12hp tourer #110 update

[David2021]

After the oil changes and a serious tidy up of all the front end wiring (38 newly soldered bullet connectors on to new colour coded wires!), a fill up with 5% E 99 octane(£1.40 litre ...ouch!) and a tour round the Cotswolds with the hood down. About 90 miles, half of it with four up. We sailed up Fish Hill in (mostly top at 40mph) with a bit of third. We found 60 was very blowy and noisy without the side-screens (particularly on dual carriageways), but 45-50 was very comfortable wind in the hair motoring. Side-screens up, remarkably calm and stress free up to 60-65. What a flexible engine.
Oil pressure was a solid 45 at 60 and water temp never went over 170F. Fuel consumption not checked, but on past experience not much better than 22mpg....No oil nor water used.
Tail pipe is very black, so suggesting running rich. As far as I can see there is not a means of weakening the mixture (except on the slow running, and the tick-over is very smooth) Plugs suggest the same....any advice? No popping & banging on the over-run, just a rather "rich" smell from fumes coming into the car (This time going DOWN Fish Hill !)
Off to tour the Peak District next week, confidence increasing!
Timing is untouched apart from checking the points...what advice on advancing the "octane adjuster? currently on 0. I suppose I should go back to square one & check it, but I am loath to do it before the tour next week....ain't broke...
David

[David2021]

Follow up to earlier post. Just spent a few days up in the Peak District of Derbyshire. A very good "shake down" for the car! (some pretty bumpy old roads!) No problems at all in 230 miles. Starts first touch. Oil pressure 45 when under load, water never over 170F. Still running very rich...sooty exhaust & 20-21 mpg (not quite as bad as a blown XKR in the group...he only got 19mpg....and he had over 300bhp! A lot of banging and crashing from the back end, so that will have to be investigated to see if there are any rubber bits still there! Front end very quiet & well behaved. In fact the car rides remarkably well and the road holding is much better than I expected. The car held it's own up the hills, the flexibility of the engine is remarkable. Brakes now need to be taken up a bit after they had to work hard in the hills, but they are so smooth and very powerful. Next I shall see how well it goes with the Freewheel engaged!