Originally Posted by
DaveyMo
Some answers to the questions you gents have thoughtfully posed above. The back plate gasket looked good when I disassembled the engine some time ago.
Steve: I'll keep in mind the needle valve and compression parameters you stated when I fire it up again tomorrow eve. And I'll definitely use your CP reset technique. When I posted the problem, I thought that if it didn't reset during a run then nothing else would do it. Live and learn, eh?!
Chris: The bit of extra castor oil amounts to about one cc in maybe 300 ml of the Davis ABC fuel.
Chris and Ray: I like the way you guys have asked me to verify my RPM estimate - no since speculating if I'm tone deaf and my estimate is way off!
I'll see what I can do about getting a friend who has an I-phone to help me with a post to U-Tube. That's really the only way to go on something like this as you've suggested.
Ray: The NV setting of only a turn and a half does seem strange, compared to your recommendation of four turns. I'm certain that I am running it at the turn and a half out because I've checked it with the locking nut loosened. As I mentioned, it has seemed optimal in past runs, but I will double check again tomorrow. Could this leaner setting be consistent with what appears to be a smaller intake in the photo I posted above?
I've been running the engine in the garage (with open door) and enjoy the residual smell whenever we go out to the car!
Thanks.
Dave...
The venturi hole looks to be about 3mm, yes? If so that should be ok. It was quite normal for Team Race diesels of it's era to use that size for economy. A popular mod on some diesels was to replace the venturi with that from a Cox TD 049 which was about 5/32" I believe.
The really important thing to check is whether the NVA actually shuts off. About one and a half turns does seem far to few. The NVA could always be non-original.
A short video with sound should allow us to judge whether it's over or under compressed, rich or lean.. We could also feed the sound into an audio tacho to determine rpm.
Ray