Guys, this is the first message I've posted. Have a peculiar car... and a peculiar problem, and my mechanic's not helping. I own a 1994 Premier 118 NE... it's an Indian-made Fiat 124, but with an A12 Nissan engine... 1180cc, Nissan Engine (118NE). Fitted with a dual-butterfly Mikuni carb that's physically different from the Hitachi, but stock in India.

The car runs rough... doesn't idle.. third cylinder doesn't fire smoothly. Smoothes out at around 1500 rpm though. Checked - the engine is clean - no oil chewing, and the electricals seem to be working ok. Plugs are new, so is distributor point, condensor kit. All HT wires, coil are ok too. Problem is, my crank pulley doesn't have any markings... how do I set timing correctly in this case? Could this be the main suspect? Help!

Hi Param - welcome to the club. It is intriguing to hear of the combination of engineering that you own and drive. How have you isolated that #3 is not running smoothly? Perhaps by pulling off each HT wire and seeing if the engine runs any rougher? If you know for sure that the problem is in that cylinder re-check by switching plugs. Sometimes new plugs can fail or fire intermittently out of the box. Then switch HT leads to check that you don't have a wire breakdown. Then I would move onto the distributor - inspect especially that the HT pick up for #3 is clean of carbon and corrosion. If you still have no joy then pull off #3 HT at the plug end and fire engine checking to see if you get a spark jumping to nearby metal. If all that checks out then it's time to compression check the motor and you may find that #3 is down. Squirt some oil down the plug hole and then retest. If the compression goes higher then you may have a ring problem. If the compression stays down then you may have a burnt valve which is not sealing properly. Other possibilities are a blocked idle circuit in your carb or an irregular camshaft. If you have no marks on your crank pulley then you can set #1 piston to TDC and mark your pulley at 0 degrees. Anyway let us know how your investigation progresses - would love to see a photo of your car's exterior and engine bay!

hi papram, are there many a12 parts available in india, especiallt the dual carby set ups? are they cheap to buy as well.

Hi Teretonga! Thanks a ton... pulled no. 3's Ht lead out, yes, and the engine idles just as before. Valves... just re-did my engine head, ran a compression test on the cylinders - all are fine. Swapped plugs, HT leads too... no change. checked spark on no. 3 lead - yes, I do have a spark coming along strongly. The distributor is fine too... swapped with another car's to check.

But thanks for the help with telling me how to mark the crank pulley to 0 deg!

Suppose there's a prob with the carb then... I notice that the carb return circuit doesn't have any petrol coming out... this is normally the case. But then, have overhauled the carb too... sigh!

Will post pics of the car and engine bay as soon as I can lay my hands on a digicam!

The A12 in my 118NE is just the same as it is in the Datsuns... longitudinally mounted, but rear wheel drive! Cheers!

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Now you really have our attention - I am intrigued as to what gearbox would have been used to achieve this.

Namast

Thanks ddgonzol... yep transmission's F4W56A... four-speeder and smooth like butter! Anyway, did a few things that has really improved my car's performance... reset the tappets, changed the HT coil and leads, reset timing and condensor/point.

Overhauled the carb, rejetted it fresh. The engine works fine now, except for the fact that it tends to die on me for a millisecond when I get on the throttle from idle - just past 800-900 rpm. What do I do to get rid of this gremlin? Ideas, anyone?

By the way, what would it mean to get fuel injection into my car... cost, the work involved, etc. And what will I gain in terms of fuel efficiency/ output? The A12 in Indian spec makes about 50-odd horses. Finally, where does one source parts for this conversion from? Is there an easier, cheaper alternative to get an additional 20-25 horses out from my mill?

50 net horsepower is about what our stock Datsun 1200s have (69 gross flywheel horsepower, 30 rear-wheel horsepower).

I would be surprised if fuel injection gave you more than 10% power increase (5 hp). And will cost from $300 (used Nissan parts) to $2500 (new aftermarket parts). See the Fuel Injection article in our Tech Section for more details.

The easiest way to get 50% more horses is to fit a bigger engine, and 1800cc should do it.

Another way is ported heads and intake, bigger carb (or Fuel injection) and l2" exhaust. More compression, and higher RPM camshaft. This can be expensive.

Fitting a turbo would also do it. Several people have put a turbo on the A12 for cheap.