hi there i have just aquired a rossa off ebay ? the engine was out and there was no history with it ,firstly could someone out there help me on the history [how old etc ]the engine number is [bhm 1272e 121322 dd a]and says minifin on the rocker cover.secondly i thought the best thing to do is to put the engine in to see if it run ok,seeing i was told it had been reconditioned ? so i fitted new plugs, points,roto-arm,dissy cap,coil,leads and charged up the battery and tried to start it ,it just backfired,so i sealed all the exhuast and checked all the hoses and tried it again it didnt backfire but didnt start,next i checked the plugs for a good spark seemed to be ok plus i could smell petrol on them, so i checked the timming it was ok ,so then i checked the distributor driveshaft,i set no1 piston to tdc on pointer on comp-stroke and no 4 piston rockers where rockin and checked the marks on fly wheel.there are two settings for the distributor driveshaft one to 1985 and one from 1985 seeing i didnt knowthe age i tried both but still wouldnt start,i was thinking if the cam-shaft and crank-shaft were not lined up right when i set no1 piston at tdc on comp-stroke would no 4 rockers still rock ,or is there any other way to check that the cam-shaft and crank-shaft have been set right without taking the engine out to check .thanks for your time

Welcome to the forum!

That isn't a standard a-series engine number. It would usually start 99H, 10H or 12H if it was. So, yes it sounds reconned.

When at TDC on no1, the rotor arm should point towards the no1 spark plug. Use a screwdriver down the sparkyplug hole to verify TDC

Clean your carb out - it will likely be full of napalm. Use new fuel, and verify you have good flow from the fuel pump.

The backfiring to me sounds like your timing is 180 out

bhm is a factory replacement unit prefix, the e denotes it's a reconditioned service unit, unfortunately i only have Mini engine no's, it could be a Metro no, if so then it would almost certainly be ab A+ unit. The dizzy mounting is real quick way to tell, 1 bolt in the block to hold dizzy is an A+, the earlier type is a clamp around the dizzy.

hi there,overhauled the carb used new fuel and checked for good flow from the pump still no joy how do i check to see if it is 180 deg out

As before, when on firing stroke TDC no.1 cylinder the rotor arm will be pointing towards no1 sparkplug. If 180 out it will be poining the opposite direction.

If it's A+ it should have the electronic ignition distributor, this has a module on the side. In my case the engine had been lying about for a while and I guess the heatsink compound between the module and the distributor had broken down, the module had overheated and failed, it would run ok at tickover but not rev and spit and pop under load. I got a new module off ebay for ten quid and it solved the problem.

Regards,

Allen