Why get your car tuned?

There are many reasons to get your car tuned, so my apologies if some of the below are stating what is absolutely obvious to many of you.   Sadly, to many because their car is old they expect them to run a 'bit off', 'smokey', 'lack lustre' and in the vast majority of cases they could run significantly better!   

There is no simpler or better example that I could give, than the one left below by a former owner of  '8'  Morris Minors previously owned, by the same owner!!!

So why does your classic car need tuning?

1)  No ECU doing it for you....In a modern car the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) monitors and adjusts how the car runs thousands of times per second based on information received from various sensors on the engine and around the vehicle in general. 

However prior to the early/mid 1980's ECU's were not present on most vehicles, so periodically many of the factors effecting how an engine runs had to be checked and reset manually.  This would occur on request by booking in at your local garage (who unlike now were then 'geared up' to work on the cars as current models.)   Or, a good garage would check the ignition and fuelling as per the makers service recommendations. 

2) Why do the ignition and carburation settings matter? - The holy trinity of any combustion engine involves 'fuelling', 'ignition' and 'compression'.  These 3 vital factors need to be supplied in the right amounts, at the right point in time and consistently. 

If any aspect of these 3 are compromised, then there is a whole scale of outcomes which could occur. 

- At the very simplest end of the scale, the engine may refuse to start or run at all.

- In the middle of the scale the engine may simply not perform well, it may become unreliable, kick out smoke and foul spark plugs, and ultimately you start to lose the confidence to go out and enjoy it. 

(losing confidence in a car is perhaps the #1 reason why people call and book their car in with me for tuning!!)

- The worst case scenario is potential damage to the engine and/or risk to you and/or others if the vehicle fails whilst on the road.

On perhaps 75% of cars that I tune, I initially find that the ignition timing is a country mile away from what it should be.  The worst documented case that I have encountered were an MGB and MGBGT for the same owner, on the same day.  In both cases their ignition timing was in the region of 30 deg over advanced from where they should be.  So I asked myself how long would it be before the engine suffered major failure? When and where would the failure have occurred?   I dread to think.........   

3)  Sometimes its really obvious that a car needs tuning!!

Below is an example of a 1960's Volvo P1800, however it is equally applicable to any classic car.  When your engine starts to shake like pic 2, or sound like pic 1.   Please don't just think that it's normal because it's an old car....it isn't normal!!  One or more things are clearly out of tune and need rectifying before they foul, break or damage other components.  Get it sorted ASAP!!

Now compare with the below 2 videos to the above video.  Once the ignition timing was set, the carburation cleaned and tune, plus a few small issues resolved.....the before and after videos go on to show a 'night and day' type of contrast and difference. 

4)  Look after the engine just as well as you look after the body work

I spend many of my weekends attending classic car shows, gatherings and events in the North of England.  As well as supporting the various charities which receive funding from the event, I of course have the opportunity to wonder round and speak with classic car owners.  The time, effort energy and attention to detail which they put into presenting their cars is quite astonishing really.  Every nut and bolt gleaming and polished, every square inch of the paintwork cleaned, waxed and top coat finish waxed.

'A good doctors checks your pulse, your blood pressure and many other internal factors too!'

The one part which amazes me is that when I talk to them and ask about the engine, ignition timing or carburation it clearly doesn't receive anything like the same level of care and attention that the body work or interior does.  Quite often I hear that they don't touch anything, because it starts, stops and seems to run ok....so I leave it be.  I'm biased on the topic, but my foundation for holding such a bias is because cars were by inherent design made to be driven.  It means that all aspects which make them safe, reliable and able to be driven need checking regularly too. Not just polished regularly to look nice at shows. 

I've never known a car fail to start because it hadn't been polished!!   But I've known many fail to start or break down on a journey because they had a poor electrical earth, fouled carb, ignition timing completely out, wrong coil etc etc.