Lagonda Rapiers

3 minute(s) of a 484 minute read

Hello Paul

The more I read the less I know, there seem to be any number of opinions on this as with every other subject. My primary interest in this was to see if I could improve the cold starting of my Rapier. It has been difficult to start from cold and seemed to require much more fuel to initially start but once started it would misfire badly for about five minutes before it would settle down on an idle at about 800/1000 rpm. While it is not an exceptionally cold morning It started easily and completely without misfiring. Once started and warmed up it always starts easily "on the button".

I have not had it out on the road so I need to take it for a drive before I will know if there is any improvement or falling off in power. Even then there are so many other variables it is difficult to know. 

Bj.

12-10-2016

Having gone out on a "little drive" the Rapier backfired under acceleration quite badly until it warmed up. I have now opened the plug gaps out to .025" and will now wait until tomorrow when I can do a cold start test again. Perhaps I am growing fussy in my old age.

I like to think that having these things to keep my mind active is far better than sitting in a rocking chair or worse.

Bj.

12-11-2016

With old motor cars you never know what they are going to throw at you next. Having been persuaded to go on the VSCC "Inner Urban" Rally, Basically a drive around the city of Melbourne visiting various themed historical sites the car continued to misbehave to the point it was coming to a point where I was reluctant to drive it any further and it came home on the back of a tilt tray recovery vehicle. Doing a compression check revealed virtually NO compression in number one cylinder. Time to take the cylinder head off and investigate a little further. Starting straight away (Sunday afternoon)I now have the head all but ready to lift off. There are just two nuts hidden away under the front of the head to be removed.

What is to be revealed, a headless valve or a hole in the piston, or worse? Oh Joy!

With the cylinder head removed it has revealed that the exhaust side of number one piston has been badly eroded (by detonation?). I suppose that I should be grateful that only the one piston seems to have been damaged. My "Engine Man" tells me that with a little luck I may be able to obtain (have made) just the one piston. I will not know exactly how good or otherwise the other three are until I get the engine out. I need to remove the crank to extract the con-rods and pistons out through the bottom of the cylinder bore.  All a good test of my mobility and clear thinking given my senior senior's status.