Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all

I'm thinking it's time to swap/ upgrade the old lump!

Has any one got any experience or suggestions please?

Currently I have a 1.9DG water cooled with a 4 speed manual box running on LGP and that expensive stuff E10!!!!

The engine has never run properly even after spending lots of dosh and the gearbox has always been rubbish.

We love the van and have spent loads on the bodywork but unless we can come up with a solution that actually works without costing the earth then it's just gonna have ta go.

So help keep the ol girl goin.


 

UPDATE

I should ave added that I don't want a hot rod just a reliable affordable van!

If you are running LPG then you are lucky. My previous two T25's both had gas conversions. I rarely ever used petrol. So running E10 is not really a worry.

As you are likely getting the equivalent of 32 plus to the gallon using LPG, no other lump will get that economy unless you go diesel.

I suggest you list issues here and the collective wisdom on this forum may return some valid suggestions to remedy the problems.

Thanks for the reply 

The problems are as follows;

Petrol obviously the cost lol

LPG Wonderful stuff when you can get it at a good price and even get it at all! As so many places have stoped selling it.

Woos of the van seriously though.
1,Severe  Lack of power, 

2, continually backfiring and blowing up air inlet plenums ( even the one I bought from you)

3, Gearbox sincere has gone on 2nd 

4 Can't think of 4,5,6 etc at the moment but believe me they exist lol

Maybe the engine is just tired and needs at least a top end rebuild?. I had to swap my 1.9 this week due to really bad emissions as there was some damage to pistons/cylinders 3 and 4.
Maybe timing isn't right? or maybe damaged valves? Hard to say really, I've had rough running on the van from electrical and mechanical issues.

This is tricky to diagnose on a forum.

Possible causes of backfire:
Ignition timing
Mixture
Condensation
Bad leads
Wrong plugs
Electrical fault on ignition circuit
Dirty dissi cap
Burnt valve
Low compression
Carbon build up in combustion chamber
Air leak on induction system
Vacuum leak
Etc etc...

Plenty to go through. That needs a thorough check over by an experienced eye.

Sent from my moto g(30) using Tapatalk

Start with a compression test, perhaps?

Compression test it is then as the first step.

Do they need to be taken hot or cold?

I always assumed you do them cold. But I guess nothing stopping you doing both a cold test and hot.

1, My bet for backfiring is ignition timing, too rich. Easy fix.*

2, Once that’s done followed by a road test, I’d check valve gap clearances. 2 turns once rockers stop tapping.

3, Compression test. You want each cylinder to be within 10% of the other, a nice even spread, over 120psi, full throttle, cold engine, 5 ner ner ners, remove king lead so it doesn’t fire when turning over.

*Timing ‘how to’ in the wiki

Pretty bomb proof these engines. I’d be reluctant to remove it until it’s been through all these tests - and ajsimmo’s list.

Plenty to keep me busy then

Thanks for all the ideas.

Update.

Compression test this morning but that produced some odd results;

From the back RHS as you lookout the engine 5
Front same side 6
LHS back 4
LHS front 8

As you can see my tester is not in psi but barr.

I'm thinking the 8 is nearer what they should be?
Also all three plugs were back except one which was more what I would say was correct.

Any ideas?

Well yeah that would do it. You got really low Compression figures there on 3 our of 4. If I recall I think you want at least over 100 PSI or about 7 Bar.
Rings shot perhaps or valves not seating. Top end rebuild at least I suppose.

I guessed as much

Didn't expect that though as it's done so few miles since the full rebuild. Where would be a good place to go these days?

Well if it hasn't done many miles maybe a good run could bring the comp back up a bit. But if it's always been like that then that probably wont help.

Ajsimmo on here builds Waterboxers, but hes in Isle of arran.

It could be a fair few things but without taking the heads off you wont know for sure whats causing the low compression.