1967 Morris Oxford Traveller - Holy thread revival batman

Nice to to see some long anticipated progress on the Morris front   From my experience of the SU's its the choke set up that is most problematic - daft idea really and even newly serviced carbs suffer from the chokes sticking / not returning etc  

Im sure it will work just fine but arent su's usually instaled with a slight off vertcal "cant"?

Nice to see progress being made

So, I was running out of excuses to not start the engine.

I poured some water into the rad - it came leaking out of the water pump - bummer, but it won't halt progress just yet.
There was already oil in the sump, so that was a tick.
Most of the wiring was already in place.

Previous investigations suggested that when adding a supercharger to a B-series engine, more ignition advance is beneficial.
Rather than getting a distributor with a custom curve, I decided to throw away the distributor and coil, and replace it with a Nodiz Pro ECU.

That would allow me to program whatever curve etc I wanted, plus give a lot more general tuneability and reliability.
Plus how many 1967 Morris Oxfords need a laptop to tune 

There are a few options, but I decided to use modern Ford Zetec style hardware.
I bought the Nodiz Pro, with a Ford Zetec wiring loom, and a pre-loaded Zetec map.
Ford/Bosch coil pack and genuine Ford leads
Ford crank sensor, and a 36:1 trigger wheel
A Ford style manifold pressure sensor, that had three connections to hook up.

That was about it for the hardware.
With the pre-loaded map, the NoDiz only really needs to know about TDC.
The timing wheel has a missing tooth, that needed to be approx 90 degrees BTDC.

Manually setting the engine to TDC and making a mark that a timing light could pick up on, was easy enough.
Getting my older than the hills timing light to work, was a different matter.

So whilst I was was waiting for the Amazon infrastructure to deliver me a new one, I tried it on the default settings.

There was popping and banging - which was encouraging.

The next day, I was able to determine, with the timing light, that the missing tooth wasn't at 90 BTDC, but 73 BTDC.
So I programmed that into the ECU.

I'd cranked it enough to get some oil pressure, so I put the fuse for the fuel pump back in, and gave it a go.

It started straight up !!!!
It races straight to about 2000-3000rpm - possibly higher. It took me about 20 seconds to shut it off, but it sounded pretty sweet during that brief burst 

There was a pretty severe oil leak from the connection between the block and the oil cooler, so I called it a day.

Today I cleaned up that oil connection, and it is better, but I've had to order up a 1 1/16" spanner to get it uber tight.

But I tried to restart the engine, but it is having none of it.
I've got a spark.
I've got fuel being pumped to the carb
I've got fuel in the SU float bowl
Cranking speed is good.
Valve gear seems to be doing its thing.

But even after a lot of cranking the plugs are bone dry.
So I don't think the carb is doing its job any more.

What I know about SU carbs can be written on a very small piece of paper, but I'll take it off, and see if there is anything obvious.
I should get some time to look again on Friday.
So if anyone has hints and tips for a HS6 - they will be gratefully received.

Quick check. Take the inlet pipe off the carb, stick a finger in and see if you can lift the piston just in case it has stuck. Maybe unscrew the damper first. Some SU carbs have an external plunger which you can use to lift the piston a few mm but been too long since I worked on them to remember which ones.

No that isn't a valid test. You need airflow over the jet to draw fuel into the engine so no amount of throttle or choke action on a non running engine will alter the fuel level.
With the inlet pipe off the carb so you can visually see the piston, crank the engine over and you should see the piston lift as the air is drawn in over the venturi. You can also put the palm of your hand over the inlet and you should feel suction if the engine mechanicals are ok.

Other than that is there a blockage in the jet or the tube leading to the actual jet from the float chamber? If you take the piston out and with the cover off the float chamber blow into the jet (gently with a compressor or by mouth with a rubber pipe/straw) and the fuel in the float chamber should sort of bubble. From memory the seal on the tube going into the float chamber is just a rubber ring which expands as it gets compressed and maybe that is distorted and blocking fuel flow. Unlikely but possible.

Well I had another go at this today.
I reset the needle height on the carb, and just basically sanity checked the fuel system.
Now after plenty of cranking I was getting damp plugs - which I consider progress.

Cleaned the plugs and checked the gaps all fine.

So despite the previous owner have had the engine reconditioned, and it done very little since, I thought I'd try a compression test.

Hmmm - despite lots of oil, I couldn't get satisfactory readings.

I checked the valve clearance, they were all a smidge tight.

Did the compression test again.
    No 1 84psi
    No 2 84psi
    No 3 98psi
    No 4 110psi

I was expecting and hoping to see figures closer to 130psi....
So I think the reason the engine is trying to start, and not making it, is a lack of compression.

I think my next course of action is going to pull the cylinder head and see what state the valves are in.
Bummer.

That will still run with compression that low, I would be trying to get it going just to prove everything else works

When your cranking stick your hand over the carb intake to see if youve got good suction, this will also help pull a good glug of fuel through the carb jets