Smoking engine...?

[Hasbeen]

You probably have some surface rust in the bores, after that long sitting, & your piston rings are probably gummed up, stuck in old oil that has hardened & dried to some extent. This is not terminal

Have you done a compression test on the engine?

My present 7 had sat for over 2 years, with a shot clutch. It's compression was down about 40 PSI on 2 cylinders & a couple of valves were sticking not quite shut, & had the problems I expect your engine has. After a couple of quick oil changes using STP & a quality 30/70 oil, in about 200Km, it was running quite well.

Another couple of thousand kilometers, with the valve clearances redone twice, [some did hammer in a bit, which means the seats were a bit rusty too], & it was running beautifully. That was 60,000 Km, & 10 years ago. It has only got better since then.

Yours are probably problems that can be treated with STP engine oil treatment. It is excellent at helping polish rust off bores, freeing up gummy rings & lifting carbon of things like exhaust valves.

With your engine I'd add a bottle of STP to the oil in there, run it for 50 to 200Km, depending on how quickly the oil got dirty, then do another change, with STP for a further 500Km.

Provided it is properly tuned, with the right needles in the carbs, & valve clearances OK, it should be getting as good as it is going to by then.

If successful you've saved a fortune. If not you have wasted 40 quid. Good odds in my book.

Hasbeen

[Beans]

Agree with Hasbeen, first drive it for a bit and see what happens.
Also, having dark/grey smoke, it might be worthwhile to check the carburettors.
It could well be that your set up is to rich.

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[FI Spyder]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by juhagurney</i>


The car had been sitting around for the last two years not doing much and I thought all of the above would mostly remedy the issue of the engine billowing out dark grey smoke under hard accelleration (4000rpm+), but it has not.
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Dark grey smoke I would think would be rich mixture. Oil smoke would have a blue tinge to it. White smoke is just water condensation as it hits the cooler air.



TR7 Spider - 1978 Spitfire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Hasbeen]

Most of the stuff STP gets is dissolved in the oil, or caught by the oil filter.

One of the worries with the stuff is that it tends to cause carbon to flake off piston tops, & it can get caught under exhaust valves as it goes out the exhaust. This is less a problem now than it was years ago, as modern fuels are much cleaner burning.

What was that oil, was it one of Penrite oils high detergent ones. I use HPR 15 Diesel in the 8, as the Rover V8 is a dirty thing, that fills itself up with silt, without a bit of help from a high detergent oil. If that new oil is now black, I'd give it a short [25/50Km] run on a 30W50 supermarket oil, to clean it out a bit more, then another filter, with Penrite HPR 40, with a bottle of STP.

I'd repeat that if that oil still got dirty quickly.

If Greg can't find your your squeak, it will probably take some mucking about to find it. I also agree, if he did your tuning, it aught to be good.

If you are sure it's not a loose stud, or bent wheel, I'd do some swapping side to side. I'd start with just the wheels, then drums, then brake shoes, then backing plates, etc. It has got to be one or more of them, so when the squeak changes sides, you'll know.

Of course you could just buy a better CD player, & put a speaker on the roof, to drown out the squeak, & wait for the ultimate failure, which will tell you what was wrong.

Perhaps you could put it on a hoist, run it in gear, & listen to everything with a stethoscope, which may work.

Hasbeen

PS. If hitting the brakes stops the noise, it sounds a bit like a shoe centering problem. Did Greg look at the thing to see if the springs are set up right?

H.

[Marko]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Beans</i>

Agree with Hasbeen, first drive it for a bit and see what happens.
Also, having dark/grey smoke, it might be worthwhile to check the carburettors.
It could well be that your set up is to rich.

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+1

what was done on the carb rebuild?
People sometimes screw up the needles cleaning them in acid or poking them with needle.

[Hasbeen]

I have always used the diesel oil clean out method, when I buy an older car.

I give it a run with cheep super market oil for 25/50Km, then a run with Shell Rimula X diesel oil that I use in the tractor & pumps to clean them out, then go to Penrite, & STP for normal usage.

As it does lower mileage, I change oil at about 3000 Km in the 7, & gave it a dose of Rimula X a couple of changes back, as the oil was getting dirtier than I like. That was about 50,000 Km after I had put it back on the road.

Hasbeen.