Diagnosing 3.9 Engine Problems - Where to Start

I've read that in other posts as well, but the stealers want £300, about half of what I paid for Rover.

I'm a mod on a VW forum and there's a few members there who have bought from this company, and none have a bad word to say.

If I do have problems I'll certainly report back so that others can be wiser.

That's a bit pricey yeah try other if no good get your money back

why does it need a distributor?

all the parts in there are replaceable, and theres very little to go wrong otherwise.

ignition amp, cap and rotor, reluctor, pick up, balance weights - all replaceable.

there's nout left apart from bearings which can be specced up anyway.

otherwise, try to get a second hand, avoid buying new copies.

cheers

Mr Noisy said:

why does it need a distributor?

all the parts in there are replaceable, and theres very little to go wrong otherwise.

ignition amp, cap and rotor, reluctor, pick up, balance weights - all replaceable.

there's nout left apart from bearings which can be specced up anyway.

otherwise, try to get a second hand, avoid buying new copies.

cheers

Click to expand...

I agree, good used gen are yer best bet ,I have had two off ebay for under £30

you can recon the dissy i do this quite often what is the fault with the dissy?

I've ended up ordering the recon part, after Rover cut out last night without warning, right in the entrance to the supermarket and wouldn't re-start. Absolute chaos!!, stuck for an hour.
RAC got it going on about 4 pots and followed me home.

All the garage told me was that the dizzy was breaking down inside, and they had advanced the timing a fair bit to get it to run. No doubt they could have repaired it but at £50 per hour....

I did look at rebuilding myself but without knowing which part or parts were failing I decided against it. To buy an amp, baseplate and seals was £45+vat with no guarantee of a reliable fix.

I'm not one to spend money unless I have to, but this business of cutting out is a real pain.

let us know how long it lasts

Don't throw away the old one!!

Its exchange mate, £25+vat deposit paid.
If you'd like it at that price its yours, I'll work out postage at cost if interested.
Sort of plan to keep it for a while just in case, but I don't normally sell stuff unless I know its Ok.

Good news I guess is that everything else, ecu etc checked out ok, so with 40k since an engine re-build @ £3500 I might have a reliable motor.

Don't plan to do high mileage, just need reliability over the winter and for the odd recovery/delivery.

hang onto it for a while mate just in case id say, cheers!

Well guys, fitted the new dizzy, cleaned the plugs and fired up first turn of the key.
Having to experiment with the timing cos I don't know what it should be, Haynes manual only covers upto 92.

The electrical connections were different to the original dizzy, so will solder in new connections and keep the original connection just in case.

So far so good apart from a burst water hose, AA **** wrapped it in tape instead of replacing it, lasted 5 miles then burst big style. Waited 90mins for him to turn up, and then 2 hours for recovery.

Replaced the hose and any others which looked dodgy, keeping fingers crossed that no major damage has been done.

which hose was it?

Small diameter one about a foot long, connects behind the thermostat and then turns through 90 deg towards the bulkhead.
Don't know how else to describe it.

heater hose if goes through bulkhead. my matrix burst the other day - it was running out the doors lol :doh:

Not a heater hose mate, replaced those too.
Internal bore is only about 8-10mm, don't know what it is.

Well folks, dizzy is still working fine so far.
Had the front shocks and a trailing link replaced for the mot (£125 inc parts), only to have Rover fail on emissions.

£35 and a very interesting couple of hours later all the sensors had been tested and the problem diagnosed as a knackered fuel pressure regulator.

The ecu had reduced the injector timing to 2.5m/s but couldn't go any further.

On gas though Rover should have passed, CO 0.2, HC 200, way too lean but good enough for the mot. A quick re-test and yippee, its an old system and maybe it didn't switch over.

This brings me to the latest problems, I need a new fuel pressure regulator and the leads and software to tune the lpg system. It's a landi-renzo kit and they went bust around 5 years ago.

Does anyone have any ideas how to obtain these please at a sensible cost.
At the moment I'm looking for serial no's, dates etc which might help.

Cheers

Andy

P.S. Happy to help anyone else out with the same system, once I've got the kit.

Well folks, bought the leads and software for about 150 different LPG systems including Landi-Renzo. Set about tuning Rover and yippee no more problems.

Just been out for the day with the dogs in the Brecon/Abergavenny area, and done 140 miles for £29.27. That works out at the equivalent of 29mpg.

Is that cool or what for a 3.9ltr V8.