What's up with it?

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Can't remember to be honest Which way I turned it. Why? It's definitely 6 degrees btdc.

Not used vac gauge yet. Figured I'd do all the stuff first
 
Been a while, found a leak on the exhaust and patched. Turns out a mate of mines dad used to tune SU carbs on minis so we have run a service kit through them and balanced them up. It didn't make a massive difference. perhaps on throttle response but he did say the jets/needles whatever looked ok and it wasn't far off. We've also checked for air leaks and the like so i think its as good as i can get it. She goes ok now, keeps up with traffic etc, Id just like more power. I have been told even with a better motor it won't fly as the differentials aren't designed to go fast...

So just wanted to thank everyone for all the help and pointers over the months. i don't thing id of got there without it all :))) much love.!
 
Looks like your engine is a bit of mash-up of parts like mine. My engine block is also a 24G suffix B engine (which originally is a 90/110 detoxed engine). But the rest of mine is from a non-detoxed engine so it has less emission control stuff on it. Yours certainly has the RRC air filter as the standard Defender one for a 1989 vehicle has more pipework. If anything your's look more efficient in terms of airflow but may require different needles in the carbs to benefit from it.

It looks like your coil might be mounted quite low do so could be close to the exhaust and getting very hot which won't help. They should be mounted high up on the wing next to the windscreen washer bottle.

What's to the right of the radiator? It looks like it's part of an LPG system which is why I asked.

In tuning an engine the carbs are the last thing to look at. Everything else needs to be right first. I'd recommend a service as a starting points. The spark plugs should be a pale beige colour and yours certainly look black. Plug gap is 0.8mm. A new distributor cap would also be worthwhile and leads as well if your's look old. Go for OEM quality if you can.

While the spark plugs are out, have a look into the cylinder bores to see if there is much carbon build up and whether it is worth taking off the cylinder heads for a deck. Mine was quite bad.

The timing can be set quite a lot more advanced than the 'correct setting' and that does seem to help. Des Hamill’s book of V8 tuning suggests over 12 degrees static advance but I found that a bit much. Easy enough to try different values to see what works for your engine. Check that the timing advances when you rev the engine to make sure the mechanical advance is working. I had to replace my distributor because one of the advance springs had failed and it was generally worn so, even when idling, the timing was moving all over the place. It’s also worth checking that all the cylinders are firing as the engine will still run smoothly on 7 or possibly even 6 cylinders.

Check all the vacuum pipes from the carbs and manifold have a good seal. This includes the pipe to the brake servo and the servo itself (if the brakes work well then these should be OK).

Check the fuel pressure if you can. Low pressure could be down to a worn fuel pump or fuel pipe blockage. The higher ethanol content in petrol nowadays can cause the rubber in old fuel pipes to breakdown which can then block the pipe restricting the amount of fuel getting to the carbs. I definitely had this problem so replaced most of mine but need to replace the remainder. I also put in a new fuel pump because the pressure seemed low at less than 2 psi. That didn’t seem to make any noticeable difference though.

Also check the compression. Mine were all fairly close to 150 psi which I think is a bit low but they’re all within 5% of each other which is good.

The camshaft will start wearing out at 50,000 miles and likely to be knackered by 80,000 miles. If you take off the rocker covers you can just about see down to the cam with and with a torch you may be able to see whether the lobes look worn or not. But even if it looks OK, it is still likely to be worn at high mileage. You can run the engine with the rocker covers off to make sure all the valves train is operating. When I did this I noticed that one of the inlet valves was barely moving and that was down to a completely worn out tappet. If the inside of the rockers covers and the valve gear are covered in black sludge then that would suggest that the engine is very worn and hasn’t been looked after. The RPI website has some good pictures showing what it should be like.

Finally make sure all the crankcase breather pipes and oil traps are clear. The carbs will have been set up originally with some air coming in via this route so if there’s a blockage then it might have a small impact.

When I had fixed all the problems identified from my checks the engine felt as though it had slightly more power but wasn’t as smooth. So my final step was to rebuild the carbs with the proper SU kit and then set them up in accordance with the official Land Rover manual. After this it finally ran smoothly. I’m not sure whether the carbs needed rebuilding but as I was taking them apart anyway to set them up I thought I might as well do the full job.

I now get 17 mpg on a long run, even when towing, and it runs more smoothly and feels more lively. There is still more work to do but it is a lot better.

If you decide to replace parts then I can tell you what I did in terms of the camshaft and cylinder heads.
Hi hi Pete,

You mentioned you have a 24G suffic B engine block. Do you know if the B suffix block is different to an A suffix block? I have an 87 90 V8 24g suffix A though the V5c says it is an H suffix?.

Thanks Robert
 
As far as I know the suffix B indicates engines that had the later front cover with the crank driven oil pump and also composite head gaskets (with matching cylinder heads). The blocks are fundamentally the same and can be interchanged.

I would guess that the H suffix on the V5c is a typing mistake.

There isn't a lot of information about the relevance of the suffix so happy to hear from anyone who know more about it.
 
Thanks Pete,

Interesting the H suffix is also on the Heritage certificate I got from Gaydon, so it is either correct as an H suffix or the error was at the factory

I am assuming an error as the block number is the same in the engine except the suffix (too improbably to have a different engine with virtual the same number)and the date of manufacture of the engine is printed on the top of the engine as March 1987 the same date at the build month of the Land Rover.

Am keen to get the v5 corrected but probably need some evidence that the H suffix is incorrect

Ta

Robert

As far as I know the suffix B indicates engines that had the later front cover with the crank driven oil pump and also composite head gaskets (with matching cylinder heads). The blocks are fundamentally the same and can be interchanged.

I would guess that the H suffix on the V5c is a typing mistake.

There isn't a lot of information about the relevance of the suffix so happy to hear from anyone who know more about it.
k P
 
Hi, first off, as my esteemed Landy officianados are saying, don't give up - chasing these things down is part of the fun of having one.

I had a standard 3.5 low compression, running through an auto gearbox - it was a bit underpowered but not like you are describing.

Before you worry about the big things, suggest the basics - some of these made a big difference to mine;

1, Remove the dead weight of the big old filter box and fit two K&N filers, one each horn - they look great as well
2, Distributor, rotor, and plugs
3, Fuel filter

After these basics were done, the difference was noticeable. Best of luck - keep coming back with updates, we all like to read about it and chime in :)
 
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