Last time I left the tale of woe with the replacement engine bolted into the Beta's engine bay, and the newly reconfigured and coated exhaust system bolted up to the engine. What I didn't mention was that I didn't fit a gasket between the two flanges because I didn't have one. Instead I used the Würth equivalent of exhaust paste to try and meke a good seal between the two flanges. Flange is a lovely word, don't you
think?
The other point I need to draw your attention to is that, in spite of advice suggesting I do so, I didn't perform a compression (leakdown) test on the replacement engine before I Transporter-ed it to France in the van. Hold those thoughts...
By April 2017 I'd re-fitted all the bits I'd removed from the engine, reconnected all the wires to their respective terminals, filled the thing with coolant, plumbed the fuel supply to the carb etc. etc. and it was time to see if it would actually fire up. I gave it a try, more in hope than expectation I have to say, and bugger me if it didn't start with the first turn of the key! I nearly shat myself in surprise... I really wasn't expecting that.
But while it did actually fire up it was running as rough as a badger's arse. I was having to work the throttle overtime to keep it going and it sounded like it had a really bad exhaust blow. However my first concern was to get the engine warmed up and then dump the oil that had been in the motor since God knows when and re-fill with fresh. I needed to get the car's front wheels up on ramps so I had decent access to the sump. I was just about to do this when the gear lever went all floppy. The gear linkage had snapped at a well-known failure point, part number 48 in the diagram below. At least it had done that at a time and place where I could fix it, and in first gear so I could still drive it up the ramps. Be grateful for small mercies...
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When I finally undid the drain plug the oil that came out was absolutely disgusting - filthy black, thick and smelly. Rancid doesn't begin to cover it. Christ knows how long that oil had been in. With some new 15w40 semi-synth in the engine it was now time to turn my attention to the gear change, and the exhaust blow. I tightened up all the exhaust bolts/nuts I could lay a spanner on but the gearbox problem would need specialist parts that I didn't have and couldn't get in France.
Consequently it was October 2018 before I was able to do battle with it again, and (predictably) it put up one hell of a fight. The part that had failed was (unsurprisingly) the flimsiest part of the whole mechanism but the replacement part (remanufactured by BetaBoyz) was much sturdier. It was still a kingsize PITA to fit when under the car, on your back and having to try and force fit a part to another part that could move of its own free will. If I'd had a helper to lock the gear lever in place it would have been much easier, but I was on my own apart from the cat, who is no help at all even if he does fancy himself on the tools.
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As soon as one issue was fixed, another one took its place. Starting the car was becoming increasingly hit and miss (mainly miss). It appeared that the fuel pump simply wasn't pulling fuel through to the carb. This was a concern as I'd replaced the block-mounted mechanical pump with a Huco electric pump a few years back and it had done less than a thousand miles since installation. I was using a piggyback connector on the coil terminal to provide a switched 12v feed, and gave no thought to the fact that there was a ballast resistor in circuit just before the coil. It turned out that the ballast resistor was reducing voltage at the coil to not much over 7v, and that wasn't enough to persuade the fuel pump to get out of bed and do a shift. When I moved the connector to the 12v side of the ballast resistor it immediately sprang into life.
For whatever reason around this time I basically just lost interest in the car for a couple of years. It seemed to be one problem after another and I was getting really despondent and dispirited with it. It had never run right since I fitted the replacement engine and I think I was in denial, to be honest. Anyone reading this has by now probably already figured out what the root problem was, but not I. When I eventually took it for a circuit of the village, it was obvious that something was still amiss. The engine wouldn't run smoothly, it still sounded like there was a blowing exhaust and it was hard work just keeping the engine running, let alone making sensible progress.
However, in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, I decided that the carburettor needed attention. So an overhaul kit for the Weber carb (a DATR 250) was ordered when I was back in Blighty and I planned to take that and my ultrasonic cleaner over with me when I returned in spring 2022 to give the carb a proper overhaul. I'd also followed the advice of a Beta forum member and richened the jetting up across the board, mainly to compensate for ethanol in the fuel. When it came to start the car, it certainly started better than previously so I drove it out of the garage, parked it up in the street and left it running for a while. It still sounded rough, but I told myself it just needed to warm up properly.
That was when I noticed the developing puddle of coolant mixed with oil under the engine...
(to be continued)
I would say the Bonnie at least doesn't have those, but I wouldn't like to bet on it.
)