I managed to get my Range Rovers's 72 V8 started on the weekend. The vehicle
is undergoing a sort of restoration at the moment, It's still in bits, the
engine has not been run for about six months now. Over the last few weeks
I have been concentrating on the engine. I really wanted to restart it just
to prevent it gumming up. I dropped the sump and checked the bearings which
seemed to be in good condition. I also rebuilt the oil pump with an
overhaul kit. So I spent Saturday getting everything ready. I put new
spark plugs/leads etc on to it. Removed the distributor and reprimed the
oil pump with an electric drill, hopefully this would have also flushed
some ofthe old oil out too. I checked the compression on some ofthe
cylinders and found most of them at around 60-70 psi. Now I understand
this is a Low compression engine, but I think 70 psi is a bit low. I am
hoping that once the engine is at running temp again the compression figures
will improve....
Put the distributor back on with the same rotor alignment.
Then with fingers crossed I tried to fire it up. After 20 mins of cranking
all I could get out of it was a few backfires. The back fires lead me to
think that the ignition timing was way out. I vaguely remembered turning
the engine over whilst the distrbutor was out. Doh....
So I needed to do a rough static timing on it, I did this by loosening #1
plug and cranking the engine whilst watching the rotor. I could see when
the hissing just stopped, and thus the #1 pistion had approx just passed
TDC. So removed the distributor and realigned it. Tried to start again,
and it burst into life, or atleast it was firing on some of the cylinders.
I did manage to get it running again, but not on all 8, it seems to be
running on 4-6 cylinders. Unfortunately the carbies seem to have developed
severe petrol leaks, this meant I could only run on LPG. I guess it
could be LPG mixtures are way out but I suspect a deeper internal problems.
The RH cylinder bank was making a loud mechanical tapping sound, I reckon
there may be a stuffed valve or two in there.
Kinda dissapointing, as it now looks like my partial restoration is going to
take a lot longer and cost a lot more. I have pretty much decided to buy
a good second hand SD1 motor when one becomes avaialable, and continue my
restoration on the body until then.
Regards
Stuart
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