Today I did the first start of my Lizzy inside my garage after finishing the long repair of my clutch. So it was very exciting to me, will she start at all, how will she run? I can say, she is running well and smoothly, and she started on third try, so I am very happy...
After 5 minutes of idling the temperature was so high that steaming coolant was ejected through the overflow tube. I could also see the front side of radiator upper chamber wobbling, so the engine was slightly boiling, I guess.
The radiator is brass type with round pipes, so it is an old type one. But I cannot see debris inside (only a very thin brown layer), so I think this is pretty normal? When the radiator was unmounted, I could see a thin brown calcium layer covering the inner of the engine head, but t was very thin, I would say "normal",
From my understanding, this car should be able to idle without boiling, so I think my adjustments are not correct. I need to say that I am a bloody novice in this, All I did in last two years was buying it, spending immense work in new electrification and restoration, getting a license plate, and finally experiencing that the clutch is not working - so another repair....
What I did:
- I measured the distance between bolt-center of oil fill stub and timer eye - it is 62 mm when spark advance lever is fully up (late ignition), this is perfectly according the service manual.
- After priming the engine, it started on 3rd pull. I moved the spark advance lever with its tip to 9:00 position (this increased its speed) and switched from battery to magneto.
- I reduced the gas mixing ratio from 1 1/2 turns until the engine ran smoothly, this was approx. 1 1/4 turns on cold engine.
- When I saw that coolant was ejected and also saw the wobbling radiator, I stopped the engine, but I did not hear any boiling sound.
- After some minutes I started the engine again and reduced the gas mixture until it started to run worse, then I turned up the gas a little bit until it ran smoothly again. (So the engine was running close to lowest gas mixture level now.)
- Situation was now a little bit better and I stopped the engine. After 1/2 hour the radiator was still so hot that I couldn't touch it, but I opened the radiator cap to check coolant level. The coolant level is approx. 1" above the internal sheet metal. I will re-check on cold engine to see how much it differs.
A good friend from Germany (he helped me a lot with his knowledge) told me that this engine becomes hotter with late spark. Is this correct? I thought that late spark only reduces efficiency because the engine fires into the exhaust?
He also told me that I should set the spark advance lever even more downwards, to approx 8:00 position. Till now I followed what I read in my "The Model T Ford Car" book, Fig. 38, there the spark advance lever is shown at 10:00 position for an idling engine (not driving).
I will be very happy if you could give me advice how to proceed with setting the right spark advance, carburetor, ... I hope I can do a first test drive before winter is approaching, but I will feel better if I know what I have to do before I start.
Thanks in advance