A few Elford Turbo questions, if I may...

[elford_tim]

Since yesterday I\'m the proud owner of an Elford Turbo in reasonable condition, and man am I proud . Of course this morning I had to stick my head under the bonnet in an effort to identify the cause of a few problems. So, if I may ask a few questions...

1.  Should the choke on the Elford self-retract like it does on the normal 1st generation? I *think* it should, but mine doesn\'t appear to do so. Any hints what to check? It works fine if I manually push it in but that clearly can\'t be the idea...

2. It appears to be running somewhat rich, you can easily smell the unburnt fuel at idle. Part of it must be due to the air filter which is filthier than 100mb of freshly download p0rn, but I think that\'s only half the story. The whole emissions dooda has been removed by the looks of it, plus it appears to carry one of the performance exhausts that RoTechniks show on their website, so could this be normal?
 
3. The biggest headache is the carb - the car is idling a bit high for my liking (about 1300-1500 when hot) so I figured that I just turn it down a bit, right? Well, so I thought, until I discovered that the idle screw has been removed...
So at the moment it looks like I have no choice but to pull the carb and check it over, as something is clearly amiss here. Problem is, I don\'t have (a) the setup info I need to return the carb to its standard settings and (b) the *exact* part number so I can get an overhaul kit from Burlen. Of course the alternative is to drop off both car and wallet at RoTechniks ASAP...

If anyone has the setup info for the Elford Turbo (ignition and carb) I\'d appreciate very much if they\'d get in touch. I got both a Haynes BOL and lots of other documents with the car but the most important parts is missing - the bit that allows me to give the engine a basic tuneup :confused:

[clive]

Hello Tim and welcome to Mazdarotaryclub.com on behalf of all the team.

We are fortunate and proud to have quite a few Gen 1 experts within the Club including Rotary company owners so if you would be kind enough to be a little patient l am sure your questions will be answered over the next few days.

l see that you are only in London so depending on which part you may even like to meet some fellow Rotorists at the Pub meet we have on Tuesday  (see below )


http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4220




Or if not hopfully we can encourage you to bring your rare car to events such as Rotorstock.

[bill shurvinton]

Had one of those engines in my garage over the summer. Never ran it up but I know that its an SU carb setup for drawthrough operation.

SUs are notorious for the diaphragms perishing, so I would get an SU rebuild kit, replacing the diaphragm and damping fluid as a minimum.

Bill

[mireck 12a]

Choke does not retract by itself,

And indeed, replace dampening fluids as a minimum....

And elfords doesn\'t have any emissions dooda\'s

But Idle screw removed? give us some pictures, maybe you\'re looking at the wrong screw?

[elford_tim]

Thanks for the welcome, folks. Don\'t think I can make it to the pub meet, I\'m in North London and by the time I\'m home, collected the car and made it to Dartford it\'ll be time for last orders....

Mirek 12A, thanks for your clarifications. When I said \'idle screw\' I was referring to the butterfly stop screw, which appears to be either fully screwed in or missing - the tip is not visible, and it\'s using the carb housing as the throttle stop. I\'m a bit - read very - reluctant to fiddle with it as I have no way to reset the carb to stock settings, and I have no idea how far out it is...

A call to RoTechniks beckons, methinks.

Also, I noticed a puff of blue smoke when I started it up this morning - well OK, it was a bit more than a puff but it cleared after 5-10 seconds. Now I know that these cars inject oil into the inlet so I was too worried - it looked like any two-stroke engine started from cold. It doesn\'t do it when hot, so maybe it\'s just because I tend to let it idle for a bit to spin the turbo down before I shut off the engine...

[mireck 12a]

Ehh dumb questions don\'t exist I always say.. but.... Is your throttlecable maybe to tight? That indeed is the idle screw, it should now only be visible from above when you look into the hole is in.

It is always recommended to let the turbo spin down a bit after a drive. A couple a minutes should be enough.

A little smoke a start-up is normal, nothing to worry about.

(sorry about the english, but I\'m in a hurry and I\'m dutch )

REgards,

Mireck

[elford_tim]

Mireck, the throttle cable is actually so loose that I\'m currently wondering if the throttle opens further than 3/4 when I step on it... Same goes for the choke, so I hope I can rule those two out.

If the throttle isn\'t opening fully then there\'s a nice surprise waiting for me when I finally adjust it...

Anyway, I think I\'ll pop off the air filter housing next weekend, clean up the outside of the carb, top up the damping fluid if necessary and see if I missed something obvious. Like it idle stop screw...

Nevertheless I\'ve booked it into RoTechniks for a tune-up/basic engine service the Saturday after next, will probably get a K&N filter fitted, in the original housing of course. Given that it\'s already got one of their sports exhaust systems it should be just about capable of moving under its own power afterwards.

[bill shurvinton]

Must admit to having been slightly unhappy with a tune up on a carbed car from them. Make sure you get a firm price before they start.

I ended up paying £800 and the car ran no better. They had no way of measuring exhaust gas so just threw in some jets from a list on their wall. It drove me to learn how to tune carbs myself. I ended up going to see Pip at WGT in manchester. £50 later and I had 25% more power and 33% better fuel economy.

My experience may be very unique though. And Simon was happy to accept that they did not do a job to their usual quality

Bill