I'm having issues with my Mini's engine. There is heavy sputtering under load/acceleration.
Tuned it up a month ago, checked compression and it was low in cyl #3.
Drove it every other day or so since then, about 100 miles total.
Took it for a drive last thursday and it started to sputter under heavier acceleration, it's worse at lower engine speeds. This gradually got worse over the course of my drive (half an hour total). Took it out again the next day and barely got home. The sputtering seems to happen whenever the engine is accelerating/under heavy load. At a constant RPM it seems fine. It will sputter even when revved in neutral.
My mini is an '89 998cc A+ engine - non-electronic distributor.
I have checked the following:
Reverted to old plugs, no change. When I removed the current plugs they were heavily fouled. Running on the old plugs for a few minutes fouled them too.
Checked my points and gap. They seem fine.
My distributor seems tight, won't turn (so i'm assuming timing is good). I don't have a timing light.
The 3rd cylinder seems to be detonating poorly. At idle you can hear a weak detonation. If I remove the spark plug wire from this cylinder the bad detonation drops out, but it keeps on idling without much change. If I remove any other wire, the engine stalls.
Tried switching wires between 2nd and 3rd plugs, no change.
Did another compression test. 3rd cylinder builds compression slowly and to a lower threshold than the other 3 cylinders. A teaspoon of oil in the cylinder remedies the problem temporarily. Assuming it's the rings/cylinder wall. I doubt this is the cause of my poor engine performance since it was low a month ago and the engine ran fine.
Choke doesn't appear stuck.
Coil is relatively new, connections seem good.
Distributor is relatively new.
Tonight I'm going to try putting the old points/condenser/distributor cap on.
Outside of that I'm stumped. Any thoughts/suggestions?
Tuned it up a month ago, checked compression and it was low in cyl #3.
Drove it every other day or so since then, about 100 miles total.
Took it for a drive last thursday and it started to sputter under heavier acceleration, it's worse at lower engine speeds. This gradually got worse over the course of my drive (half an hour total). Took it out again the next day and barely got home. The sputtering seems to happen whenever the engine is accelerating/under heavy load. At a constant RPM it seems fine. It will sputter even when revved in neutral.
My mini is an '89 998cc A+ engine - non-electronic distributor.
I have checked the following:
Reverted to old plugs, no change. When I removed the current plugs they were heavily fouled. Running on the old plugs for a few minutes fouled them too.
Checked my points and gap. They seem fine.
My distributor seems tight, won't turn (so i'm assuming timing is good). I don't have a timing light.
The 3rd cylinder seems to be detonating poorly. At idle you can hear a weak detonation. If I remove the spark plug wire from this cylinder the bad detonation drops out, but it keeps on idling without much change. If I remove any other wire, the engine stalls.
Tried switching wires between 2nd and 3rd plugs, no change.
Did another compression test. 3rd cylinder builds compression slowly and to a lower threshold than the other 3 cylinders. A teaspoon of oil in the cylinder remedies the problem temporarily. Assuming it's the rings/cylinder wall. I doubt this is the cause of my poor engine performance since it was low a month ago and the engine ran fine.
Choke doesn't appear stuck.
Coil is relatively new, connections seem good.
Distributor is relatively new.
Tonight I'm going to try putting the old points/condenser/distributor cap on.
Outside of that I'm stumped. Any thoughts/suggestions?
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