OT: Why can't a petrol engine start itself?

[Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp]

I bought a Fiat!

Marea estate, I loved it.

I adopted what I described as the battered wife approach.

Every service would see the wallet well and truly battered, yet I kept coming back for more.

Being a company car driver with all fuel in the UK provided for business or pleasure, I did not do a lot of miles in my Fiat.

It was terrible, faults would appear and the Electrical ones were invariably intermittent, there to stay too.

If the car was still current, I would have another, and the Border Collie to go in the back.

Pooch loved it too.

Happy days :-)

Not a good car for a bit of off road scrambling though, particularly when copiloted by fifteen pints of guiness :-(

AB

[tabbypurr]

Ladas were way cheaper to buy, way cheaper to maintain. That is financial efficiency and it's why they were popular.

NT

[tabbypurr]

points closed mean you can spark it with the ignition switch, or sometimes by waggling timing.

open means either no luck, or for a small range of movement you can spark it by waggling timing.

NT

[tabbypurr]

I remember discovering those mags talked complete cr--

NT

[tabbypurr]

Companies advertise all sorts of things. It doesn't mean there's a sensible reason to buy them. Why you thought some junk grade information must be right I don't know.

NT

[tabbypurr]

It would be, that's how it's designed. The ignition coil is quite high inductance iirc, so to get full whack out of it at top rpm the distrib switch needs to be closed most of the time. A lobe on the shaft just opens it a short while to create the spark.

Hence opening the ignition switch may work. No capacitor means a weaker spark, but IME even HT tracking through carbon can just about ignite a cylinder charge.

NT

[tabbypurr]

On Sunday, 25 March 2018 13:57:42 UTC+1, Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp wro te:

You must have been near broke, everyone knew the Marina was junk. Last one I saw went for £25.

NT

[tabbypurr]

AIUI Russia neither knew nor cared about western consumer expectations. The near zero Lada marketing budget was what got them a bad rep, as the mags pandered to their advertisers.

Looks-wise what little I saw of it was deeply unfashionable. High ticket buyers cared about that.

NT

[tabbypurr]

which they are nearly 90% of the time

engines do run with no capacitor on the contacts. Not so well, but they do

incorrect conclusion

NT

[tabbypurr]

I suspect that may have been the idea behind the camshaft service, to put one in that gave more horses

NT

[tabbypurr]

people that found out rather than dimly believe whatever they're told

NT

[tabbypurr]

A friend got a 500. Paper bag on head required.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Very roughly on a single cylinder single coil setup the points will be closed for something like 220 degrees out of 360. Depending on how high the engine can rev - as the coil needs time to charge fully. The more the number of cylinders, the smaller the dwell angle.

On a very low revving engine like that old RR, likely rather longer.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

When buying a banger purely to get from A to B, the condition and price is likely far more important than the make.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Three instead of two?

[James Wilkinson Sword]

But with a Fiat you don't get to B, it overheats halfway there. I actua= lly bought a Fiat Bravo (or something) for =A3650 once. It lasted preci= sely two weeks before the engine melted. The water pump failed, and bef= ore the temperature guage even reached the red line, the engine gave in.= A mechanic thought he could fix it (I don't know if he was successful)= and swapped it for his Peugeot 405. After spending 2 MONTHS persuading= the fuckwits at the DVLA to make it not registered to a disabled person= (he was er.... dodgy) I managed to tax it. It then ran flawlessly for =

4 years until I rammed it into the back of a Cavalier, forgetting it had= no ABS.

-- =

Today's woman puts on wigs, fake eyelashes, false fingernails, sixteen p= ounds of assorted make-up/shadows/blushes/creams, living bras, various p= ads that would make a linebacker envious, has implants and assorted othe= r surgeries, then complains that she cannot find a "real" man.

[tabbypurr]

often not, but clearly not worth discussing

[Dave Plowman (News)]

My brother as a poor teacher with a young family bought a used Marina estate for not a lot. Served very well, with cheap bits easily available if needed. It was also an ideal size for his uses.

But everyone knows the Marina was crap.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Was it? My dad had one for years and it was fairly good, no less reliable than cars today. And very easy to repair.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Thanks for confirming not even you believe what you write:-

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From: Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp Subject: Re: OT: Why can't a petrol engine start itself? Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2018 13:55 Newsgroups: uk.d-i-y

Big mistake really, when I waited and bought a Morris Ital [First car that I actually owned and wasn't provided by a company], Now that was junk.

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The Ital being merely a facelift Marina.