Finally fixed it!

[Tiki-Al]

Thought I would post this as a warning to others!

After a fairly hefty drive back from lands end to bristol a few weeks back the ol' girl developed a pretty strong fuel smell. It was coming through the air vents at the front so I was sure it was coming from the engine and not the fuel filler.

Creation blue kindly helped me out and we got to work fitting new fuel hoses and a new fuel pump as the old one looked pretty knackered and almost fell apart when we started poking about the place.

Drove it for a few days and still kept getting this really strong fuel smell every now and then, so stripped the carb down and re built it. After a whole day cockin about with the carb and setting it up, I sat back staring into the engine bay feeling pretty please at the fact the carb is now mint. Then i noticed a drippy, drip, drip coming off the clip that holds those orange seals that join the manifold and the ports together...a quick whiff and it was bloody pissing out with fuel.

All it was was a loose screw on the left clip, this was causing the fuel smell and I'm pretty sure it was sucking air and causing the van to under perform...either that or the bus is just slow as f**k anyway :lol:

So next time your hanging out the back or her...check those joins!

 

[Trikky2]

Glad to hear you found the leak.

Unfortunately you havnt fixed the problem yet.

Fuel should not be laying in the inlet manifold. Now you have stopped it escaping from a dodgy manifold seal it will run into the cylinders and seep past the rings diluting your oil.

I suspect your carb is flooding due to excess fuel level in the float chamber. This is commonly cause by a faulty needle valve or the needle valve may have a bit of dirt in it preventing it from fully closing. Other causes of excess float level can be :- missing washer under the needle valve, bent or mal adjusted float arm or leaky float. Float is easy to check, just take it out and shake it, it should have nothing inside it.

 

[Tiki-Al]

Thanks mate, yeah i got a rebuild kit and have replaced all the needle valves, the small one that is on the left, I think its the fuel mixture valve... it was pretty hanging and white compared to the nice new gold one i put in.

Also put new float arm and a variety of pumps and washers in! at one point i was sat there thinking "how the hell am i ever going to put this back together" :lol:

Need to give it a good blast to see if it's working 100% so fingers crossed.