For a very long time I have been having 'pinking' under load and I have been unable to get rid of it.

My timing is spot on, as are the valve clearances, and I fill up with 'regular' unleaded at Sainsbury's each week.

If one of the spring's inside the distributor had broken, do you think this would be the problem, as the weights in my 009
would be flung out far to early and unnecessarily advancing the timing at lower revs being a result ?

Peter

 Hi Peter, if you look in a 009 dizzy you will usually find their is only one spring anyway!, so I doubt it is that. pinking is either weak mixture or timing to far advanced or bad fuel. If you think your timing is good, then I would try a tank of super unleaded and see if it goes away! and if it does; either run with that or retard the timing a couple of degree's. If it was running a bit weak, it will feel a bit flat at the speeds where it pinks.

I seem to remember you have got a flowed head which should help alleviate pinking but if your old engine is burning oil; carbon build up can cause pinking when fully warm. A dose of red-X will remove carbon to tell.

Hope this helps, Rob

Thanks Rob

That is interesting, my engine doesn't burn oil and the mixture is tan at the plug core, as its always been. Timing
hasn't moved and I have checked that with my strobe.

Carbon build up though is something to look at, I didn't know Red X would shift it, and will try some
in the next tankfull 

Thanks for the info 

Peter

with degree marks on the pulley you should be able to log the advance at increasing stages of rpm and thus get a good idea of the advance curve.
last crappy new 009 I got involved in came with 3 or 4 springs so the advance was tweekable but never buying an original 009 new I do not know if the same applies.

Thankyou Snoop

I have strobe'd it regularly and haven't noticed any difference in the actual full advance.
She has always run best when set at exactly 32 degrees advance a 2200/2500 revs.

I will strobe it tomorrow and look to see if the full advance is reached earlier than that above.

It could well be the build up of carbon though, and a shot of RedX might be a good thing to do too as well

Peter

Hi peter, just a thought. I seem to remember on the old site that you did play with your jets at one time!. I wondered if you had checked your emulsion tubes, they can make such a big difference when you put your foot down at low rev's!. There are so many different ones and you have to be an expert to know which one's are right for each application. I don't know where you got your carb from but it might be worth getting advice on them. I've been doing lots of research on jetting my 40 DCNF's for my Porsche engine build. I have had to change venturi's, aux venturi's, main's, air correctors, emulsion tubes, the only bit's that might be useable are the pilot jet's lol.

Just see'n your last post!. 32 degree's might be pushing it on standard unleaded. If you have the 009 dizzy set to that, It could be giving you to much advance at say 1,800 to 2,500 rev's. What rev's is it pinking at? If it is set at 32 degree's BTDC, what reading are you getting static?

Rob

Hi Peter, just had a fag break, do my best thinking then!. If your dizzy only has one spring in it; then adding a second weaker spring would slow down the advance and perhaps solve your problem. Just a thought!.

Rob

Rob 

Thankyou for all that info, its very interesting 

I have only swapped my secondary main jet to give me a slightly leaner
mixture, fuel economy, that's a good point though, and I will check, apart from the pinking
my bug is not pulling as hard as she used to uphills, am wondering if the jets as a whole may need a good
blow through. Well....., don't we all.... 

The timing at 32 degrees has always definitely been the place to be, and due to mass production of
distributor's there will always be subtle differences that might deviate from the norm. So I am happy
with that.

I have not ever looked at what the low end timing is, I don't think so anyway.....  But will check.

Thankyou so much for all these ideas, its triggering me off again 

Peter

I'm no mechanic but................supermarket petrol?
Don't know about sainsburys but morrisons petrol don't half make the yaris pink!
Like I said ....no mechanic 

I to have noted a somewhat lack of umph in mine for the last 6 month and get a bit of pinking under load... im tempted to try the higher performance fuel, or even a fuel boost additive to see if that makes a difference...mine is fuel injected so nothing really to adjust other than my timing and that is fine.

Thankyou for those comments, Yes, fuel quality is maybe an issue. Its really sad in away that its like that.

I have bought a bottle of RedX and have put some in the tank this morning,
and noticed a bit of a stink when I welly'd it earlier so will let you know what happen's.....

Peter

I used to love the smell of it when I put it my 2 stroke motor bikes  My Kawasaki triples used to hate the old lead build up on the plugs!, they turned orangey so I used to give them a shot of red-x every now and then

Rob