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MG TD TF 1500 - Engine runs without power

Last Saturday I had a great day out and my TD runs pretty well the whole day. At the afternoon I make an scheduled oil change and everything was fine. On Sunday morning I start again a trip. I drove moderate with 2500 RPM up that time when the engine was at 70°C. Now I speeded up and I drove with about 4000 rpm on the Highway with 55 mph. Engine runs fine without problems. In this phase, without any announcement, the engine lost power. The feeling was as only 3 cylinder was working. Next exit I'm going out and on a parking lot. I removed the sparking plugs, they was black but not in bad condition. Anyway, I replaced them but the Engine runs not even better. Going back to my garage but during this ride oil comes out of the air filter. That indicates me, that something with the timing is wrong. I make a new adjustment of the distributor and the engine runs now better but not perfect as previously. The engine is powerful with higher rpm, no doubt. But on lower rpm it runs still like on 3 cylinders only. Even if you try to speed up from slow motion it works as a nervous horse. I checked the valve setting, everything is OK. No indication on the exhausted, no water in the oil or oil in the water.
Any idea ? Please let me know.

Thanks,
Guenter
GK Guenter

Guenter, could you be more specific on "oil coming out the oilfilter"? Greetings, Huib
Huib Bruijstens

Huib, thanks for question, but the oil comes not out of the oilfilter but out from the AIR filter. Yes !
I believe the inlet valve was not closed when one of the cylinder fired. Therefore I thing it was a timing problem.
Now after re-adjustment of the distributer, this case is not longer be happen.
Anyway, the engine runs not well yet in idle mode. Probably the carburators needs new adjustment.
Any other idea ?
Thanks
Guenter
GK Guenter

Hi Guenter, I think that your automatic ignition advance may not be working. The easiest way to check this is with a timing light. If you don't have one, take the distributor cap off and turn the rotor. You should be able to feel the resistance of the springs. A spring may have broken or slipped off it's post. This will cause the problem you describe.

Cheers,

Paul.
Paul van Gool

Have you been able to do a compression test? I am thinking you did not have the mixture correct and burned a valve. Back in the Late 1970's I drove from the bay area of California to a GOF in San Diego. I had changed my needles which worked fine at sea level, but when I went over the mountains down by Los Angeles, I burned two valves. Car never showed signs of overheating.

I was able to drive the car home, but it ran similar to what Guenther said his is running.
BEC Cunha

BEC Cunha,
thats my fear too. I have ordered a compression test tool than we will see.
Guenter
GK Guenter

Guenter, sorry for my misprint. Obviously the oilfilter keeps my mind too busy these days. But I meant of course the airfilter as you described. And my question remains: where at the filter does oil come out and how much, just a few drops or....
And does it still come out after you changed/adjusted the distributer? Greetings, Huib
Huib Bruijstens

Huib,
there was a pretty mess, all and everything covered with oil. It cams out also from the louvres. After re-adjustment of the distributor nothing happens again.

I make some adjustment on the carburetors and checked the gap on the spark plugs and now it runs much better but not as previously. I believe there is something with the valves. I will make a compression test and then we will see.
Guenter
GK Guenter

Guenter, maybe a superfluous suggestion, but anyway: did you refill the oil?
Next to valves, maybe the pistonrings are also involved in the crime.
In another recent thread, Youtubes from John Twist were announced. One of them is on oilleaks and he gives an interesting overview of possibilities. Greetings, Huib
Huib Bruijstens

Huib,
yes, I made an oilchange just before on Saturday.
Guenter
GK Guenter

Guenter, but you lost a lot of oil on this saturday ride. Did you refill afterwards? Because maybe the remaining oil level is very (or even too) low now. Greetings, Huib
Huib Bruijstens

Huib,
no, it was only oil from the airfilter, that has nothing to do with the engine oil sump.
Cheers,
Guenter
GK Guenter

If I read this right, you just had the oil changed before this problem happened? If so, did you check the oil level afterwards? Could it have been really overfilled? If it was overfilled, it would foam and make a big mess at high RPM, likely forcing its way out through the valve cover breather into the air cleaner. This would also likely foul sparkplugs. If you haven't already, check the oil level in the crankcase, correct the level in the air cleaner, and change the plugs. I have spent way too much of my life fiddling with something not running right to then find out it was just a bad sparkplug. You just can't tell by looking if they are bad or not. Just some thoughts. George
George Butz

Guenter, I had something slightly similar and I will describe it, even though that might not be your case. I measure the power of my car with a Tapley accelerator mounted on the dasboard. Those are ancient instruments graduated in pounds/ton, thus measuring the equivalent of meter over second square (for me). I know that the climb to my house can be done with 550 tapleys in second gear, and recently I was reaching only about 300, with misfires etc.

I found so far two faults: spark plug #1 was defective, namely, bent - I wonder how that could happen; and the advance was too high, so I brought it to about 0 at 700 rpm.

The conclusion is that I would look in that department, including points, namely: advance, spark plugs, everything electric. And be reassured that you can always get your car back to running properly.

Hope that helps, Denis
Denis L Baggi

This thread was discussed between 23/10/2007 and 01/11/2007

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