Cant beleive it. This Rotary lark has defeated me again. I\'m beginning to rue the day I ever set eyes on one.
Ran fine on fresh engine before I fitted the Elford kit.
Then it wouldnt start.
Now it starts fine every time, but smokes like you wouldnt beleive and stalls if you try to drive off.
Oil is dripping out the exhaust, & it back fires at anything other than tickover.
Carb inlet manifold looks like its icing. Adjusting mixture screw makes it stall or smoke.
What I dont understand is where all the oil is from? Disconnected the turbo oil pipe for a bit- still smoking.
Ran it without the oil metering pipes for a bit - still smoking.
Turbo has done less than 1k.
Engine had no smoke before.
Maybe I overfilled the oil? Maybe the carb needs jetting? (it ran as is on the last elford fine)
No rotary specialists within 100 miles and it doesnt drive.
Getting close to giving up & breaking it.
What colour is the smoke ?
I\'m going to re-title this post and move it to the engine forum so it will attract some more interest from those with turbo rotary experience (a 12a isn\'t much different to a 13b afterall)
~ Mike
Check the crankcase (ok no crank - eccentric shaft then!) breather pipe(s) from the block. I\'ve seen a few that had blocked breathers, the pressure has to go somewhere and finds its way into the turbo. Smokes like a train!
Max
Ok, another one!!
Does the oil feed for the turbo have a restrictor in? It needs one.
Max
Hi Don,
Assuming the Turbo is in good condition without mental amounts of play, which would mean the bearings and seals had gone, as already said check your breathers, but also check the oil drain because if the oil can\'t drain quick enough the oil will "back up " in the Turbo and cause this.
l would also talk to Tim (RX Motors) who will know the Elford system off by heart.
Hope this helps
As clive stated, if not breathers, i would check your oil return to your sump from the turbo. Did you use an elford sump or did you plumb the return in yourself. It has to drop oil in above the oil level or it will back to the bearing and then come out of the exhaust.
One other thing..... you say the turbo has been rebuilt. The elford is a draw through system as opposed to the now conventional blow through. This mean that the turbo is situated in the vacume area between the inlet manifold and the butterfly in the carb, if it was a blow through it woould be on the otherside of the butterfly and there would be no vacume. Rotary\'s have a very strong vacume and this will cause oil to drawn in through the compressor housing. The turbo has to have a positive carbon seal in the bearing which a normal turbo wouldnt have. I fittied a cosworth turbo to my elford and it smoked like a trooper on idle with a brand new turbo, i sent it back and they put a positive seal in it and still going strong now 6 years later. Might be worth speaking to the people who rebuilt it if you can...... hope this helps
regards
tony
Hi guys
Thanks for the info.
Well, there\'s no restrictor in the oil feed pipe & it does have the correct elford sump. Think the breathers ok, cos its all new (just an open pipe now anyhow)
The turbo was new, £650 maestro turbo unit from Rover, I beleive its got RS500 parts.
Don\'t know if its the correct one for the car. I will try & find out if it ever ran on an elford previously, I think it did.
The Maestro (Monty too) turbo\'s use a blow through setup so it may not have the correct seals in it as mentioned above.
Oh, it isn\'t running low comp rotors.
that shouldn\'t matter ... the original Elfords didn\'t either
I\'ll find out more about the turbo, sounds like the culprit.
Hmm...I wonder where I can take it to get it modified.
didn\'t you have to get a new oil feed line made ? did they copy the restrictor setup on the original (if it had one)
It would be helpfull to know if it has been run before I suppose as that would somewhat eliminated the idea of it having a missing seal.
Didn\'t see any kind of restrictor set up, just a braided hose with a 90 bend at one end.
Would it be some kind of choke?
Mind you, it smoked with the origional pipe before it burst.
Spoke to the fella who sold me the kit - the turbo is set up in standard form as it came from Rover. It was mistakenly bought for an elford with a knackered engine. They thought the turbo had gone, but it turned out to be a dead engine.
He didn\'t know there was a difference.
So we have found the problem, thanks to you guys and you sound advice.
Many thanks
I can stop sulking now and go about fixing it. Hooray!!!
PS: Anyone know where I can get this positive carbon seal thingemy fitted?
(man am I the most clueless rotary fan or what?):confused:
Hi Don,
I am glad you sorted it and someone is learning from my mistakes. I use Turbo Active for ALL my turbo needs. They offer a collection service and can usually have the turbo back to you within 3 or 4 days. They only charge about 9 quid for shipping back and fourth.
Look forward to seeing it up and running.
regards
tony