Our 90's ill...

Ok, this is an academic question, as I don't know much about cars, let alone enough to fix something, but I'd just like to know what's wrong before I take the Landy to the garage.

So.... I came back home (Greece) and I'm driving my family's 1988 V8 90. The Landy's only done 95000Kms, so around 60000 miles, never been used hard, but it's never been maintained very well either; my father usually takes it to the garage when something's wrong enough to prevent it from driving and that doesn't happen often. I don't have a clue when the air filter/spark plugs/anything else have been changed/looked at for the last time.

Now to the symptoms:

The engine seems to be burning fuel inefficiently, the exhaust fumes sometimes smell like half the fuel hasn't really burnt in the chambers. There's some water-soot mix spat from the exhaust (note that outdoors temps here are still around 15 C, so not very cold) while the engine's warming up and there's black smoke (soot?) coming out if you step on the gas and go from idle to higher revs, like it's been deposited there while on idle and it cleans up after you rev it. It tends to smoke a bit in general lately, but that's the most visible thing to me. Idle seems to be a bit temperamental, sometimes then engine can't stay there and eventually swithces off (even though it's warm).

Now to the "oddest" bit: When the tank tends to empty and the indicator enters the red area, the Landy will start, warm up and then "blurb" and die (while in motion, preferably some place where I am hindering traffic and can't pull over....). Normally, when the petrol indicator enters the red it means I have another 100 miles or more to go and I know there's still some petrol in the tank (splashing sound). It's done it four times now, I step on the gas and it just "blurbs" like it's out of petrol and then won't start again for a couple of minutes. After that couple of minutes it'll start with some difficulty, spit clouds of black smoke while I rev it like mad and work for a while. I never used it more than a minute to find out if it keeps working fine, but I doubt it. I used some "tank cleaning additive" last time I filled up but it didn't do anything that I could notice. Whenever I fill up the problem seems to stop, the car will start without problems and go until the tank goes almost empty again.

So the question is, is there something in my tank (rust, 17 years of accumulated crud) that causes everything, does the engine need looking at, or is it both (that's what I'm guessing)?

The engine doesn't overheat and as far as I can tell it sounds ok, but I'm not sure I could tell if the sound has changed a bit (plus you can only hear the transmission whining in the cabin...).

If anyone actually bothered to read the entirety of this post, sorry about the length and I'd really appreciate any ideas.

Geo

Reply to
Geo
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sludge or water in the tank?

Reply to
Robin

sounds familiar once you have replaced the air filter (always a good idea if its been on for yonks) clean and check the temperature sensor plug they are a poorly made item and will happily make the engine run rich if a bad fit it will give a false reading and convince the ecu the engine is running cold new ones are cheap but a sod to fit (someone remind me ISTR they are blue coloured) Derek

Reply to
Derek

This might be a thick question, but does an old 90 have an actual ECU? I thought that the only complicated piece of electronics in there was the cassette player (and the damn thing doesn't work any more). The gauge shows a normal temp anyway, although I don't know if it uses the same sensor reading or not.

The engine probably does run rich but I thought it might have been the carbs (among any other problems).

Geo

Reply to
Geo

One of my guesses, but I'll have to get a garage to find out. Shouldn't be the only thing though.

Geo

Reply to
Geo

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 17:55:32 +0100, "Geo" scribbled the following nonsense:

Start with a thorough service, i.e. plugs, ht leads, points (iff applicable), condenser, filters (air, oil, fuel), oils etc.

If you are concerned about sludge, ensure the tank is close to empty and then drain it, this will show if there is any sludge or gunk. Before doing this though, ensure you have sufficient fuel in jerry cans to refill the tank with fuel to get to a garage to refuel properly.

Once the service is complete, I would then see if the problem still exists.

If it does, and assuming we are tallking about a carb motor, disconnect the throttle linkage between the carbs, and open each one individually, this will show if a carb is at fault.

I had a very similar problem with my 101 recently, and it turned out to be a carb that had a poorly adjusted float.

Reply to
Simon Isaacs

Good point I thought you were injected ( so you would have to have an ECU ) now I have to look into the Ebook of words and I see many things jeez mystic meg would go crosseyed looking at this . Zenith carbs or SU 's arggh you aren't near Altrincham are you ? SU's are prone to problems with the float chamber varying from clag blocking the jets to the float sinking or the adjuster plate getting out of shape ( odd I did an MGB with HIF SU's and there was no adjuster plate) either of which gives a nice rich mixture -Zeniths the diaphragm splits both can have the choke sticking you need to work out which carb is giving the problems so first check the plugs one side (bank) should be sooty if its carb related btw if anyone needs to borrow the adjuster tool(s) for a zenith I think I still have all 3 types Derek

Reply to
Derek

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