Is it certain these are Lancaster bits?

Take-off time was 22:13 hours from Skellingthrope (if it was R5546) and aircraft was shot-down on the long, slow (against headwind), outboard route, so it should be relatively simple to work out if the time is correct.

Where does the crash-time come from; a local witness, or a Luftwaffe combat report?

He is a local who has come across the crash site. He says the aircraft was cleered at the time it crashed. He is not an eye witness but knows an old man who saw it and said the crew were taken as POW, suggests a belly landing? possibly. Although if this was the case I would not expect instruments strewn around the crash site.
He seems pretty specific about the time and aircraft type, I will email him and ask what makes him so certain and is it local time.

Hi Graham, just what I was going to say!
When you open the throttle the BMEP (cylinder pressure) goes up and if you have a weak spark it becomes harder to spark through the denser mixture, but to be honest I would doubt that is the case with both mags. The centrifugal cutouts could be faulty if they are spring-loaded.
If you have not removed the mags then forget the timing base settings (and likewise with the valve timing) as it was running fine for Darren when he had it.
As far as I know there is no ign. timing adjustment on the front of the mag. If yours have two sets of points, one is fixed and the other is moveable in order to ensure they are 150° apart. This is a feature on Simms mags on the Meteor only, Merlins have one set of points.

As it is so different to the Merlin I don`t know much about the fuel system, fuel starvation, possibly along the lines of what Bruce was asking, could be an issue which would cause it to pop and bang as it goes weak.

Flames up the inlet manifold are something which any engine without a flame trap can get.

That e-mail address is not working at the moment, if you e-mail me via this forum I will get it , apologies for that!

Pete

Hello Pete

Your back, tried running her with one mag off then the other acts as it should
slight drop but still missfires like a pig when i try to throttle up. I havent adjusted the mags in any way but I took the cover off and both contacts are opening and closing. Like you said it was running fine with Darren so it cant be timing.
So you think its the plugs and leads? I only have to open the throttle a fraction and it acts up.
I dont think its fuel starvation the plugs were soaked when i took them out and its blowing big flames when it is missfiring, the carb has plenty of juice in it.
I noticed when i took the mag covers off that one of the spikes that go into the HT lead had completely rusted away so there is at least one plug not getting a spark.
Any ideas where i can get a new one from? or even new mags.
I know they can be coverted to electronic ignition but dont have a clue how to go about it?.
Thanks to all really appreciate the interest and helpfull comments.

That’s a good point(s)…..sorry. 😮 Ahhh…points…that takes me back! 🙂

Yes, check the points before you take all the plugs out! 😉 Mind you, two magnetos, at least one should be working OK. :confused:

How are the carbs and mags set up on a Meteor; presumably each magneto fires 12 plugs, six in each bank, but what about the carbs, do they feed one bank each or do all 12 cylinders draw mixture through both?

It’s tricky this duplication of everything; it makes fault finding hard…..are you sure both banks are affected?

The Meteor is set up like the Merlin, both mags drive all twelve cylinders with two sets of plugs, I guess if one mag is faulty its going to cause problems. The carb has two intakes but they also feed all 12 Cylinders, going to take off the mag covers and see how much gap opens up on the points and see if both mags are doing the same thing, one thing I noticed when cleaning the mags the points looked quite thin is this normal? . Looks like there is an advance and retard ajuster on the mags but dont want to play with this i might make it worse. I had a small fire in the carb intakes that suggests backfire to me?

I will also contact the tank experst as advised in the last couple of posts, thanks Gents

check your fuel filters- are they blocked? and all fuel connections for air leaks and also you say you are running on unleaded fuel are you quite sure it can take it? if not it will damage valve seats.

All fuel lines and filters are Ok, unleaded may not be perfect and i may add some additive but when you consider we only run her for 5 minutes at most rarely she should last forever.

Lots of good advise thankyou I think I’ll check and clean the plugs although its a bloody tedious job and the inner ones are a pig to get out, I will also have a look inside the mag covers although i have no idea what gap they should be set at, a good clean cant hurt.

The throttle linkage operates both carbs as does the choke/buterflies both appear to work fine.

It certainly looks from the flames out of the stubbs that its not firing on all cylinders (see video) and maybe a good clean of the plugs and points will sort it out, hope its not something more serious like valve trouble that would be a disaster.

The last meteor I had I replaced all the leads and spark plugs for modern stuff wish I had fitted this one now. I actually saw this one running before i fitted it but the HT leads and plugs are originals and must be at least 40 years old??

The fuel lines are connected through original Merlin/Spitfire fuel filters so they should be the correct diameter, all those are brand new shiny braided jobs.

Both mags operate fine either one can be shut down and she keeps running.
Have emailed Merlin Pete but he must be busy no reply from the Master yet.

Accelerator pump?

Anon.

Expand please 🙂