What's WOT?

Wide open throttle

can you get head gaskets for a 2cv?

yes, Uncle Roy sells copper ones. I'm not a fan, myself: it seems to me that while you've got the head off, it's just as easy to do the job properly and lap the head to barrel joint.

cheers rhythm thief

Well, today I tried out my new strobe, and the timing looks OK. Got a bit parky and dark, so I'll take a bit more time over it tomorrow and test it at high revs too.
One thing I noticed was a load of oil around the base of the pipe from the air filter, on the carburettor and on the outside of the air filter. The clips around the pipe are good and tight - at top and bottom - and the pipe isn't split. There's a puddle of oil in the bottom of the air filter. What's going on?

Smiffy,
a bit too tight around the carburettor intake, unless you like replacing that intake hose more often than's normal.
Citroen used a 'wind up metal strip' originally, which didn't compress the rubber as much as a Jubilee clip can...

A lot of oil inside the air filter box suggests that there's a problem with blowby past the pistons. As I mentioned recently in another thread, it doesn't mean that the breather is faulty, as a breather in good condition will pass a greater volume of crankcase gas towards the air filter box than one which is underperforming.

Oil on the outside of the carburettor and the front of the airbox may be coming out of the front crankshaft seal and being blown backwards by the fan. That's the worst case scenario, others include oil leakage at the connection of the breather pipe to the air filter box.

ken
( p.s. Get the hammer out and give the bracket which holds the choke cable onto the carburettor a tap downwards, to move the choke cable out of contact with the underside of the air filter box.
Another little error by Citroen, which in some instances has caused the choke cable to be severed completely. )

Remember a Strobe is for testing the engine at full advance there is no point in using it to line up the static points. Ok so start the car and point the strobe at the static to see roughly where its at (Smyth602 can confirm this!) static is only really a starting point - literally it lets you start the engine so you can tune it.

too much advance can have the crankcase blowing oil through the filter

Confirmed!

OK.
Well, today's been a great day. I've had a thoroughly absorbing time messing about with the engine.
First, took a look at the plugs. These have been in for 12 months/3,000 miles:
They look alright.
Then I did a compression test:
Gives pretty much the same result on both sides.

So then I set about checking the timing properly (I only faffed at it yesterday). Found that it was 5° out at idle... and the bottom of the air filter had a puddle of oil in it.

I have an Accuspark P8000 strobe. So, if I want to set up my engine correctly what exactly should I do?