Having thought that my timing issues were solved I was to be proven wrong this weekend. My initial road tests after fitting and retiming the DJ4 distributor had indicated that all was fixed. I warmed the engine up prior to setting of to Clophill Village Fete (see Events and June 17th 2006 Clophill Village Fete ) on this extremely warm Saturday morning. I had not gone 1.5 miles before the engine started to run hard with loss of power. I stopped and cleaned the plugs and headed for home again without much improvement. Once home I thought to get to the show I would just put in a new set of plugs as the show was only 5 miles away. While fitting the plugs it occurred to me that, just prior to my first problem of this type I had changed the plugs from Champion L86C to L87YC. Could it be that my problem was actually pre-ignition from the use of a hotter plug as well as the distributor? I put in the only colder plugs I had, L82YC and proceeded to the show.

Now before I recount any particular success or failure I have to add that in addition to the DJ4 distributor and the Plug change I have also done something else.

I had been informed of an engine treatment product called Roil which I have had some difficulty in obtaining but while looking for it I came across another called Xado (www.xado.co.uk ). It makes some very major claims about what it can achieve when added to an engines sump. I, being skeptical, e-mailed the UK distributor with questions, to which they replied and offered a free sample of their Small Engine Treatment product. I shall not go into what the product is or how it works as you may find this information on the web site for yourself. I added the treatment to my sports oil after warming the engine for 15 minutes and then ran it for a further 30 minutes.

Now before I write about the results of this test I must confess that the state of my EA Sports engine has not been good for some time. It burns oil to the extent that if the engine idles for a couple of minutes and I then blip the throttle, the smoke created can create a cloud that travels up the street causing my neighbours to come out of there houses coughing if they have windows open. So I have been aware that I need new rings, if not a rebore for sometime. I also must be clear that the manufacturers do not promise miracles for an engine in this condition.

I have to admit that I did not see any improvement immediately after adding the treatment. However the Austin Seven oil system is rudimentary so I decided to go for a short test drive (3 miles) to see if a higher engine temperature and running under load would help with the treatment process. Also the full treatment is three doses at 120 - 150 mile intervals and so far I have only given one dose and done 20 miles. At the time of writing I do not have a compression tester so what follows is subjective. I tried turning the starting handle (hot and cold) and it does seem to me that compression has improved. Engine noise at speed does seem reduced and looking at the plugs (the L82YC's) the deposits are nolonger oily in nature but are a dry powdery soot which comes away on your finger. Before the deposits were gummy/oily and harder. There is still oil being burnt but the amount of smoke has reduced and does not build up on idle like it did previously.

I shall continue the treatment and I think I will also put some in the AVK Van engine which does not smoke but has some general engine noise.

So the run to Clophill Village Fete proved to be very good. Engine power was good even going up Haynes hill and I reached 50 - 60 MPH effortlessly. Coming back I had a few pops when setting off, probably due to the ignition being slightly over retarded which stopped when the lever was advanced slightly (proper use of the advance/retard lever is still new to me).

To top it all at the show my EA Sports won her first Trophy as she was voted "Drivers Choice" by all the other entrants, so not a bad result after all!