The Ford Capri Laser Page

Mc Tool wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:52 pm After all the good work done bringing the car up to such a looker its a shame to have engine hassles , As andyd has said about his replacing the VV with a 32/36 weber and manifold ..... it will transform the car

I would gently remove the VV carb, once removed throw it into the nearest field and then ft literally any other carb.
a 32/36 would be good for a power upgrade as well, but even a 34ICH weber would do the trick and generally be a much better carb than the VV would be.

They have a reputation for being a nightmare for good cause

Car looks lovely by the way!

Cheers
Danny

It is a bit of a shame as the VV does have a kind of historical interest value - it IS how the cars came after all. But beyond that, it really doesn`t have anything going for it, as Danny and other.... people have said, the DGAV is just better in every way. Plus you can bin all the pipes, valves, thermal switches etc and just have a nice tidy carb.

stevemarl wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 12:07 pm It is a bit of a shame as the VV does have a kind of historical interest value - it IS how the cars came after all. But beyond that, it really doesn`t have anything going for it, as Danny and other.... people have said, the DGAV is just better in every way. Plus you can bin all the pipes, valves, thermal switches etc and just have a nice tidy carb.

It is a shame to get rid of it when it's original, and I still have my VV carb in the shed (trying to sell it but unsurprisingly no-one wants it!), but at a certain point when it's causing issues I think you have to just accept binning it

Id really recommend swapping to the 32/36 Weber and relevant manifold that were standard on the 2.0 Have a word with Martin at Caprigear to see if he has any decent 2nd hand ones in stock and ask him about re jetting it for the 1.6 (it will work better than the VV with the 2.0 jets but will run at it's optimum with the correct jets for a 1.6).

The VV carb is good when its running right but there is a reason so many of them were changed. Back in the day the 34 ICH carb was sold as a straight swap replacement as it fitted on the existing manifold. Personally Id always go for the 32/36 as it works well for the engine characteristics, wont use any more fuel (unless hammered) and gives a slight performance upgrade at the same time.

A car struggling to start when hot is by no means a rare issue, do we really have no other advice or options for Martin other than buy a new carb?

pbar wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 8:23 am do we really have no other advice or options for Martin other than buy a new carb?

I must be honest, I don`t remember the VV having problems hot starting when new, but then petrol`s changed a lot since `84
just a thought but, as standard, the VV had a load of valves and pipework, a fuel trap in the vac line etc. These are most, I think there are still a couple missing: a blue/black version of the red one and possibly another brown (think I cut it up to use the bulb....)



These were all concerned with emissions, the brown one for example was a thermally activated vccuum switch in the bottom of the manifold: this directed vacuum one way when cold and another when hot (advance sustain?) If any of these are missing, not working, or leaking, that could cause difficult starting?

That was just my thoughts Steve, that every car with this carb can't all be having starting problems. Good info there as always, hopefully Martin will report back.

Back in mid 80s my Mk3 Escort was a nightmare to start when hot, so had that VV changed to a Nikki twin choke carb I found advertised in a car mag at the time.

Re my current set up, I have to admit it's strange getting used to a manual choke again after all this time

Can you remember Andy, I know it's going back a while! But was there anything you could do to help with that, a workaround?

pbar wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 8:54 pm Can you remember Andy, I know it's going back a while! But was there anything you could do to help with that, a workaround?

Hi Paul,
The memory is a funny thing!
As I didn't have a bank account at the time, I remember convincing my Mum to write a cheque for the carb, the next memory is getting it back from local garage only to find it wasn't set up right as the engine would run on after ignition was switched off so that was sorted but I don't remember anything about that, and that's about all I can recall, other than it always sounded good.

My girlfriends Dad removed it and put the VV back on when I sold it a couple of years later for a Mk1 XR2 with a Weber carb that was always good, although with my driving style at the time it was pretty thirsty

Cheers Andy, that's a nice story, good memories! I bet your driving style has changed now, as we get older we have changing values and priorities such as the cost of petrol.

pbar wrote: ↑Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:43 am Cheers Andy, that's a nice story, good memories! I bet your driving style has changed now, as we get older we have changing values and priorities such as the cost of petrol.

I was putting £25 a week in the XR2 back then, that was quite a lot out of a weekly wage in 1986/7

Saying that I really liked driving back then, and would spend hours out and about, often going nowhere in particular.

Yes I definately spend more time looking at the petrol gauge than the speedo now

That's some serious driving Andy, £25 of petrol a week! I don't put that much in now, in any car, nowhere near actually.

pbar wrote: ↑Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:59 pm That's some serious driving Andy, £25 of petrol a week!

Must have been my chequered driving gloves

I dread to think what I would have put in it if it had been a 2.8 or 3.0 Capri

andyd wrote: ↑Sat Oct 23, 2021 3:41 pm Must have been my chequered driving gloves

Well I bet you had some fun, and that's what it's all about

pbar wrote: ↑Sat Oct 23, 2021 3:42 pm

andyd wrote: ↑Sat Oct 23, 2021 3:41 pm Must have been my chequered driving gloves

Well I bet you had some fun, and that's what it's all about

Just watching an episode of A Touch Of Frost filmed in 1996, and a petrol station in the background selling at 54.9 per litre. Those were the days!!

andyd wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 1:08 pm petrol station in the background selling at 54.9 per litre. Those were the days!!

No no no no no - 70p a GALLON - those were the days!!! `76 ish, my Viva had an 8 gallon tank and if it was absolutely running on fumes you could just squeeze 5 quids worth of 4star in it. And, you could set off at 4 o`clock, and drive Manchester to London, 70 - 80 all the way, without any hold ups at all. Happy times. Still, as they say, better to have loved and lost... at least we have known what it was to enjoy driving!

stevemarl wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:01 pm

andyd wrote: ↑Sun Oct 24, 2021 1:08 pm petrol station in the background selling at 54.9 per litre. Those were the days!!

No no no no no - 70p a GALLON - those were the days!!! `76 ish, my Viva had an 8 gallon tank and if it was absolutely running on fumes you could just squeeze 5 quids worth of 4star in it. And, you could set off at 4 o`clock, and drive Manchester to London, 70 - 80 all the way, without any hold ups at all. Happy times. Still, as they say, better to have loved and lost... at least we have known what it was to enjoy driving!

Can't argue with that Steve!

I've been driving since 1984 and always gone to the cheapest petrol station around wherever I have lived, but to be honest I haven't got a clue what I would have paid back then and I wouldn't have remembered the 1996 price if I hadn't seen it. That's the memory lapse I mentioned in an earlier post

All I know is it hasn't gone below 1.20 a litre around here now for about a year

In my experience, all Fords from this era are pigs when starting them warm in that 5 - 15 minute window. You all know what I mean, they just don't like it!

I can remember Dad moaning when petrol hit 26 cents a gallon here . He had a 308 ci V8 car that held 16 gallons ......very early 70s
Fuel prices here can be a bit weird , $2.29 per litre in Gore ( at Gull ) and at the other end of Gore its $2.69 ( caltex ).....less than 2 ks away. My car holds 60l .....thats $24 more per full tank ......thats 2 Big Mac combos , or a dozen Stellas , a big pork shoulder roast.