In the past I have hand-cranked my petrol engine quite easily, but now I have LPG / Petrol, I'm not sure how to do it? Is it possible with LPG, or do I have to keep some petrol in reserve? I think I wont be able to get any gas into the system because of the electric cut-off. If so, should I flick the switch to petrol before I try to crank, or will this make it more likely to flood?
John London, UK
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1980 Land Rover Series 111 109 Station Wagon + Dormobile mod cons
I guess it depends. As an example I have the electric cutoff via an inductance sensor on the HT lead. As a consequence hand cranking wouldn't really work. There's also an issue to do with carbed engines in that you may find constant running on LPG will dry out the carbs (there's no inherent lubricant in LPG). It's probably a good idea to start and end long journeys on petrol to keep some in the carbs to prevent this. It will also mean that you'll have enough petrol to crank it should you need to.
Martyn
On or around Sun, 14 Dec 2003 16:03:15 +0000, Mother enlightened us thusly:
most LPG systems will deliver a small amount of gas when you turn on. you may find that if you turn on and off a few times, you can get enough gas into the manifold to fire on.
also, not sure how many pulses it has to count afore it turns on - IME, the gas system clicks "on" as soon as you start cranking, it can only have received a couple of pulses by then.
new(er) engine in mine, being ex-Rangie, has a dog for a crank handle on it... but no handle, and I daresay it lines up with the front chassis member or something.
Hmm. Have you ever tried hand-cranking a V8? I tried it once with my
101, never again. It was bad enough when my 2.6 used to play up, I got massive blisters on my hand attempting to start that one (cold) morning.Alex
On or around Mon, 15 Dec 2003 00:42:34 +0000, Alex enlightened us thusly:
this is a 9.35 compression, too... used to be able to hand-crank the 2¼ quite easily though.
Mines a '76 RR, 8.13 compression, and I've hand cranked it many times over the years. Got it down to a fine art when stone cold, and usually only 1-2 turns. A bit more of a workout when hot, but it has a Holley carb. So long as there was enough battery power to run the electronic ignition it was OK.
PhilD
Thanks Mr Shackles. If I understand correctly, you're suggesting it should open the gas supply when cranked, just as it does petrol? It does seem to click open and the LED level gauge comes on briefly. So I guess I should keep trying that way.
I think my mistake was to fiddle with the switch so I was letting in petrol too, and flooding slightly. Or perhaps it was a different probelm entirely - the one that caused it to die in the first place...
On or around 17 Dec 2003 01:22:14 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@made-interactive.com (John S) enlightened us thusly:
try it on gas mode (note that if you have an auto-change thing it'll have to be forced to start on gas, probably. You should hear 2 clicks about a second or so apart when you turn on. Try cranking it with the bonnet open, see if you can hear the relays click in.
if they do, you're potentially getting gas. My 110 starts (when in proper tune) on about the first turn of the engine, even from stone cold, on LPG (no petrol on it). If the choke has a fast-idle setting (most do) it'd help to pull it slightly (or set a hand-throttel if available, or have an assistant press the throttle a bit) as they typically won't idle stone cold on LPG in my experience.
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