Carb, ignition, oil pressure, and jetting.

Several issues with my Jeep.

Let me give you some background.

Running a Go-Devil with a Solex carb, Pertronix on in the Auto-lite distributor, Pertronix flame thrower coil, electric fuel pump. I'd known that it was pushing too much fuel to the carb for some time, and as of yesterday I do have a regulator in line. When it got to running temperature, you could shut it off and it wouldn't want to start up again. Carb would be cool to the touch, and it wouldn't be flooded, crank for a minute and it would somewhat sputter to life, and then run like normal. A mechanic friend told me the pertronix may be bad. I have yet to get a reading of resistance from it.


Running down the road, about 75* outside, jeep's running 195-200, and 205-210 idling. Too hot for my tastes but the cooling system is good in any case, that was gone through and fixed. Well, I'm sitting at a red light and notice a slight minor miss. Light turns green and I begin to make my turn, when it feels like no compression. No power at all. Limp it in a turn lane, hop out and check my timing with rush hour passing me. Timing is spot on. Adjust the air-fuel and try it. Idles like a champ, but when you give it gas it would sputter. Miss bad. I threw it into 2 low, waited for a break in traffic, and limp it into a parking lot with it missing bad.... Bad. Hop out again, and begin to go through what I can, adjusting this, that, so on. Choked it out too much and it died. Went to start it up and noticed I was building NO oil pressure while cranking. Pull out the oil filter, clean. Leave it out, crank again. No oil pressure. Earlier before I'd topped off the oil and it seemed to steam out of the fill tube. Should have been a sign but I passed it on the engine being off and the temp sitting going up to 220.
Well, that was it, it's all over. I called my buddy and he came with his wife and 2 daughters (My "dad" "mom" and "little sisters") Big shout out to them. I got the dreaded strap to his house which was 4 blocks away. Left it there over night, went to get it with my tow bar the next day, cranked it. Oil pressure.....What?! Hit the ignition and it sputters one.
Well I get it home, and the carb has blown seals and is running WAY rich. Fouled plugs etc. Will build oil PSI, sputter to life, but misses bad every now and then. Cranks for about a minute before starting even when cold.

I'm at a loss as to why I had no oil pressure. My best guess is the pertronix is bad, dirty rotor, and with the carb running rich, I was burning a lot of gas and causing the oil to thin out a LOT.
Timing is still good.
I do not like the Solex, I can't find jets for it.
My Carter would be a lost cause in an attempt to rebuild it.

What do I do?
If I'm in the ignition, should I put an MSD in as well?

So frustrating
Thanks!

 

First you need to trouble shoot which system is causing your problems. I would start with the carb. A good way to test the carb is to put it on another known running L-head. I would probably ditch the solex anyways and use the orginal carter as a core and get a rebuilt carter, it is a much better carb than the solex ever thought of being. I would also ditch the elctric fuel pump and put a stock one on. If you where running the solex without a regulator you probably ruined something in it, the solex is supposed to run on just a few psi, the carter is only suppsed to have up to 7psi.

I have no idea about your oil pressure, are you using a mechanical gage or electrical?

 

Where would I get a rebuilt Carter?

I got to the point of almost building 2 intakes for some baby webers...Go back to my VW knowledge.
I'm running a mechanical pressure gauge.

 

and I think I'm the only known Jeeper in Abq with a running L head.

 

also i pulled the valve cover.... No collapsed lifters or stuck valves. The intake had a LOT of gas in it... And my plugs look like fonzies hair. Where would i find jets for a carter WO?

 

Dont turn in your old carter for a core, I doubt its a lost cause. I may be able to help you out some here as I have rebuilt several YFs and I think I have a YF unit off of an L-Head.
What is the model number off the casting just under the choke rod.

 

I missed the part where you stated you had a WO unit, What is the bore size measured at the throttle plate. Maybe the YF style unit I have will work for you.

 

YF should work just fine on an L head.
I also have a really neat looking WA-1 sitting on my desk with the auto choke and climate control to lean it out.

Looks like that

 

of course you have no collapsed lifters, you dont even have lifters, you have tappets and you answered your own question about the oil pressure, its thinned down with gas dump that oil and filter before you junk your new engine:hurrican: and calm down you know you dont have lifters, you just aint thinking straight

 

sorry the hurrican was the closest fit ,we dont have a go devil icon to the best of my knowledge

 

thanks k_w R)

Would the thinned out gas not be pumped as well by the oil pump causing loss of pressure?
Lifters tappets I'm over thinking the flat head

 

yep thinned down oil + hot temps = no oil psi at idle dump that oil and fix that carb, fuel in the oil will wipe out bearings and other $hit as well

 

her is you a experiment sammy just to get the idea, take the nastyest greaseyst part you have, and dump some 90w on it to make it real nasty, then clean it with gas(away from open flames cigs etc) it will literally wipe out the bottom end of a engine very quickly

 

white gas is a thinner of choice for me.... i guess in being caught up with it being broken I overlooked the fact my motor oil stinks of gasoline. Now to figure out my carb, and why my ignition is sucking.
I still want to put an MSD box in it...

 

I still would junk the electric fuel pump. The mechanical one will not let you down or produce to much pressure for the stock carb. I would then either send your stock WO in as a core on a rebuilt carb, or rebuild it yourself. You should have seen the greasy nasty carter I saw last weekend, the engine it was on ran like a top. The YF is not the same--F134 carbs will not fit an L-134.

 

:iagree: ditch the elec. fuel pump and solex.

 

oh how I hate running fool lines
I found a local carb shop, I'm considering dropping off the carter WO and getting it rebuilt.... I dunno. I have a holley pressure regulator in it already. Steve you run MSD don't you?

 

I rebuilt my carter with zero problems. Really easy to do.