Martyuk wrote:

and whack an audience heater core in...

Predictive text strikes again..... Or, rather than spend a fortune on 22mm hose, why not buy a replacement genuine hose that flares out to 22mm at the end and chop off the end 4 inches?

Leak in the exhaust manifold you'd hear and it didn't sound like it had one on the video. You can at least check you've got ignition switched 12V arriving at the sensor connector.

Plonker..... However, what are the other two holes in the underside of the plenum? One near the top in the pic that appears to be countersunk and one next to the throttle cable plate. I'm fairly sure mine doesn't have them.

Even if you'd had it fitted, it's unlikely the installer would have told you how he'd done it. A photo of the heater hoses were they go to the reducer would help.

Only you know how to get the air out as only you know how it is plumbed. Start the engine and let it run, feel the hose to the heater and also the hose to the reducer, they should be at the same temperature. Run the car on gas until it changes from gas to petrol, as soon as it does, open the bonnet and see what temperature the reducer is at then. If it's cold, then you've got air in it. You'll need to slacken the highest hose and bleed the air out.

Check the electrical connections to the solenoids, there will be one on the tank and another by the reducer. Make sure they are tight, not rusted and there aren't any cracks in the insulation. It's not uncommon for the insulation to crack and allow moisture in which will corrode the cable.

If you've swapped the sensors over and the problem stays with bank B then you've got a problem on bank B or in the wiring to the lambda sensor. If you can power it and it doesn't get hot, then that suggests wiring. Might be worth taking the other one out and seeing if that gets hot? I only say that as the heater circuit is provided with ignition switched volts on one side but the other side is grounded via the ECU so maybe it doesn't ground it until the engine is running. You could certainly try plugging the hole in the manifold with a spare lambda sensor and seeing how it runs like that and if the lambda sensor does actually get hot.

That was me persuading another LPG powered P38 away from the dark side. It will changeover to gas when the reducer reaches a temperature that has been preset in the BRC software, it MAY switch back to petrol if the temperature drops below that preset level (some systems do, others don't). If you've got an airlock or poor coolant flow through the reducer, then it will heat up initially and switch to gas. As you drive the liquid Propane will cool things down as it vaporises but normally the coolant will provide enough latent heat that it doesn't matter. If the coolant flow is low due to a restriction or an air lock, then the vaporisation will cool the reducer down too much so it switches back to petrol. Run for another 10 minutes and the reducer heats up again so it goes back to LPG. If you've had an overheating problem so have lost coolant, particularly if the reducer is plumbed in parallel with the heater matrix and mounted fairly high in the engine bay, then it could be full of air.

The other possibility is that one of the solenoids drops out, gas pressure drops and the system switches back to petrol as it thinks you've run out of gas. It might be that you have a poor connection on the feed to a solenoid which heats up with current flow. As it heats up the resistance rises and the solenoid drops out, as the connection cools down, it will pull in again.

Especially if the main power feed to the LPG system is taken directly from the battery (as it should be if installed properly), an intermittent connection, even very momentary, will be enough for the solenoids to drop out.

Does it do it when you boot it or just when driving at constant speed? When it switches back to petrol, open the bonnet and check the reducer temperature, it should be bloody hot. That should narrow down whether it is a pressure problem or a temperature problem.

Not sure why it's staying in open loop until it is fully up to temperature unless it is detecting that there's nothing from the lambda sensor. When it open loop it will be running on a default fuel map so not applying any long or short trim corrections. Once it does go closed loop then it applies corrections that it has stored from the last time it was run. The lambda sensors have built in heaters so they start giving an output as soon as they are up to temperature but will still get up to temperature by being heated by the exhaust gases, the heaters are just there to speed things up. A lot of cars use single and two wire sensors that don't have heaters. Did you ever swap them side to side to see if the problem moves as it certainly sounds like you have a dead sensor there.

It isn't just the Philippines George. I've sent stuff that was urgent by Royal Mail International Priority to France. Tracking has shown it to have arrived in France the following day only for it to sit around for 3 or 4 days before being sent out for delivery. Royal mail quote 2-3 days for delivery but tell you that they can't be held responsible for delays at the other end and everyone knows that nothing is urgent in France. As the Philippines was Spanish ruled for many years, that's probably were it originates from. We all know the Spanish are even more laid back than the French!

But at least they are on their way, all you've got to hope is that they are right this time.......

Martyuk wrote:

I am somewhat hesitant to share a lot of that at the moment, as the last time I shared BECM info that I had spent a lot of time working out an researching - it was supposedly in exchange for some information back my way.. which, you guessed it... never materialised...

Yeah but that was with the Doctor, not nice friendly, reliable, non-US citizens, on here........

Watching it slowed down and counting the pulses, either your flashers aren't showing every pulse or there's odd ones that miss a beat now and then, they aren't completely regular. Unlikely to be a coil as that would give the same symptoms on the other bank. HT leads would be the next place to look, particularly with it idling in the dark and see if there is any arcing anywhere. Or just give it a new set.

Agree totally with Marty on the later Classics. I had a 93 Vogue LSE so it had every option going. That had a wiring loom that probably dated back to the original Classic in the early 70's. As more bits were fitted, more bits were tacked on anywhere they could find space so there are relays and fuses in just about every bit of spare space. Under both front seats, behind the kick panels, behind the dash, you name it, anywhere they could find room to fit them. The P38 is beautifully simple in comparison.

As for longevity, Misubishi produced ECU's for their own cars, Suzuki and Toyota. They used cheap electrolytic capacitors that burst resulting in no sparks. This affected virtually all models from 3 manufacturers from the early 80's up until the mid 90's. I've replaced the caps in a couple of Suzuki ECUs that has bought them back to life after the owner had been told that their only option was a new ECU at £600. That isn't worth it most of the time as that is probably about what the car is worth. I've seen, and nearly bought before having second thoughts, things like Misubishi 3000GTOs that are being sold as non runners with an ignition fault. If the ECU can't be repaired then it's new ECU time, unless the car is an import (as many are), then an EU spec ECU won't fit so the car is scrap.

There's a red light that comes on with high engine temperature so if you really wanted an audible alarm just hang a sounder across the light. CKP is a bit more complicated as without a signal from the CKP the ECU doesn't know the engine is actually turning. I suppose it could be arranged to bring up an indication if there is no signal from the CKP but there is from the cam sensor. There's a world of difference between OBD as mandated in the US to what is needed here. If you read through RAVE there's numerous failures that will light the MIL on a NAS version car that don't on ours (at least on the P38 anyway) but the OBD standard became compulsory in the US from 1996 but not over here until 2000 (or 2003 for a diseasal).

The generic faults such as EAS, ABS and SRS faults are no less what you would find on any other modern car. All require you to take the car to your main dealer to see what the actual problem is. They have to assume that the average owner is incapable of dealing with anything hence the consult your dealer. If the information given was more specific, they could leave themselves wide open to being sued after someone tried to fix a fault themselves when they weren't capable of doing it.

Give it it's due, the BeCM is 20 year old technology and for it's age was very advanced. It's still advanced compared with some current cars (my 2015 model year company Renault doesn't tell me if any of the bulbs are blown or even if the washer reservoir is empty!) but it was a £50k car when new so you'd expect a bit of sophistication. I don't know of any car that will tell you what the fault is rather than just bringing on the Check Engine light. Some will flash it if it is a minor problem and bring it on all the time if more serious but that's about all you are going to get. The only weak point in the electrics is that some of the connectors aren't quite up to the amount of current that is drawn, other than that, it may be complex, but it's pretty well made and, dare I say it, reliable. Try something Italian or French from the same era if you want to know the definition of unreliable.

Loose connection or XYZ switch on it's way out. Ask her if the gear display on the dash goes out.

It may not tell you the type of bulb but it usually does tell you which one. Not sure about indicators but it'll definitely tell you which one if it is a headlight, sidelight, foglight, even a reversing light.

I must admit looking at the pictures I did think that it shouldn't be too difficult for someone with a lathe to turn up some new cones. Looks like you may have a little project in the making Clive......

Just back in after getting it all back together. Found two ball bearings laying on the ground underneath and two more where it was parked after being dropped off the AA transporter last night which I assume is what caused the clank when I wiggled it about to shoot the video this morning. There's a steel shield behind the crank pulley and I suspect what I heard was a ball bearing dropping onto that. You are probably right Clive, the whole thing has tried to walk forwards and the rest of the bearings are somewhere on the M54. There's no sign of leakage from the weep hole so it wasn't leaking for any length of time.

Gasket came off reasonably easily with brake cleaner spray, a Stanley knife blade and fine wet and dry to make sure the surface was clean. Glued the new gasket to the pump with Hylomar, another smear of Hylomar on the gasket and then bolted it on. It's probably taken me as long to refill the cooling system and get the air out than it did to change the pump. Nipped out earlier and went to Nene Overland, as they are local, and got a pump gasket (the one that came with the pump was in two bits where it had been in the bottom of the box with a water pump bouncing around on it) but they didn't have a serpentine belt in stock so I've put the used one I keep in the boot just in case on rather than the one that was on it. Picked up 5 litres of antifreeze too while I was out and put 4 litres or so in and topped up with a couple of litres of water so the concentration should be about right. I'll change the belt in the next couple of days and it'll be job done.