Engine and Transmission Tech

Can anyone point me at a source of information on how to set up my engine to run sweetly for every day use. I am not trying for peak performance just a sensible set up.

I know there is a book by Des Hammil, but it goes for silly money and I have found one by David Hardcastle....at half silly money.... and wondered, as christmas is getting ever nearer, if either were worth the money.

My engine seems to run OK as I get 21 mpg (UK gallons) just knocking about, but occasionally runs on after I turn the ignition off, doesn't like starting when hot after its left for more than 5 minutes and has an odd dip in revs sometimes on tickover.

So what I was hoping was to just read up on cause and effects of varying certain things eg advance/retard, hotter/colder plugs, wider/narrower plug gaps and richer/leaner carb settings.

The 1800cc MGB engine was so much simpler.

Regards Ian




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2013 05:02AM by hirot.

I have both of the books you mentioned. I can't really say I learned much at all from the Hardcastle book. You might find the Hammill book useful if or when you decide to rebuild your engine, but I don't think you'll find much in it about tuning. My biggest gripe about the Hammill book is that he's an alarmist. In steering you toward the toughest components available (for racing), he seems to imply that everything else is terribly fragile. In actuality, these are relatively solid and basic engines. They respond to ignition and carb adjustments pretty-much the same way as other American V8s - so general books on engine tuning will probably help more than Rover specific books. (That's especially true since you've evidently installed a four barrel carburetor.)

A lot of the books I'm interested in are out of print, so I've bought a lot of books on eBay or in used book stores. One humble but useful title that comes to mind for general tuning is "Basic Auto Repair Manual" by Motor Trend (published 1968, with a cover price of $3.95. I paid $4 for it last year.)

IMHO, the Edelbrock carburetor manual (available in pdf format online) is quite good. However, I didn't really get my carb dialed-in until I installed a wide band oxygen sensor and air/fuel ratio gauge.

Check our archives. BritishV8 has published a couple articles about Lucas distributors. I enjoyed the articles by Jeff Schlemmer, and have been hoping he'll find time to write more. We've been talking about doing a guide-to-ignition-coils article for years.

Curtis, many thanks for the information and saving me money. I will check out the archives and try and find a copy of the book you suggested.

My father has an old American Auto book on how to build ignition systems, which I will try and find and get to grips with.

I removed the EFI as I had no idea if it was going to work and how much it would cost to get it going. I ended up swapping it for an SD1 flywheel.

I reckoned on the Edelbrock being a solid solution which once set up should run for many miles.

Many Thanks

Ian