Lagondaforum

Subject: looking for M45 engine information

---

Good afternoon out there
My name is Peter Calvert and I am a volunteer at Brooklands Museum in Surrey England. We have in our charge a 1935 Lagonda M45 LeMans replica. At present we are having trouble with the engine running. It has both magneto and coil ignition systems and at present the coil sytem is playing up. The engine will not run cleanly on coil over about 2000 revs. We intend to replace the usual components ,ie points, condensor,rotor arm but are not sure which distributor this model would have used .Also we think the firing order is 1 3 5 6 4 2 ,is this correct ? On the carburation side we are struggling to get the mixture right . Not knowing anything about its previous history we are wondering if the jet needles are correct . Can anyone advise us on this? Also what should the static timing be and is there a TDC mark ?
kind regards Peter

(moved here as new topic by admin)

Subject: Re: looking for M45 engine information

---

Your request for information comes as a surprise but then again it seems consistent with the lack of contributions to this forum. I just received my Lagonda Club 2012 roster and it lists 145 M45's . I would have thought one of these nearby owners would be involved with helping you with your project. Is the Brooklands Museum a Lagonda Club member? Anyway, the M45 instruction book I bought from the club shows the firing order to be 1-4-2-6-3-5 timing 32 degrees BTD fully advance. Will the engine run well on the mag only? Could it be that it is not working? If so are not the distributor's points opened at the same instant as the mag's?
Let me know if you need any other info from the manual and I will scan and email it to you. My email is <oldmill@kingston.net>

---

Subject: Re: looking for M45 engine information

---

Hi,

Indeed the firing order is 1-4-2-6-3-5
Timing should be a little different in so much as it should be 33 deg on the inlet (mag) side and 31 deg on the Ehaust (coil) side
this way the engine will run a lot smoother.
The engine will and should run up to about 2500 rpm under load on one ignition only, but after this you will feel a significant power loss. severe backfires after 3000. In general it should always be run on both sides at once.
Mixture in general should be a K or KT needle with jet flush. But you always need to play around a little.

I do believe though that the car on display in the museum is actually an early "M" (memory only) and that this has a Rotax distributor fitted.
Feel free to phone here also.
Julian 0032 3354 0552

---

Subject: Re: looking for M45 engine information

---

I would speak to Jeremy Brewster, of Brewster Mudie Ltd, Bromsgrove. He is an ace vintage fettler and has lots of experience with his fathers LG45.
Good Luck , Dave

---