diagnostics

Right, after all the work i have done on my 2002 1.8 freelander, including a full engine swap as the pistons decided they didnt want to be in the block any longer and much prefered to be all over the M1, I am now having more problems. I am not going to give up! she will run perfectly for more than 6 months!! Well, my current problems are below, it will not be fuel pump, filters etc as it is doing this on both petrol and LPG (LPG slightly better)

• Poor erratic idle, sometimes stalls
• poor fuel economy
• poor accelaration with dead spots which come and go (only on open loop)
• smell of unburnt fuel from the exhaust
• noisy tappety tick over when it does

I can only assume this is a sensor of some kind, but what sensor? I guess it will be the oxygen sensor, however, given that my old engine severly overheated, threw the con rod and sprayed oil everywhere, I want to be sure. I have an OBD cable and various sofwares which work with nearly every car, however, it cannot read the old rover ECU, any ideas? or does anyone know of any software that will deffinately work??

Thanks

I have a feeling that some of these replys will contain something to do with petrol and matches

Lots of questions indeed.

Tappet noise. Is this really timing gear noise or is it "Pinking"? (Normally heard during pull away)

Sounds sensor related (Oxygen or position) OR the timing has slipped a tooth.

Land rover diagnostics are different to the norm so a special diagnostic analyser is needed (or so I understood while looking at the Omitec literature).

its pinking, all timing etc checked and all still lined up to TDC looks like I will have to get a garage with the correct diag equiptment! I dont like paying £70 for them to put it on a computer :-(

i thought i would have no idea of the solution to your problems,but as darmain says it sounds like your out a tooth on the crank belt (if its the same as the diesel).

If your timing belt is aligned correctly then I would start suspecting something like the crank position (and / or cam position) sensor. If this are in anyway inaccurate on its impulses to the ECU then the ignition will advance and/or retard. If its advanced too much then this will mean pinking, poor combustion, poor power, poor MPG, all this things you are experiencing.

For those not in the know a petrol engine fires the compressed air/fuel mixture just before the piston reaches the top of its travel, know as Top Dead Centre. This allows for the time for the expansion of the explosion, which should occur just after Top Dead Centre. Pinking, or pre-ignition, is where the spark occurs too early so that the full power of the explosion occurs at Top Dead Centre or maybe even before it if things are really off. This causes a sound that sounds almost like "pink, pink, pink". Its not good news and it doesn't do the bottom end bearings any good either. Most modern engines are fitted with a transducer to litterally listen for the ultrasonic sounds of pre-ignition. The ECU will then retard (delay) the ignition spark a tad until the pinking ceases. Not sure the K series has this though.

If the old motor chucked its guts the chance is the the lambda sensor has been corrupted by coolant etc going down the exhaust or so I'm led to belive
and may be causing over rich fueling
has the engine management light come on at all?
Have you tried swopping the coil packs ?mine was running rough, missing and a bit flat.
Tried plugs LPG likes a big fat spark-- Brisk Silver are good specialy for LPG see them on e-bay .
I have the same problem with the code reader at local garage-couldn't find anything wrong but the engine light was still on I think a trip to LPG installer to check the mixture is in order.