Jonn carried out a recheck of the valve clearances on our 1968 Lotus Cortina and replaced the cam cap nuts with new nyloc nuts, torquing all caps to 9 lb/ft. He then cleaned the rocker cover, secured the gasket in place, refitted the cover, and torqued it to 7 lb/ft. After running the engine, he noted an improvement in sound and idle quality, although a persistent issue remained on cylinder 2.
He proceeded to set the ignition timing but found that the distributor was not secured in its clamp. He removed the distributor, correctly refitted the clamp, and reinstalled the distributor, adjusting the timing to 12 degrees before top dead centre. An attempt was made to balance the carburettors, but the front carburettor did not appear to influence the engine’s running condition. A road test revealed poor performance, and further investigation confirmed that the issue with cylinder 2 persisted. Removing the HT lead from cylinder 2 had no effect on the engine’s behaviour, despite a strong spark being present.
Finally, Jonn refitted the camshafts and set the valve timing.
