Took it in this morning to have the LPG conversion checked over so they can issue the document my insurance company requires. All OK, except the emissions are all over the place, as it's only running on 7 cylinders. They recommend I get new Magnacore leads, and guess what, Magnacore are out of stock. Fortunately, RPi happen to have some and are going to send them on.
I'd forgotten the joys of running a petrol engine.
Meanwhile, my air compressor seems to be running quite a bit, so I have a nasty suspicion there's an air leak there somewhere as well. The joys.
When I ordered my Magnecors from RPI they arrived next day, well packaged and neatly numbered.
What makes them suspect the leads? This will be a GEMS engine I suppose, so thinking about it the usual cap / rotor arm stuff won't apply. What else goes wrong in the GEMS setup? Is it just coil pack, ECU and leads, or is there some other gubbins to go wrong?
Given the cost of a coil pack you'd better pray it's the leads!! :--(
Shouldn't the compressor run all the time? Perhaps mine's buggered too!
Tim Hobbs
'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i
You know, the sad thing is, I don't think I have - I think any similar age/mileage Rangie would be the same or worse. If anything, I'm probably getting away lightly!
Could well be. But given the HT leads are not even all the same type, and LPG is notoriously fussy about leads and plugs, I thought I might as well get the leads sorted for once and for all. I've also bought a new set of plugs, but they're not exactly pricey in comparison. I'm going to be running the vehicle for at least 3 years (in theory) so I don't really begrudge it, it's just that I'd have preferred to have had the hassle of all these things spread out a bit, rather than bunched together.
I'm sure you haven't - tongue was firmly in cheek. I find that leaves lots of room to get my foot in my mouth...
A Land Rover that doesn't run right when you first get it is like a woman who won't sleep with you on the first date. It just wants a bit of under-bonnet foreplay and some serious cash spending on it before the real grunting starts. You spend the first date wishing you'd gone off with her mate, but looking back you know you're glad you didn't...
Tim Hobbs
'58 Series 2 '77 101FC Ambulance '95 Discovery V8i
Little surprised (not really) that Duckworth's did not spot poor running when they had it in. Maybe not though - they only seem to do what you TELL them, they cant find a fault themselves.....
I think if it was leads you'd know because it would be back-firing like a bugger on LPG.
Having said that fitting magnecors with lpg is a good thing anyway but arrange them very carefully coz they will still arc if touching. Are RPi sending you the 8mm or 8.5mm? The later are better IMHO for lpg.
May I also suggest while you have your wallet out you splash out on an RPi A&R Ignition box as well. Wires in easy and advances the ignition as much as you want automatically when the engine switches to gas. Fitting one to my Disco resulted in an average increase from 14mpg to 16mpg and a very noticeable increase in smoothness and mid-range torque. Apparently you can get other makes, but i only know the RPi one so thats the one I recommend.
Chris Perfect does an advance unit (never tried it) and WTV-UK do one - however the WTV one is no good with late model Classic RR so I dunno about this model.
The Magnecores are quite pricey - there is some suggestion on the lpg newsgroup that OEM type leads are just as good - I use 8mm silicon ones and ther're fine - I've found the plug gapping wuite important - I got an immediately noticeable increase in power after regapping.
Exit> I think if it was leads you'd know because it would be Exit> back-firing like a bugger on LPG.
David's car has multi-point LPG injection so I don't know if this is so much of an issue
Exit> May I also suggest while you have your wallet out you splash Exit> out on an RPi A&R Ignition box as well. Wires in easy and
Aren't these only for classics.....
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Andy Cunningham aka AndyC the WB | andy -at- cunningham.me.uk |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |
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- Everything you wanted to know || about the P38A Range Rover but were afraid to ask. |+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+"And everything we want to get/We download from the InternetAll we hear is/Internet Ga-Ga/Cyberspace Goo-goo" -- from "Radio Ga Ga"/"We will rock you"
On or around Fri, 14 Nov 2003 13:10:21 -0000, "David French" enlightened us thusly:
found the Champion triple-silicone ones quite good so far, and about a third of the price of magnecor.
meanwhile, pressure-washed the 110 today, bad move, it then refused to start until I dried out the ignition system. And I didn't even wash under the bonnet!
so next time, it gets washed with the engine hot.
Also got a couple of tuits to make little deflectors (found some ally with a convenient red coating on one side) to go between the end of the wheelarch eyebrow and the mud flap on the front, which should hopefully stop it throwing mud up the sides of the vehicle.
Exit> I think if it was leads you'd know because it would be Exit> back-firing like a bugger on LPG. >>
Exit> How would that compensate for a poor spark?
It wouldn't. But it might affect whether or not poor ignition will cause a backfire. I don't know... I'm speculating.
Exit> May I also suggest while you have your wallet out you splash Exit> out on an RPi A&R Ignition box as well. Wires in easy and >>
Exit> Doesn't matter what vehicle is running lpg, it wants the Exit> ignition advanced much further on gas then petrol. . . . .
The GEMS ECU manages ignition timing to the most advanced setting it can go to (without knocking) to compensate for different fuel quality. I've had mine remapped so it will do it faster and to greater advance but I am NOT running any kind of additional ingition retard/advance. It will even (theoretically) advance and retard the ignition timing differently for each CYLINDER.
If the ignition doesn't happen exactly when GEMS thinks its happening you're going to have one very confused ECU, at best with poor performance and at worst not running or damaging the engine or catalysts.
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Andy Cunningham aka AndyC the WB | andy -at- cunningham.me.uk |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |
formatting link
- Everything you wanted to know || about the P38A Range Rover but were afraid to ask. |+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+"And everything we want to get/We download from the InternetAll we hear is/Internet Ga-Ga/Cyberspace Goo-goo" -- from "Radio Ga Ga"/"We will rock you"
On or around Sat, 15 Nov 2003 20:48:26 +0000 (UTC), Dave White enlightened us thusly:
well yes, we are. But no ignition system is proof against being covered in water - to be fair, it's never done that before, either. The rubberoid end bits on the lead seem a convincing fit on the various things they fit onto - I guess it was just a small amount of water in exactly the wrong place or something. The coil probably needs moving to a more sensible location, rather than just behind the rad - but there's a shortage of places to mount the bugger on the 110, without using an improbably-long lead. Ideally, the V8 needs to go in the other way around, so that the distributor is at the back of the engine, since that too is just behind the rad and adjacnet to the fan. The 2.8 Ford V6 is much better (except when you need to get at the dizzy) in that the distributor is at the back between the 2 banks, and thus pretty invulnerable to splashes.
Not sure which bit was causing the trouble - probably the coil, which had got itself wet. Didn't hurt to lift the dizzy cap and clean inside it though.
The vast majority of HT leads and boots don't insulate to a standard high enough to prevent arcing through the insulation or along the outside of a damp lead. The Magnecor leads do and have resulted in me having to fit a snorkel to the Rangie as the engine will now keep running even when the water is over bonnet (and air intake) level. If I can resolve the problem of steam building up condensation inside the distributor cap then the water resistance will be complete. I have found that it will run quite happily in deep water but after emerging a few times the condensation inside the distributor cap builds to the point where it kills the engine. I am working on this at the moment and my new vehicle will have a fix built in.
It may well be that it had nothing to do with the HT leads, I was simply pointing out the irony of your support for a cheaper HT lead followed by a statement that your engine died at the jet wash :-) Mine has Magnecor leads and has never stopped at the jetwash - even when cleaning the engine. OTOH I may just be fortunate !
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