MTFCA Forum

My father restored the car back in the 60’s and it ran fine for years. He stopped driving it about 30 years ago and I inherited it. I have rebuilt the car myself now, but I cannot get it to stay running. By working the choke, I have been able to keep it running for maybe 5 minutes at a time. My steps to start up are the following:

1. Full choke, no ignition, crank engine over 4 times
2. No choke, 1 turn on the needle, ignition on, push the starter, it fires.
3. Full choke, 1 turn on the needle, ignition on, push the starter, fires and may stay running if I work the choke.

I have a Kingston B1 Gasifier Regenerator Carb on it. This is the carb that was on it when it ran fine for my father. I have tried closing the needle, opening the needle, full choke, no choke, half choke, adjusting the choke action needle on the Kingston, more throttle; less throttle, advancing the spark, etc., etc.

The top unit on the Kingston (mixing chamber?) is getting plenty of fuel. So much fuel that it is pooling up inside of it. This says to me that vacuum is not a problem and that the choke is working. Gas is being sucked up from the lower unit (bowl) through the manifold and into the top unit. However, too little or too much gas is getting from the top unit, through the intake manifold, through the valves, and into the cylinders.

When I did have it running for 5 minutes, it did not sound bad. That being said, the last time I heard a T run was over 30 years ago. Sounded like all cylinders were firing. No misses, clunks, load bangs, backfires, etc., etc.

The following are things that I have done:
1. New valves were installed and ground in.
2. New plugs and wires were installed. Verified all plugs are firing in the proper order and no wires are touching the head.
3. Coils were rebuilt by the Coilman.
4. Compression is a 30 and 40 wet; yes, the piston rings are bad but it should still run
5. At TDC with a leak test I have blow bye on the piston rings which confirms #4 above. No leak at intake, carb, or exhaust.
6. Over 4 gallons of new gas in the tank
7. Refurbished/rebuilt gas tank and sediment bulbs.
8. No aftermarket air filters or fuel filters. (removed it all)
9. All new gaskets on the Kingston B1. (done multiple times)
10. Fished wires and blew out all ports on the Kingston B1. (done multiple times)
11. Float is adjusted properly. Plenty of gas in the bowl. A nice flow of fuel flows out the bowl when I open the valve.
12. Intake/exhaust manifold gaskets – Replaced these twice with two different styles of gaskets. No blow by here so I don’t think this is the issue.
13. Timing – adjusted several times. Full retard set at just past TDC.
14. New gas lines and the lines are fitted to flow downward. No abrupt turns or kinks.
15. Nothing with compression test or leak test indicated a head gasket issue.
16. Gas tank cap hole is not clogged.

Thoughts?

You’ve been really thorough Dale. Now drain the gas into a gas can and restore that sediment bulb. I’ll bet the screen is clogged up.

Kingston gasifier is a rare bird.
There may be an expert on them to answer you.
Were it me, I would put a holly nh setup on to confirm the issue is that kingston unit.
Maybe you could borrow the pieces from a local club member.

I agree with the above post. I have a '27 with an NH and almost immediately after it starts I have to advance the spark a lot. I doubt that it is your problem, but I believe that full retard should be more then "just past" TDC.
Edit: With the ignition timing fully retarded, the spark should occur at 71.5 degrees (!) after TDC; fully advanced is 64.5 degrees BTDC. I doubt that you would ever drive a Model T with either fully retarded or advanced timing.
I have never actually seen a vaporizer carburetor installed on a driving Model T. There had to be a reason that virtually all of the vaporizers were replaced - usually with an NH.

Don't know if you have these but just in case from Forum's VowellArt Gallery pages

I am gown in GA, but there has to be some T guys in the Travers City, MI area that would love to help. If not, let me know and I can box up and mail you a Holly NH that is proven to be operating correctly. You can bolt it on, and, if your car starts right up, you have ID'd the issue and can move forward from there. Return the Holly or we can talk about you keepig it.

I purchased a TT once that I could not start and it had a Vaporizer on it and it just seemed like too many moving parts to go wrong for me, so I never used one. Modern thinking is to use the coldest air intake possible, and this unit heats up the air. And there is enough hot air flowing around my shop to make artificial.