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BT7 stalling when hot

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sjuengst

sjuengst

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My BT7 runs fine when cold, but after she's run for a while she doesn't want to idle. When I come to a stop, the RPMs will drop over a 15-20 second period until she dies. I have to floor the gas to get her to fire up again. To me it sounds as if the carbs are too rich, but I've re-tuned them three times and the plugs look right (light brown color). I do have a fair amount of blue smoke coming out the exhaust when I give her the gas. Tonight, I checked the compression after driving her a few miles to get up to temperature, and got the following: 130, 120, 135, 132, 140, & 130 psi. Do you think these values are low enough to cause the stalling?

Stu
 
See Fairviews post also-Keoke
 
A first check for the cause of blue smoke is take off the rocker cover and turn engine on. If oil is geysering from the rocker arms (it should only dribble) you have found a worn rocker shaft. The spraying oil will be drawn into the rear carburetor and burned off (assuming you have a hose connecter from the breather pipe to the carb.)
 
Thanks guys! A new coil made her all happy again. Not only does she maintain an idle when hot now, but she starts easier too. I wonder if my poor gas mileage (10 mpg) will improve?

My old coil gave a long service life, if the stamping on the bottom (3/67) is a date code. 45 years? Not bad for the "Prince of Darkness" (it has a Lucas label on it).

Stu
 
FYI, the answer is yes, my mileage did improve with the new coil. I'm now getting around 20mpg vs the 10mpg I was seeing previously.

Last weekend she and I did the 60-mile round-trip to Austin Yacht Club (despite the 98 degree temps here), where I was going sailboat racing. On the way, we stopped at a quickie-mart for cold beverages. A young guy called out "Dude, that car's bad-ass!". A crazy old guy congratulated me on being one of those crazy old guys who still drive old cars. :wink:

After the regatta, there was a crowd of guys standing around admiring Muffy. Almost every one had a story about how they (or someone close) used to have this or that british sports car. They were all suitably impressed by this sweet car. All in all, a good day.

Stu
 
Everyone "used" to have a british sports car, here's to those who still drive them! and a bt7 to boot, represent the madness!!

What I can't stand are those folks who need to come up and tell you how unreliable there cars were and that they can't believe the car's still running..
I tell them "learn how to turn a wrench and you'd be surprised how awesome these cars are!"
 
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