as posted before had loads of problems with the 2ltr pinto went for stage to head and fast road cam and brand new twin choke webber and caint get it to run right its been to its fourth garage today and they cant find whats wrong and charged me another £80 dont know what to do next .even thinking of putting another engine something like ztec depending on cost

I agree with ^^^. If the cam isn't right, or if you're block wasn't at TDC when the head went back on then thats most likely the cause.

What carb are you using? Weber? While to get the most out of your Carb you need to get it RR'd you should be able to easily get the engine running by yourself.

First off, check which jets you have and then search on google for which jets other people have used.

Look online for a tuning guide for your carb and follow it for the idle and mixture screws, on my weber 2 to 2.5 turns out on the mixture screw got it starting but check online for the specifics for your carb.

Good luck, Tom

There isnt much to go wrong with a pinto.

Check cam timing - could be one tooth out

Ignition timing - stable and not fluctuating

Fuel supply (if its running out of fuel it will miss) - pintos are fairly unfussy to be honest

Spark - is the distributor suitable for the engine tune? If you have a std one you will need to run 8deg advance at idle to avoid too much advance under load. BUT this isnt enough idle advance with a fast road cam, which really needs 14deg at idle to run properly. Make sure you are running WITHOUT vacuum advance.

David

Have you checked for air leaks in the inlet tract ??

your timing may would deffo be the area to look along with dizzy cap rotor arm if fitted etc. You dont mention whether it ran okay befor the mods, did it??

it was running fine before the mods its a 32 36 dgv carb and i am sure every one has told me to check the vacume advance is working before

my zetec had a simmilar problem when I first got it running, it fired up and ticked over a little lump but still it ran it died when the acceleartor was pressed, turned out the firring order was wrong effectively firing 180 degrees out of sync easy fix I just cut two of the wire feeding the coul pack and hey presto. Have you tried changing the plug leads round ? is the firing order correct

yes put new leads on what bit did you cut and i live in scunthorpe

how much will it work out to put a zetec in

I cut the leads from the ecu to the coilpack as there there is no distributor on the zetec.

You would need to change the leads around on the distributor to achieve the same thing. I think the firing order for the pinto is 1342 change the leads around so 2 replaces 1 and 4 replaces 3 and see if that works for testing for air leaks on the inletside get the car running and spray wd40 arount the manifold joints if the speed increases you hav an air leak.

PS I would trust Anthony's judgement from fast road cars he seems to be the oracle of all thing Webber, he sorted my jets out just by me telling him engine size and spec mine are 40's.

cost to change to a zetec could include bonnet if yours is cut, new engine mounts, new water pump, spiggot bearing, clutch plate, engine mounts, new side panel as exhaust exits opposite side. then theres the engine say £150 and an ECU £300 and upward ,

yes that is who i got carb off realy nice bloke but its being to 4 garages and they say carb but i am not sure what to think now

timings out jumped a tooth when putting the head back on,no bigie,not alot gos wrong with pintos ,it can all be fixed

Put the original carb back on, if it runs beter its the carb.
Cam timing,
Rocker gaps (a 285 runs closer than standard,
strobe the spark timing to check what the distributor is giving.
check points gap and dwell.
make sure all inlet and exhuast manifolds are air tight.
Check all electrical conections, even a slightly dodgy earth can result in problems.

I know as i am still chasing a problem
So far i have found:-
dodgy megajolt loom (sheilding not earthed properly)
Vacuum takeoffs slipping off
base ignition map too retarded
coil pack problems
plug fouling due to rich mixture
leaky inlet manifold to carb rubbers
idle speed to low
under bonnet heat to much
block breather to restictive
2.1 engine built without decking the block resulting in low compression
will it ever end........

i'm with flack monkey, is the fuel pump up to it? i had allsorts of problems before i changed to an electric fuel pump (the mechanical one was leaking air). also had a faulty spark plug.

good luck and sticck with it, it will be easier to solve the problem than change the engine altogether.

ditch

my problem with the pinto was the cam, it wasn't lined up to the pulley on the outside, it looked right from the outside but was way out!

It should be possile to get a pinto to start and tick over even if the timing is a fair way out - albeit badly. So as said already go right back to first principles and set the static timing up, then check advance etc once fired up.

Its very easy to get the dizzy 180 deg out. They dont run when that happens.

I guess it will be hrd to start if carbs are well out too, but for starters check the static engine timing then research the starting point for carb settings to get you somewhere near.

Ignition amps can fail, assuming you have the std ford electronic set up (dizzy with plug on end of lead - not the one with plug built into dizzy body)

quote:

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Originally posted by rosey1
it was running fine before the mods its a 32 36 dgv carb and i am sure every one has told me to check the vacume advance is working before

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