As engine issues are always due to the carburettors, and carburettor issues are always ignition issues, and ignition issues are always just wrong valve clearances, I started with the latter. Re-set the valve clearances. Should not take more than an hour.
As if! Firstly, this car has twelve valves compared to my other cars eight. It then turned out to be a very long time ago that some garage checked or - god forbid - adjusted the valve clearances. The first adjusting nut was completely locked up. The remedy was to disasseble the rocker arm and then turn the adjusting nut with a suitable socket, instead of using the adjustment tool. The springs that secure the rocker arms are surprisingly difficult to reinstall. Now where do I know that from?
However, I adjusted my way through the twelve valves, the clearances of which were much to small. All of them. With disassembly (the viscous coupling has to come out to turn the crankshaft) and re-assembly this easy task took six hours. On the way, I also correctly set up the cold start unit (which had been renewed a few years ago) of the rear carburettor.
And finally a short test drive was undertaken and everything felt very well indeed.
