Driving a short distance. The engine stalls and is slow to restart after a few minutes driving. Classic symptom of carburettor icing. Even on a warm day moisture in the air can freeze inside the inlet manifold restricting flow. Blocked heater pipe in inlet manifold (due to years of soot buildup) is usually the cause. The car will restart after a few minutes as the heat in engine compartment melts the ice. Van gradually appears to run out of fuel, slowing down then picking up again before slowing down and stopping. Fuel delivery problem. Most likely worn out fuel pump. Could be blocked fuel line or fuel filter. Check fuel level in carb. Probably too low. Driving when hot. After a long drive on a motorway, the engine stalls every time you come to a stop. Air leak in the inlet manifold. Check rubber connections on twin port manifolds and that their clips are tight. Check for tightness of bolts holding manifolds onto heads and carb to manifold bolts. Misfire when under load (driving uphill or overtaking). Check the plug leads, the spark plugs, fuel system (as mentioned above /). Condensor (on side of distributor) could be on the way out. Points could be closing up. Could be a weak coil - does it get very hot? CAREFUL! Valve sticking open. When was the last time they were checked and adjusted? Valve could be siezed in its guide. Van starts to slow down, getting slower and slower until on pulling over the engine stops and refuses to restart. Seized engine. Maybe a piston siezing in its bore. Engine overheated and seized. If you are lucky, the engine may restart after 1/2 an hour or more - unlikely. Time for recovery. Knocking sound, getting louder and louder when under load (uphill or overtaking). Big end bearing failure. Don't drive any further as you'll risk completely wrecking the engine. Engine covered in oil and smells really hot. Possible worn piston rings have allowed engine crankcase to be pressurised and blow oil out of everywhere it can get out. As a get me home, clean all the oil up, refill with fresh oil and pray no lasting damage has been done. Budget on an engine rebuild. Engine starts to misfire and then theres a BANG and the engine stops with a loud clanking sound. Welcome to the world of dropped number 3 exhaust valves and replacement engines.
T1 engine : Everything Covered in Oil but the engine is not too hot If you are using a dipstick oil temperature gauge, be aware it blocks the dipstick tube fairly effectively. As a result when you fill up with oil, you must wait quite a long time on a cold day for the oil level to settle as it creeps back up the tube around the dipstick. Alternatively put in the original equipment dipstick while filling (only occupies half of the tube) as this will respond quicker to filling with oil. If you overfill with oil, the flywheel crankcase air pump will be spitting oil all over the back of the engine and that oil will be dripping down over the exhaust (dodgy-think fires). Once the oil level drops to 100% it stops completely. In the worst case the oil also spits back up the breather tube into the carb if the breather tube is connected to one of those chrome filters above the carb, and so finds its way back in to the combustion chambers in enough quantity to smoke. Having been stupid enough to drive 1000 miles like that and end up with a messy engine bay and still over 100% oil level, it was a nice surprise to use the dipstick hole as a tube to suck oil back out of the engine until the level was 100%. Another few hundred miles and the problem has definitely stopped once the oil is back to normal.
