Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running

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Mon 24 May 2010 16:58
Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running - Julian

I hope the combined knowledge of H-J can solve this one.

The car starts and runs up to temp as normal, but after about 20 mins the engine looses all power and splutters to a halt, after waiting for it to cool, it will re-start reluctantly and limp home.

Car has solid state ignition (timing spot on) and SU's that are balanced and are jetted correctly.

So far we have replaced the coil - cos that could have been breaking down.

Next we are looking at the fuel pump efficiency? and other fuel delivery issues?

Any help gratefully received.

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Mon 24 May 2010 17:05
Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running - mickyh7

Fuel filter semi blocked, or a vacuum in the Petrol tank springs to mind ?

I'm looking for a cheap fix first obvouslly !

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Mon 24 May 2010 17:15
Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running - SteveLee

Has the car been left standing for a while? Modern unleaded fuel goes off frightenly fast (6 months to a year), first symptoms will be poor hot running, then when it's completely knackered the engine will only tickover and will not accept any load.

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Mon 24 May 2010 17:18
Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running - bathtub tom

What happens if you remove the petrol cap immediately after it stops.

Do you get an inrush of air?

Will it then immediately re-start?

Edited by bathtub tom on 24/05/2010 at 17:19

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Mon 24 May 2010 17:21
Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running - Julian

Next on the list to do !

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Mon 24 May 2010 17:45
Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running - Fernando P

I take it that the ignition system has either a crankshaft sensor or equivalent arrangement in the distributor (Hall sender), which sometimes can fail to operate in the circumstances you describe.

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Mon 24 May 2010 18:05
Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running - bathtub tom

Another thought:

Has it got a six volt coil and ballast resistor? The ballast resistors have been known to fail as they warm up.

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Tue 25 May 2010 00:00
Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running - JohnM{P}

Rubber/plastic fuel pipe softening when it gets warm and then collapses?

(Once had a long trip at night from London to Bath on the M4 in an Imp that went slower if I tried to go faster than 35-40mph. Cannot remember how I discovered it was just a (thankfully) cheap bit of tubing that needed replacing...)

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Tue 25 May 2010 09:12
Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running - percy

I've seen on another site that rotor arms are very good at providing this fault!

Try www.distributordoctor.com/red-rotor-arms.html they are supposed to be very good.

All the other makes give up when they get warm. HTH

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Tue 25 May 2010 09:50
Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running - craig-pd130

My old BV8 did this, turned out to be the fuel line near the pump that had a pinhole in it. This would suck in air eventually causing an airlock.

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Tue 25 May 2010 11:43
Triumph Spitfire MK4 1300 - Engine dies after 20mins running - dieselnut

Check for a spark the next time it fails.

Then at least you'll know if you're looking for a fuel or electrical problem.

Early transistorized add-on ignitions had a habit of failing once warm.

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