doign a 2500 mile trip - what to check?

got her back from the carb place, running fine now, no jerking, no pinking etc, and could use full throttle up hills (although around town so not really a fair comparison).

apparently the float /needle valve was stuck, but the carb wasn't full of dirt.

so, no fault identified, seems like the fuel tank is the cause of the issue, needs dropping off, emptying, cleaning out and re-fitting.

so my trip will be via plane, hire car and bloody tent :-(

bah humbug and other stronger expressions that arn't polite.

Sorry I haven't updated this thread for ages.

Didn't go away to Hungary in "Puddle Jumper" (as my wife's named it), but did some work on the fuel system recently and went away to a UK festival with the kids for the bank holiday weekend, so the vans back in favour again :-)

Hopefully I've fixed the fuel system issues, there was dirt in the fuel (symphoned out and back in via 6 filters), some of the fuel hoses near the tank where loose, it had an old disintegrating fuel filter near the tank, replaced it, and had the carb serviced by a carb specialist ).

She now pulls much better, and will hit 65+ motorways downhill, 50 - 55 mph on the flats, 40-45 hills, all in fourth.

But the MPG on a recent 200 mile trip was 13.7 mpg, so ether that improves or I have to consider LPG, don't fancy Hungary next year (2500 miles) with 13mpg :-(, so every MPG and MPH counts!

The other thing is that the fuel tank is tiny, so with such low MPG the journeys take even longer!  Again, LPG might be the answer to this, a 120 litre tank would add to the range somewhat.

Read elsewhere on here about valve leaks, so will get a compression test done, and also thinking about inlet and exhaust manifold gaskets, can't hurt and might reduce the noise a bit too!

MOT is the next item on the agenda, booked for Friday, fingers crossed.

Jamie


Edited by 1day - 06 Sep 10 at 16:55

Glad to hear everything went well!

Interesting to hear about the octane ratings - to me that suggests it's running a tad advanced when on lower octane fuels. (Although that would make it more likely to pink…) Do you know whether the timing is set to the 'book' setting? With older engines, what was optimum when the engine was new may not be the case after years of wear and slightly different fuel composition with modern fuels and I've sometimes had better results when setting the timing up by trial and error.

Hopefully should reduce any performance loss on LPG then, as that needs more ignition advance than petrol - at least at lower rpm. I believe that at higher revs, it requires less advance than petrol, but I'm no expert.

I wouldn't say that most LPG systems need the timing adjusted - they are rarely mentioned on an LPG forum I'm a member of (www.lpgforum.co.uk). I've installed LPG on two V8 Discoveries, the first with an old fashioned single point system and the second with a sequential gas injection system. Neither of them I felt I had to adjust the ignition timing, and on the current one there really is no difference whichever fuel you're running on - you have to look at the switch.

Unfortunately you'll have to use a single point gas system on the LT which will drop the power a little. But, as you say if the timing is optimised for LPG then you can always use an octane booster when on petrol (or just make sure you don't load the engine if on normal fuel). You won't want to use any more petrol than you have to and with a single point system you should be able to change to gas pretty much straight after starting.

I assume you mean Xenon HID headlamps rather than simple Xenon filled filament bulbs? I have the former on my LT and it means I can actually drive at night! Bear in mind that they will be specifically checked on the MOT in the future (I think January onwards) and failed unless there is a levelling system and headlamp washers (as on factory fitted lights). Not a major job to swap back for the MOT though...