Mike6

Thinking about it further, if I simply alter the location of the plug leads in the distributor but sticking to the firing order might that give enough to adjust

Thanks Sparky. Ran the engine up to operating temperature and connected up the strobe - timing is out by miles. So very carefully slackened the clamp and turned dissys left turn and engine stalled. Right turn and revs started to increase so going in right direction but then the advance/retard capsule hit the oil filter and no more movement. Strope just about shows the tdc mark in the viewing area so reckon I must be about 20 plus degrees out. The problem now is whether to take out the auxiliary set up rotate the wheel and try and slide under the cambelt or slacken the cambelt and adjust that way. Thinking about it slackening the cambelt seems simplest But why would a rebuilt dissy put back in its previous location throw out the timing by such a large amount.

Andy Dont think this applies to my early Stevens carb turbo. The book says warm engine and then set at tickover with advance connected.

Very strange but I marked everything up on the distributor before sending it to PMN. So when putting back I checked at TDC that it was pointing towards plug 1 and reconnected it according to the markings which seemed fine. I have just about managed to get the engine warm enough and then used a strobe - cannot even see the 10 degrees before white mark on the flywheel so timing must be out a fair amount. Will try adjusting the distributor according to the strobe rather than the original makings on the dizzy body.

Having received back my remanufactured distributor and new rotor , dissy cap, plug leads and plugs from PNM engineering, I decided to have another go and get it working. I took my time and rechecked everything was ok including cam timing and initial distributor timing by the book. The car started and ticked over but as soon as you touched the throttle the revs dropped and she wanted to backfire but didnt have the energy before cutting out. I again swapped over the coil and spark amplifier but no difference. Have completely exhausted everything I can think off. If anything it is worse than before when it wouldnt run under load but revved freely sitting on the drive. Any out of the box ideas more than welcomed. Thanks

It has something to do with removing the heat from the turbo. In practice not sure how much difference it makes

Neil, If you are going to Brands Hatch in November Pete Musgrove of PNM fame will be there. He is the absolute expert on carb tuning and set my carbs up for me last year for a very modest sum. You could probably book him in advance and that way he might have the balancing gear with him.

Class car buyer had an article about buying 80's sport cars a month or so back. Their hot tip was that prices for the Esprit were about to rocket and that it was about time they did given the pedigree and rarity of the car.

Douglas Valley breakers will want thousands just for a spark plug. Give them a miss!!

My last tank full has lasted 4 months and not shown any consumption. Mind you the car is in pieces and I am still pondering about repairing or setting her on fire.

Could one of the jets been partially blocked and then cleared itself.

Not sure if your tank is similar to mine but I sprung a leak where the return pipe goes into the top of the tank. It was the compression washer which needed replacement.

Probably a different unit to the one fitted on my car which has an adjuster on the regulator.

Neil I would say all is fine with your oil pressure.

Sorry to hear about your problems - I have not disimilar issues with my car. I purchased all my stuff through SJs but then had a word with Pete Musgrove at PNM Engineering. He can rebuild your distributor and currently has mine. I would have a word with him as he can test first to determine whether or not the fault is here or somewhere else.

If that lot sold for £2k, I reckon my old scrappy must be worth closer to £10K.

Dont want to alarm you but I had a similar noise a few years ago just before two cam followers broke up and destroyed the top of the engine. Hopefully it isnt that in your case but the cam followers (Bucket tappets) are cast iron on the early Esprits and if they start to break up you will get a tapping noise just before all hell breaks loose. So if it isnt the manifold I would take the cam cover off to make sure everything looks ok.

Have a look at the Stevens thread where Sparky has posted a 'how to do it'

Did some gardening yesterday and managed to get a deep thorn in my finger joint. Come the evening and my finger had swollen and I was unable to bend it and it was really painful so got no sleep.. So this morning off to see the nurse in the walk in centre where the only parking space was next to a low level brick wall. You guessed it put a great dent and scrapping on the passenger door which is going to cost a good sum to repair. An insurance job and as for my finger I am on Penicilin for a week. Not happy!!

Best Esprit drive I have ever seen and the flames were awesome. I was watching from the AMG open viewing platform at the top of the building and the AMG guys watching were pretty impressed as well. But, did I spot a defective brake light!

Took a couple of very good pictures of the track with the convoy of cars from the advantage position of the outside high level viewing platform but as usual my IT skills do not allow me to upload them. If someone could give me their email I can send them across for uploading. Thanks

My old banger has let me down again and an auto electrician spent 8 hours at my house trying to diagnose it without success. The most likely scenario is failure of a new part under load which you dont initially suspect. It means I am going to miss taking the car to the national meet tomorrow at Brooklands which feels worse than throwing £20k at it!!.

Thanks Andy and Simon. Fairly certain it isnt timing related but must admit didnt disconnect the vacuum tubing when checking. Car was running ok when last used and there is no evidence that anything has slipped. However cannot check now as distributor is about to come out of the car. When I spoke with Pete at PNM he said that the electronic pick up is obsolete but that rather than use an OEM version (a lot are dodgy) he remanufactures and thoroughly tests them. So going to send the unit to him today. Will then reset timing as per your recommendation.

Thanks Bibs and what a fast response. At least I know problems are not gearbox related.

Possibly the silly question of the day but I have been checking timing on the car and thought the easiest way to rotate engine would be to jack up rear of car with both wheels off the ground and then turn by hand. However when I then put in gear the wheels still turn relatively freely and engine doesnt rotate. When I drop car back to ground engine will rotate if I then push car in gear. Is the normal?. The reason for asking is problems with car under load and I just wondered if it could be gearbox related rather than ignition/fuel.