I think my engine's dying....

First thing to check would, I reckon, be the state of the cam and associated followers etc. That's not a mega money proposition (more than you have already spent though). I think they still had pretty soft cams on that vintage of engine.

The weak spark needs investigating though - that has to be an electrical problem though I'm puzzled why you would get a weak spark on only half the cylinders.

What compression figures did they get, and are they consistently low or different from cyl to cyl?

What colour is the oil? Any problems with blue smoke? Coolant pressurising even when cold? Duff gaskets would be likely to produce one or more of the above.

I don't know what 'machine' they used to test the compression though. It's a ten quid handheld gauge usually...

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i

Yup... Morph I feel needs one.

I'm puzzled too... unless the Carbs need balancing if theres bugger all fuel going to one bank then this would probably explain the "half" issue.... may also be a issue with the mixer or set up for the LPG (If only poor on LPG)... How longs it been on LPG? The needles could have gone worn as but would only present a problem on petrol not Gas..

Is it pants on both fuels ? If so I'd get the carbs balanced first off, especially if they have been recently tinkered with.

Could also be sucking air in on an inlet manifold or carb to inlet manifold gasket.

None of the above would explain compression problems...But can you trust the garage concerned?

Lee D

And an after though...are the cylinders it's week on in a particular order if not the same bank... i.e. like in firing order which may point towards issues within the dizzy cap. Like a crack, dust or some other failure.

Lee D

On or around Mon, 24 Nov 2003 22:50:38 +0000 (UTC), "Olly R" enlightened us thusly:

Hello!

No specific problems with an early injection engine, except that you'll need to be sure that you've got all the injection gear, including (non-exhaustive list) airflow meter, possibly fuel pump, any electronic boxes, manifold/plenum/thorttle unit, fuel distributor, injectors, and wiring to put it all together.

setting up on gas is easier than carbs, you just need one big mixer on the inlet, and a backfire protection device to put *downstream* of the AFM. The latter is important.

the 3.5 injection engine, being significantly higher compression than your one, will run better on gas, and give you significant power increase on both fuels.

yep, that was also on my list somehwere

Yes. Spark problem must be electical, although the distributor cap is perfect. Can't understand this either really. Someone else suggested that if the earth strap is bad the spark will be too.

They didn't give me numbers, low on three and lowish on the fourth. Garage A took it to garage B who did the tests for free, and I haven't had a chance to talk to garage B myslef yet.

Oil is fairly black, changed about 3000 miles ago, about time for a change, but it gets regularly topped up ;-) Not really smoky, and coolant behaving itself fine. If I have to have the heads off I'll certainly put new gaskets on.

I'll talk to my proper Land Rover mending garage and see what they reckon. Thanks for listening.

Olly

Yes. It's been LPGed for two or three years now. They cleaned that carbs and said they were fine (I'm aware of carbs drying out with prolonged LPG use) but maybe they do need balancing.

It's OK on gas, bit of backfiring (timing/ignition/mixer setup issue, but I can't really sort that out until it's running better than this!). Absolutely pants on petrol.

Are air leaks tricky to find?

Well, I was recommended them by someone with an old Triumph as people who loved older engines and could coax life out of anything, so I reckon they're OK. Who knows?

Thanks Lee

Olly R

(non-exhaustive

Thanks very much Austin, it looks like this might be a serious option, since the cost of taking apart and rebuilding the existing engine might well end up being quite high. I'll let you know how I get on. Have you mananged to find a new v8 for your 110 yet?

Olly R

Surely something like the earth strap would affect _all_ the cylinders. And be more obvious for the starter motor.

Have a look for signs of anything when running the engine in the dark -- no lights -- because I'd also suspect some bad plug leads as a possibility.

On or around Tue, 25 Nov 2003 11:10:42 +0000 (UTC), "Olly R" enlightened us thusly:

nope. but then, the only thing I've done about it is to ask in here.

I do know where I can probably buy one, but I doubt if it'll be cheap from there, so I thought I'd see if anyone had one spare...

also, there's some chance that people offering engines in here will have some sort of history for it or knowledge about it.

although to be fair, the place I have in mind has a load of engines in his shed, so I assume one could, to a degree, examine 'em and pick and choose.

I did know of a complete Range Rover for 800 notes, but there's a couple of drawbacks to that; principally I don't have 800 notes or anywhere to put it. I realise I could probably sell the remainder for enough to cover the shortfall of money, but the presence of yet another scrap vehicle on the yard would be unacceptable.

ISTR that there's an issue with HT lead routing on these motor's. i.e. if certain ht cables leading to a bank are crossed, you can get firing problems, so that the timing of the spark is wrong, but only on the crossed cables?? Can anyone in here fill in the details/rebutt the idea?

On or around Wed, 26 Nov 2003 17:15:47 -0000, "Agrippa" enlightened us thusly:

depends on the quality of cables. ISTR it's 3 and 5 (middle 2 of the left bank) BICBW.

Just had new plugs and leads, and very tidy they are too, not posh Magnacore or anything, but should be OK (for a while at least) since they're new!

On or around Wed, 26 Nov 2003 21:50:57 -0000, Oliver Rundell enlightened us thusly:

Champion triple silicone ones seem OK on mine.