Frankly, when I started working on the Morgan many potential problems came to my mind. I was concerned about repairing the wooden frame and getting everything back together. What I did not expect that it might be difficult to get the engine into a running condition again. My Morgan has a Ford CVH 1.6l – millions of Escorts have the same engine. The engine was overhauled by somebody that is well known for Ford Mustangs restorations. Getting the car to start should be just a matter of ignition timing and the carburetor.
Yet, I struggle badly to get the car running. After a great call with Matthias K. (a Morgan expert in Titz – approx. 60km away) I double checked everything again. I unscrewed the distributor cap and removed the spark plugs. In fourth gear I rolled the car so that the rotor was pointing to the upper (leftish) corner – then checked the red mark and cylinder 1 to check TDC. Matthias correctly pointed out that it is easy to get this 180° off – double checking never hurts. When the car was running for a short while last weekend I was able to set the ignition timing to 8° (which is the spec for unleaded fuel (12° BTDC for unleaded fuel). If I get it to run for a bit longer I will check this again.
As the new Champion sparks were pitch black after the last attempts (an indication that the car is getting too much fuel/runs too rich) Matthias suggested to start with fresh spark plugs. I just got new NRK BRP6ES for the Mini – which I know that are working – and they are mentioned as alternative for the Champion RN7YC. Firing order of the Ford is 1-3-4-2 and I double check the distributor cabling. Next, I went on to check the fuel pressure again. The Ford specs state that the delivery pressure should be 0.24 to 0.38 bar. I was within this range – but I lowered it even further as I am not sure how trustworthy the 6€ masterpiece of a lower-pressure gauge from Asia really is.
After going through all those checks the car started, but never really got into a good idle. A smell of fuel is in the air and when the engine stops it even spits fuel out of the primary choke valve. The Haynes Weber Techbook states for too much fuel issues with the needle valve or float level. Both the needle as well as the seats are new and I just checked the float level on both Weber carbs I have at hand. The fuel is filtered (twice right now) – therefore I also rule out sediment in the fuel.
After just 45 seconds the spark plugs are black again – I have the feeling that the engine has a flooding problem – but I currently don’t really have an idea what else I could change on the Weber. Maybe I should get the 32/34 DMTL replacement after all. It comes with a manual choke and André Koopman already said that this is better as the AutoChoke as potentially cause for a problem is removed.
Tomorrow I plan to remove the new Facet fuel pump as well as the pressure regulator and go back to the old pump. It is the last thing that comes to my mind that I can change. If this doesn’t help – I will order the new carb. If this also doesn’t help – I am lost. I work under the assumption that that timing belt and engine overhaul was done by specialist and it correct…
removing the dizzy cap is possible – but especially the lower screw is hard to get to 
checking that the rotor is pointing to the cyl1 position 
when verifying the TDC position through the hole in the cross head parallax errors should be avoided 
hard to see but the piston on cyl 1 is at the top. 
set of new spark plugs. 
torque setting for the plugs is 25NM 
double checking all ignition cables yet again 
fuel pressure has been lowered 
Secondary throttle is dry and looks ok – fuel can be spotted on the pump jet. 
The Ford manual recommeds to pull back the accelerator, manually open the choke and ste the accelerator back. This will allow more air in the fuel mix – but this also doesn’t help.
Fixing C6622 
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