing my blue smoke on start off - it does go away soon after start so is most likely a valve seal. The other spark plug basically looks OK - maybe a bit rich.

So given the carboned plug what do I do for replacement plugs - do I go hotter or colder and by how much?? (noting Iriduims are supposed to resist oiling/carbonising up).

Thanks

Garry

Garry

Given it's blue not white smoke, Im no expert here by any means, but I think you might be running a bit rich on that side.

I know a few guys that could look at this for you but one is in Orange and thr other at Peel via Bathurst. The guy at peel has several of his own Haflingers and is a qualified Mechanic.

Let me know is you are willing to travel.

Does it have twin carbs? (one per cylinder) Maybe one is running a bit rich.

I doubt changing plug temps will help you here. I think it's more for plug life. I cant even remember right now if its a hotter plug for a rich motor or the other way around. The thing with Iridium plugs are they have a very small electrode and still last a long time.

Happy Days.

Thanks - it will have to be local - it has a single carb.

I tried getting some new plugs today - no luck so I will try again tomorrow and order if necessary.

In the interim I will clean up the old ones and put them back and hopefully organise a professional to have a look tomorrow.

Garry

Garry I am thinking with a 87mm bore a pic 32 would be close to the mark.
I don't have any old VW carbies left around here, so I cannot tell if they could be converted with a adjustable main jet.........if it could the jetting of the carby would be made much easier.
None of that can be done if the mechanical side of the motor is not right.
You need to find out why the plug is getting oil on it before anything else.
It not too hard to drop the motor.
VW barrel kits are cheap and valve grind/stem seals not that expensive too.

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

Garry I am thinking with a 87mm bore a pic 32 would be close to the mark.

You need to find out why the plug is getting oil on it before anything else.
It not too hard to drop the motor.

The Solex calculator actually comes up with a 35mm carby so a 32mm would be a little small.

The oil is simply a valve stem seal allowing oil in when cold - as soon as it gets a little heat into it all clears and the exhaust is clear.

Cheers

I took the Haffie into the expert today and the diagnosis on the carby front was all good - the carby was set up correctly jet wise and only needed the mixture and idle screws tweeked.

The bad news was that the left cylinder has no compression (the one with the oiled up plug in the pic above) - not low compression but no compression at all. While a holed piston does come to mind on a horizontally opposed engine it would be pushing lots of oil out the exhaust which it is not doing. If it was rings etc, even if completely shagged, there would still be some compression so this points to open, broken or burnt valves.

I have learnt to do the easy things first and that will be to check the tappets to ensure that not causing a valve to stay open. If the compression continues to be non existent then off with the head to look at the valves and the bore etc.

The interesting thing is the engine with half its capacity not working is still managing 72kph flat out which is a tad faster than an unmodded Haffie of original engine capacity.

I do have a dodgy spigot bush and/or clutch release bearing so I might just drop the engine - just four bolts plus ancillaries and fix it on the shelf.

So I don't have the time to work on the landies as this Haflinger is taking up too much of my time.

Garry

There is a mod you can do to help the valves.
I think you extend a oil return hole with a piece of pipe brazed in so the oil level in the rocker cover is higher and cools the valves more????????

I got my Haffie back this morning and, well, I am confused now - the carby guy is adamant that compression on the left cylinder would not even make the compression tester needle move but the right is showing 180psi which cannot be right.

Anyway when I got home I was able to start the engine and keep it running and even drive it off the trailer and into the garage on the dud cylinder only with the good one disconnected so clearly there is some compression.

This after noon I will test the compression myself.

The carby guy certainly did his work on the carby - now running quite smooth even when on one cylinder.

After I have done the compression test myself I will work out what to do next.

Garry