The Freezing backfiring rover

[betobenz]

Hello there.
I have a series 2A. It is in good shape with a rebuilt engine in 1999. The carb though is a weber single barrel and is 14 years old I live in New England so it can get cooooooooold in the winter. I've had the car for 14 years. This year though something strange happened 2 times this year that I thought I'd share. Both times the temperature is around 8 degrees or so F. The car starts ok drives ok for around the first 4 miles on back roads. Then I go onto the highway. STill runs good for about 3 miles. NOW THE FUN BEGINS> Under load the car just bucks looses power and backfires. as it slows down I drop a gear and it goes ok until I try to accelorate-the car acts up bad again. I believe my carb is iceing up. I put two cans of drygas in and even drip some on the carb plate and get some in the fuel line. The problem goes away. SO my questions are 1. why hasn't this ever happened before? Also I should note that I use mystery oil with the gas-is that freezing up? I've heard dry gas isn't good for the car-am I doing damage by using it? Has this carb just seen better days
Thanks
PS the Kodiac works great-Thank those hioly Rover gods!

 

[tuko]

Sounds as if the carb is freezing up. Do you have a heat shield on the manifold? Typically, they are discarded, if it's gone, they are easy to make.

You need to get some warm air circulation around the carb.

Some guys ran extentions on their heater hoses, so that it would wrap once around the carb, just to stop the freezing. Some have even welded pipe on the side of the carb body, so that the flow of the coolant would keep the carb body warm. Extreme measures, of course.

Anyways, the heat shield on my series 3 w/weber carb, works fine at - temp..

Cheers,
Tuko.

 

[betobenz]

The Ice Rover

Hello thanks for the reply. I do have a heat shield that goes on the exhaust manifold. Is there some other heat shield that I should have? Also does anyone know if dry gas is bad for Rovers? I've heard it attacks rubber o-rings on some newer diesel Ford trucks. I understand that Land Rover made a carb heater element at one time. How do I get my hands on one of those. Otherwise maybe somehow I might be able to run some copper tube that has the coolant running through it. But i question if the heat transfer would really go from the hot copper tube to the iced up carb. Maybe when it's very cold just make it a habit to put a can or two cans of dry gas in the tank?