Miguel Verde
Enthusiast
- Messages
- 18
- Location
- Guatape, Colombia
Hello all.. first some background.. I searched extensively on the forums and got some mixed ideas, but nothing similar to my situation so I thought I would reach out. I am here in Colombia and just had the 1300 rebuilt up to a 1400. It would not pass emissions due to smoking, and I was having problems with it staying in 3rd gear and since I found a fairly low mileage tranny and since the motor needed to be pulled to put the tranny in then I figured why not go all in with the engine. The car was running like a top pre rebuild and the mechanics here work in fairly primitive conditions, as you can see from the pics, so I was a bit skeptical but they came recommended and R4's are common here so they knew what they were about. They got the engine back together, seems solid, no wierd sounds, and I passed the emissions, but the engine is seriously lacking power and it is hesitating during acceleration and feels like it is surging or hiccupping at cruise. Feels like it is always going over little bumps in the road. This was not happening pre-rebuild. I used to do a lot of mechanical work back in the day, but here in Colombia in retirement I have just basic hand tools and they work so cheap its just not worth doing it myself.
New Plugs/wires/distributor cap/rotor
I put electronic ignition on it when i bought it 4 years ago.. has been working great
Carb was not worked on neither was the intake manifold removed from the head
I sucked on the vacuum tube going to the distributor and nothing is moving, this was suggested in a previous post..but why is it a problem all of a sudden and was fine before the rebuild?
Mechanics here are not troubleshooters.. they try to do a job as quick as possible for 10 or 15 USD.
My important questions are if the engine is running well enough to get me around and pass emissions, can I eliminate the possibility that the timing chain is installed one or more teeth off? Also can I eliminate a poor valve adjustment from my list of things I need to delve into? Just trying too eliminate things that are probably ok and would be a major pain to investigate with the tools I have.
I am down to the carb or the vacuum advance as potential problems or the carb as potential problems. Here I cannot buy a rebuild kit for the Solex carb, I must buy all the jets and gaskets as I need piece by piece, its a real pain. As I said I sucked on the vaccum but it does not move one little bit no matter how hard.
I have messed and messed with the timing and the carb adjustments.. to no avail. I have extended all my abilities now I need some advise to continue. Parts are cheap but I need to go into the city for them and its 2 hours in a bus.
If anyone is curious about the cost of parts and labor here I would be happy to share.
New Plugs/wires/distributor cap/rotor
I put electronic ignition on it when i bought it 4 years ago.. has been working great
Carb was not worked on neither was the intake manifold removed from the head
I sucked on the vacuum tube going to the distributor and nothing is moving, this was suggested in a previous post..but why is it a problem all of a sudden and was fine before the rebuild?
Mechanics here are not troubleshooters.. they try to do a job as quick as possible for 10 or 15 USD.
My important questions are if the engine is running well enough to get me around and pass emissions, can I eliminate the possibility that the timing chain is installed one or more teeth off? Also can I eliminate a poor valve adjustment from my list of things I need to delve into? Just trying too eliminate things that are probably ok and would be a major pain to investigate with the tools I have.
I am down to the carb or the vacuum advance as potential problems or the carb as potential problems. Here I cannot buy a rebuild kit for the Solex carb, I must buy all the jets and gaskets as I need piece by piece, its a real pain. As I said I sucked on the vaccum but it does not move one little bit no matter how hard.
I have messed and messed with the timing and the carb adjustments.. to no avail. I have extended all my abilities now I need some advise to continue. Parts are cheap but I need to go into the city for them and its 2 hours in a bus.
If anyone is curious about the cost of parts and labor here I would be happy to share.