Thirsty and sluggish bus - retune 101 please!

[toomanytoys]

If advancing the timing by 2 deg makes it "worse" then its sounds like a timing issue... check the dizzy (and drive gear) is set in the correct position.. at TDC the rotor should align with the mark on the body of the dizzy..

I run my 1.9 DG at 8 deg ish no problems.. the 5 degree is for 91 unleaded which we dont have here...

Maybe the engine has "DF" heads on it?? this will lose performance... (smaller valves and easily identifiable from the inlet ports.. much smaller..

Worth doing a compression test to make sure nothing silly is going on inside..

Has it got hydro lifters?? these should be set to 1/4 - 1/2 turn in from just touching..

[Globbits]

Thanks for the pointers guys - it looks like the problem was a combination of timing and lifters. The engine was quite tappety, so adjusted the lifters back to just touching, then reset the timing to spot-on 5 degrees. The engine's much more responsive now, although I haven't done enough mileage yet to get an idea of fuel-consumptino

Will keep you informed

Richard