The van has done it again

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Bypass hose. You had to remove the waterpump or cylinder head to replace it like for like. Or the easy way - a thin rubber one that lasted 5 minutes.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

A decent breakdown organisation would have the same diagnostic equipment as a dealer. But just because they don't doesn't mean all faults are impossible to diagnose.

[Jethro_uk]

What ? Audi, BMW, Citroen, ... Renault, Rolls Royce ...

5 things for an engine to work. Fuel. Air. Compression. Spark.

All at the right time.

(It's the page after "The Otto Cycle" :) )

[The Natural Philosopher]

That's only 4

And diesels don't need the spark

In the right quantity..

[Jethro_uk]

You missed the "at the right time" - it's four things in a circle.

I was quoting from a pre-diesel world. It can be updated the idea was to make things ..

... simple for the cerebrally challenged. The sort of person that thinks you can get an engine to start by randomly swapping the ignition leads around (like our neighbour and his Cortina in the 70s)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Basic diagnostics are common to all makes. And there is specialist software that covers more than one make anyway.

Remember we're talking about a breakdown here. Not needing to do the special tricks dealer only software may be capable of.

Love to know how you time the fuel and air on a nice simple carb engine. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Quite. The idea that everyone understood an engine in the old days is just as flawed then as now.

[The Natural Philosopher]

At the right time isn't a 'thing'

Can work

[RJH]

Yup - don't even think it was that modified in the early versions. I had a late 70s 99 which had the more modified and built in-house version. Splendidly bolted together car - but rusted to bits before its 20th birthday.

[Jethro_uk]

It is too.

Tell you what, you give me a car with a petrol engine, I'll reorder the HT leads, and you tell me that getting the spark at the right time doesn't matter as you roar off into the sunset, eh ?

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail]>, "Dave Plowman (News)" [e-mail]> writes

Umm.. The Standard engine block was used to power the petrol/tvo Ferguson tractor of the late 40's. I would say most farmers had a reasonable idea how they worked and which bits to hit when they didn't. I have a 1st. class degree in spark plug cleaning!

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

I never said that. I just said that it wasn't a 'thing'

[bert]

That's what I said to them (I'm including vat).

[tabbypurr]

you don't know how?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Sigh. Fuel is only 'timed' on fully sequential injection.

Now explain how air is.

[tabbypurr]

In fact both are timed by the camshaft on a large percentage of carb engines. If the cam belt is not positioned correctly the timing of both will be off.

If you know anything about engines you know that.

NT

[Steve Walker]

Wasn't the diesel engine invented before the petrol one?

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

With wasted spark ignition, you *can* swap some of them around with zero effect.

SteveW

[The Natural Philosopher]

Probably, and the glow plug - or rather hot tube - gas engine was even before that IIRC

1884 was the first petrol engine with spark plug magneto and carb.

But that was not the first internal combustion engine by far

Gas engines arrived earlier and the hot tube was the preferred means of igniting the charge.

[The Natural Philosopher]

2CV has no distributor. Foxed me completely.