Stay with me on this, it will make sense in the end...
I've had terrible trouble with weather proofing the Acclaim distributor. Any time I went through a puddle the car would either run like curse word for a few miles or die for half an hour before being able to start and drive again. Damp start either worked for a bit, or made nor difference. After I'd use it it was fine, but I also made a point of missing all puddles so it may have just been coincidence. A few weeks down the line the problem would come back. My solution was to use a marigold (tried a condom, far too small...) with a lead coming out of each finger. After this I never had a problem. In fact I think one glove lasted two years before having to be replaced.
Fast forward to yesterday. I'd never been able to get the rocker cover to seal, even with a new gasket, so yesterday I took it off and put some sealant on it. To help me spot leaks to see whether or not it worked I washed down the engine and after I'd put everything away noticed the other side was even worse! Whilst washing it down it obviously got wet and ended up running like a bag of fertiliser. Below 3k rpm it simply wouldn't run then eventually got worse. I'd had the vacuum pipes off (there are three branching to four) so was aware I could have got them in the wrong order when putting them back or no one was split so I left it and this morning it was fine.
Today I washed the other half of the engine and with it running tested to see where water was causing problems. So I poured some over each part and all the electrics to see when it'd go tits up. It wasn't until I poured some over the back that it died (distributor is on the side). I left it for a few hours, then it'd run, then die, then run and eventually was fully dead. Lots of back firing out of the carbs and I got a red herring of easy start getting it to run fine until I put the air box on and it completely dying again. Cleaned all the plugs to no benefit and eventually took the distributor cap off for inspection to find it soaked. This is despite it having damp start, a rubber glove over it and water not apparently going in it. But, if all the signs are there then that's the problem. Anyway, it's all gravy now and is running better than ever. Actually quite brisk!
So now I'm thinking... I've got to reseal it tomorrow but, what about adding two vent holes to it? Some of the moisture might not be from water ingress (some obviously is) but could be from condensation. If I drill one small hole to allow air in and another which would be piped to the air box before the filter it would allow any moisture to be pulled out. I'm not worried about the cap getting full of water and the engine sucking it in as the holes would be small and if it were to reach that stage then the whole car would be in a lake and I'd have other things on my mind!
Thoughts? I did some looking and it seems some V8's have vented caps so someone far smarter then me has already designed an engine to work this way. What could go wrong other then buggering up a cap?
I've had terrible trouble with weather proofing the Acclaim distributor. Any time I went through a puddle the car would either run like curse word for a few miles or die for half an hour before being able to start and drive again. Damp start either worked for a bit, or made nor difference. After I'd use it it was fine, but I also made a point of missing all puddles so it may have just been coincidence. A few weeks down the line the problem would come back. My solution was to use a marigold (tried a condom, far too small...) with a lead coming out of each finger. After this I never had a problem. In fact I think one glove lasted two years before having to be replaced.
Fast forward to yesterday. I'd never been able to get the rocker cover to seal, even with a new gasket, so yesterday I took it off and put some sealant on it. To help me spot leaks to see whether or not it worked I washed down the engine and after I'd put everything away noticed the other side was even worse! Whilst washing it down it obviously got wet and ended up running like a bag of fertiliser. Below 3k rpm it simply wouldn't run then eventually got worse. I'd had the vacuum pipes off (there are three branching to four) so was aware I could have got them in the wrong order when putting them back or no one was split so I left it and this morning it was fine.
Today I washed the other half of the engine and with it running tested to see where water was causing problems. So I poured some over each part and all the electrics to see when it'd go tits up. It wasn't until I poured some over the back that it died (distributor is on the side). I left it for a few hours, then it'd run, then die, then run and eventually was fully dead. Lots of back firing out of the carbs and I got a red herring of easy start getting it to run fine until I put the air box on and it completely dying again. Cleaned all the plugs to no benefit and eventually took the distributor cap off for inspection to find it soaked. This is despite it having damp start, a rubber glove over it and water not apparently going in it. But, if all the signs are there then that's the problem. Anyway, it's all gravy now and is running better than ever. Actually quite brisk!
So now I'm thinking... I've got to reseal it tomorrow but, what about adding two vent holes to it? Some of the moisture might not be from water ingress (some obviously is) but could be from condensation. If I drill one small hole to allow air in and another which would be piped to the air box before the filter it would allow any moisture to be pulled out. I'm not worried about the cap getting full of water and the engine sucking it in as the holes would be small and if it were to reach that stage then the whole car would be in a lake and I'd have other things on my mind!
Thoughts? I did some looking and it seems some V8's have vented caps so someone far smarter then me has already designed an engine to work this way. What could go wrong other then buggering up a cap?
(no visible signs of damage)
