Click on the word P38. It's Smiler's thread, he's posted it here I think.....

If you want a real black black, there is only one, Rolls Royce Masons Black. The mix is 100% black pigment, nothing else.

This was done in that. 3 coats of base coat followed by 2 coats of clear lacquer. Painting it took about an hour and a half, preparation took 2 months.

I've been to one of the places that do armoured conversions and the main thing they aim for is making the car appear as normal as possible. The thinking being that if it is obviously armoured then an attacker would search out and go for any weak spots rather than just spraying it with bullets (that will bounce off). One reason they like doing conversions on Range Rovers is that the air suspension still keeps the car at a normal height even when they'd added half a tonne of armour in the doors, extra thick glass, etc.

Interesting thread but if it was bad connections from the TPS then that would have been seen immediately if they'd plugged a code reader in that did live data. They do seem to vary, of the 3 I've got one changes down as soon as I hit a slight incline, mine does when I'm towing but when not when not unless I give it a little bit of extra throttle (although there's no telling what mapping was done to the various ECUs when it was supplied to plod), the other one I haven't really driven enough to know. Gearchanges are controlled by the engine load and that is calculated from revs, throttle position and airflow so MAF and TPS are the two that play the biggest part.

Mukiwa wrote:

What really pissed me off was that they didn't tell me because at least I would have known for the future.

That's always my argument for doing everything myself. If it all goes as it should, fine, but if I have to do a bodge I at least know it's been bodged and know what to do when/if it fails. When someone else has done what you think is a proper job, you have no option but to trust that they've done it right.

According to the Nanocom documentation the gearbox ECU fitted to the P38 was only ever fitted to the GEMS P38. Diagnostics are very limited and about all you can do is read and clear fault codes. I suspect that was something that Storey didn't bother with.

I wouldn't put that much in, don't forget that modern petrol starts to go off after about 3 months so you'll end up with a tank full of stale petrol. 5 gallons should be easily enough.

The rails with solenoids are the injectors, each solenoid is an injector. Do they look like this? http://tinleytech.co.uk/shop/lpg-parts/valtek-type-30-4-cyl-injector-rail-with-nozzles/

No matter how low the idle is, then turning off just one injector shouldn't make it stall, it's still got 7 others that are running. However, as your engine batch fires the petrol injectors (it doesn't fire them one at a time but fires all 4 on each bank together) it may be that you aren't turning one injector off but one bank of cylinders. They will run on 4 but only just......

The lambda sensors control the fuelling on petrol and the LPG system just piggy backs off the petrol system. Instead of the pulses from the petrol ECU firing the petrol injectors, it fires into the LPG controller, which adds a fiddle factor (the difference in inj time between petrol and gas) and fires the LPG injectors instead. So if it isn't running right on petrol it never will run right on gas.

Just had a look at his video and screen shots. It does have an item marked GEMS Adaptives under Change Settings, so whether that shows what they currently are or not is anyone's guess, have a look and see or if it only lets you reset them without showing what they were before. I notice that he did get the HEVAC module working which wasn't when he first released it.

super4 wrote:

Well I'm in good hands with Brian and Gilbert - just as a curious boy at back of class - tell me - If fuel is low and I do the 'reset adaptives' with my Storey EAS are you saying that the ECU says to itself 'Fuel low - ignore Adaptive reset' and therefore does not carry out any reset ? I'm sure that is a tricky one for you - expect you know though !

Easy enough for you to check. Read the fuel trims which are very unlikely to be 0%, or the adaptive FMFR and see what they read. Then do a reset and see if they have changed or not. If they haven't, then the reset hasn't happened, if they have, it has.

oilmagnet477 wrote:

You make an interesting point but to be fair, for the DIY'er at least, there is often no choice but to replace parts, therefore turning us in to unwilling 'fitters'. Many parts these days are not serviceable items and even if you can get them apart, finding spares is often tricky.

That's right but to attempt to service a part then you must have worked out what part is at fault. Particularly on something older without OBD connectivity you are down to good old fashioned logical faulting. It is this that is sorely lacking these days. The classic problem is a car that doesn't run right. OBD says the lambda sensor is showing permanently lean. Is this a faulty sensor, an air leak, a clogged fuel filter, a weak fuel pump. There's any number of things that it could be and in the old days you would go through a logical diagnosis process. You'd check for air leaks (spraying carb cleaner on all the intake areas), check flow through the fuel filter, check fuel pressure and flow through the pump and so on. If they all said everything was OK, you'd conclude the sensor is telling lies and change that. That logical approach seems to have been lost these days. With something running a carb, it was even more of a black art. Hardly anyone these days understands what goes on inside a carb and how the slow running jets, progression jets, main jets, accelerator pump, etc all interact with each other but that was second nature to the old school mechanic.

Simon, one thing you have probably missed is that although this is predominately a P38 forum he says he has a Disco 1. Rather than using the Thor engine as in the Disco 2, the Disco 1 used the 14CUX engine with a distributor for ignition as in a Range Rover Classic so will be batch fired anyway.

Sounds like you've got it. Centre the steering box then centre the steering wheel. Once they are centred you can adjust the drag link so the wheels are straight too. You'll probably find that the drag link takes some shifting, when I did mine it involved heat, Plug Gas and a pair of Stilsons with a 6 foot length of scaffold pole slipped over the end before it started to move. My steering wheel is out, or at least the upper steering column is out, as the indicators cancel at a different point depending on whether I'm indicating left or right. Doesn't seem to have done the rotary coupler any harm although mine only deals with the horn and airbag, none of these fancy buttons on the steering wheel for plod.

ECU model will be engraved on the casing with Tartarini on a sticker..AEB supply controllers to numerous manufacturers but with different firmware depending on who's label is on it.

You can check tinj petrol when running on petrol and compare it with tinj petrol when on gas, they should be the same. Then check tinj petrol with tinj gas, tinj gas should be between 1.2 and 1.5x tinj petrol.

If it stalls when turning off just one injector there is something seriously wrong. What you are doing is switching a cylinder from gas to petrol so you'll have 7 on gas and one on petrol if you switch them one at a time. So it shouldn't make any difference in reality unless there is something else wrong. What injectors are fitted and although you say you've cleaned the injector rails, have you done the injectors themselves?

A lot less than an hour. If it isn't finishing it has found something it isn't happy with so isn't going through the full cycle. Which Tartarini system? One of the ones using the AEB2568 controller with different firmware hopefully. Lambdas don't need to be connected, it just means that you can't see the lambda output without having to have a code reader showing live data plugged in at the same time. If you monitor the lambdas you should be able to see why it doesn't complete. What makes you think you need to recalibrate anyway? What have you changed?

Looking at the picture full size, yes, you can still see the marks. Not as pronounced as on mine but very similar. It almost looks like there's impurities in the metal.

Injectors are injectors and the amount of fuel they inject is controlled by the ECU so changing them won't make a jot of difference. Unless of course you are in the USA where everything made there is far superior to anything made elsewhere.

Tornado chips work, see http://www.tornadosystems.com/ but not cheap.

Porting and polishing will give a benefit on any engine although on it's own you'd be unlikely to notice any difference.

Cam changes will make a difference but again, you won't see much of an effect when hauling over 2 tonnes with the aerodynamics of a large shed around. Turners do a Kent cam that seems to work well. I know one car with it fitted and it does feel marginally quicker.

Well over 300 bhp is possible if your pockets are deep enough, see http://www.v8developments.co.uk/products/engines/long_engines/5.4_litre/dominator/index.shtml

Fuel economy depends almost entirely on your right foot.....

Last time I looked at a Thor alternator that had been diagnosed as having a noisy bearing it felt fine while spinning it with my fingers and the howling was actually coming from the idler pulley below it. I'm a little intrigued though. What were you doing under the car when you were changing an alternator that lives on the top?

Problem with any oil leak is that the fan blows back over the engine so where it ends up may be nowhere near where it is coming out. Only place I can think of is the sump gasket.

It often isn't as most real mechanics have long since retired to be replaced with 'technicians', another name for parts fitters. Read a fault code and start changing bits until the fault goes away without really understanding what is happening and why.

Disco 2 has the same discs, pads and, I assume, calipers as the P38. Brakes were fine, except for the shudder under braking from speed, and both calipers were free with pistons pushing back in nicely. Brakes do seem to have slightly more bite now than they did although that might just be me taking more note of how they feel.