No, got back but had to go and do some work. Drove to the other side of town, reversed into a parking space, drove back again. Reversed into the drive and it's behaving itself now. After blowing 3 20A fuses in the space of driving it 20 feet backwards, I've now driven almost as far backwards as forwards and everything is fine. Which is a worry as I've no idea what caused it, haven't found anything amiss that could have caused it so have no way of knowing if it is suddenly going to start doing it again. Good job I bought a big box of fuses last time I ordered some stuff from Auto Electric Supplies......

I used to use those, or the 4 wire version anyway, but found they only last about 9 months if you get a good one. The problem with a standalone is that if there is a bit of resistance anywhere, the voltage will be slightly low (as mine was) so the controller will be setting the mixture to aim for 0.5V average. If you're losing 0.1V, ideally it wants to aim for 0.45V so will be setting the mixture permanently slightly rich.

Anyway, got to go to the other side of town now, so I'll see how it behaves itself.......

Had a quick look at the lambda sensor wiring and it's nowhere near the propshaft all neatly clipped away as it should be. Disconnected the lambda sensor wire to the LPG system. Locked the LPG stepper at the default so it would run on LPG but in open loop. So all I've changed is disconnected the one wire. Reversed out of the driveway and fuse didn't blow. Reversed up and down my lane (about 100m) a few times and the fuse didn't blow. Reconnected the lambda sensor wire but this time put a 1k resistor inline (working on the principle that it's only sniffing off the voltage so it wont alter the reading) and removed the default lock so I was running closed loop on LPG again. Tried more reversing up and down the lane, fuse still didn't blow. Went for my dental appointment, parallel parked and the fuse didn't blow.

Tonight I'm going to try measuring the current drawn on the fuse 26 circuit, although all of my 3 meters only read up to 10A, so I'll use the cheapo Maplin one just in case and put a 20A fuse in line. I'll also try tapping off the other lambda sensor as the one I'm currently connected to (RH bank) takes at least a minutes running before it starts to give an output. It'll probably be the same as they were both new when I put the rebuilt engine in a year and a half (and 30,000 miles) ago but it's worth a try.

Didn't try it on petrol as it runs like a dog and throws the fuel trims out by miles. At least one, if not two, of the petrol injectors are clogged so the air that doesn't get mixed with any petrol tells the lambda sensors that it's running very lean. That makes the trims go fully rich and it really does run rough as it's nearly drowning on petrol. I know exactly how they got clogged and have been meaning to sort it out for ages but as all it ever does is start on petrol and immediately change over to LPG, it's one of those jobs that is about as far down the list of things to do as it can get (it comes below renewing the headlining even) I'll get around to it one day. Probably around August when I'm about to set off on a 3,000 mile road trip around Europe.

No slopes in Cambrideshire to see if it does it when rolling in neutral, but I'll try putting it in reverse and holding it on the brake later. I don't think there's enough slack in any of the cables to be touching the propshaft but I'll have a quick look at that too. I've got a standard 0-1V Zirconia lambda sensor in the RH downpipe solely to drive the single point LPG controller. The reason why I was playing was that the system was giving me a lambda sensor failed error. When I drove it I found that it was switching between 0.00 and 0.7 volts rather than 0.1 - 0.9V and then when running at constant speed it would stop working so the system was reporting a constant 0.48V bias from the controller.

So I changed the sensor a couple of weeks back. At that time I was under it looking at the lambda sensor wiring but on the other side to the propshaft. The new one was still showing a low output so went through the earths to get rid of any voltage drop (I was seeing 0.2V on the earth at the sensor with respect to the battery negative). Although I got that voltage drop down, I was still never seeing the full 0.9V when rich that I should see so tried swapping the lambda input to the LPG system over to one of the GEMS 5-0V sensors. Changed it in the LPG software and it all seemed fine. Lambda switching between 1.2 and 4.3V and this matched what the Nanocom said it was doing. Car running fine except for fuse 26 blowing when reversing.

The heater for the lambda sensor takes it's power from the LPG system output so is live when switched to running on gas but the LPG system is taking the ignition switched supply from the petrol injector supply and not the fuse 26 supply so it isn't going to be connected with that. Or at least I don't think it is. But even if it was, why only when reversing? I've got an appointment at the dentist later so a fuse that blows when going backwards is going to make parallel parking an interesting experience.......

Been outside playing with the car this evening, mainly giving the LPG system a tweak. Decided to take it for a quick blast down the road with the laptop on the passenger seat so I could see what the LPG system was doing. It had been idling for a while so was up to temperature and I dropped it into reverse still at idle. Slowly reversed about 2 feet and the engine cut out. Tried to restart it and nothing. Then noticed the check engine light wasn't coming on and the LPG switch wasn't lighting up. Tried the EKA code, no different. Tried the Nanocom and it said everything was fine. Started using a bit of logic and figured that the LPG switch would be getting an ignition switched supply so no check engine light and no starter either could be down to a lack of ignition switched electric somewhere. Fuse 26 was blown. Put in a new 20A fuse, check engine light came on, LPG switch lit up, starter turned and the engine fired up. Into reverse, managed about 10 feet this time and it cut out again. Fuse 26 blown. Another 20A fuse put in, reversed out of the driveway, into drive and set off for test drive (with a box of spare fuses on the passenger seat). Drove about a mile and a half to my local test road (a bit that used to be the southbound carriageway of the A1 but now doesn't go anywhere). Tried it in normal, floored it in Sport and confirmed that the LPG system was working spot on and keeping the mixture correct no matter how much I tried to make it work (foot to the floor in Sport and it didn't change up into top until I hit 85mph!). Got to the end of the road, went to turn round and managed no more than 10 feet in reverse and it cut out again. Fuse 26 had blown.

Now Fuse 26 supplies ignition switched volts to the engine ECU (which would explain the lack of a check engine light), the ignition coils and the lambda sensor heaters. As far as I can see from the diagram, putting it into reverse would have no affect on the current draw on fuse 26. So why the hell does it blow when I put it into reverse and not when It's idling or going forwards? When reversing out of the driveway, I don't even give it any throttle, just let it creep back at idle so it isn't likely to be a torque reaction when reversing causing something to short out, so what the hell is it?

Leaving the manifolds attached is good but if you can't get the heatshields off, you'll have difficulty getting a socket on the lower head bolts. With the heatshields off, it's reasonably easy but getting them off is the hard part, those little bolts can put up quite a fight......

If you wait for Gordon, who runs (or wrote and hosts) this fine forum, he's already done it. Running through the standard stereo, it sounds bloody awesome!

riddlemethis wrote:

Whilst sat outside with the cap off its just blowing out but I probably also dont give it time to overheat as I turn it off straight away.

If there are no combustion gases in the coolant, it's air. If you have a leak near the top of the engine, it will be drawing air in rather than leaking coolant out (especially if the cap is off so there is no pressure in the system), which will cause an airlock which will expand and blow the coolant out.

I bought the 30mm nylon rod a few months ago, I just haven't got round to cutting it up to make the blocks yet. Well, we all know that knowing the problem and having the bits is 99.9% of having done the job. Mind you, my daughter's boyfriend didn't take the same viewpoint when I told him there's no point in changing his slipping clutch now he's bought the parts to repair it......

Insufficient refrigerant. Yours is the later one that takes 1380 grammes compared with the GEMS cars that take 1250. Even 1250 is a lot compared with most cars so unless they've looked it up and put the correct amount in, they probably just bunged the average 850-900 grammes in.

Rain water getting in through the pollen filter housing and being sprayed around by the heater fan? If your heater ducts are anything like mine the foam in the joins has fallen out long ago so only about half the blower output gets as far as the heater box, the rest comes out and blows on the passengers feet (which causes my passenger to complain so I really should get under there with some duct tape). That could explain the whoosing noise and jet of water as it gets blasted through the gaps.

My '93 Classic LSE had 10 spline diffs, or at least it did on the rear axle I don't think I ever took the front apart, even though by '93 it should have had 24 spline. I think at one stage they got whatever was laying around at the time......

But there isn't any coolant or AC pipes in the area of the passenger blower and the AC drains are in the centre, either side of the transmission tunnel and just dribble? You sure that's where it came from?

I'm in Cambridgeshire and we don't do hills here either but at 22m above sea level I think my house is higher than all of Holland!

There's also this http://www.rangerovers.net/forum/7-range-rover-mark-ii-p38/73321-eas-calibration-blocks.html and I've got the nylon rod out in the garage ready to make up a set, never have got round to cutting it up though......

If it doesn't drop with the timer relay removed, then you don't have any leaks in the springs or the valve block. The settling you hear when you get out of it is normal as it levels itself then goes to sleep. The timer relay wakes it up every 5-6 hours and if any corner is lower than the stored height because you are parked somewhere that isn't level, it will drop the others to the same height to keep it levelled. What happens then is that it will settle slightly so the next time it wakes up, it detects that they still don't match so will level them again. Left long enough it will be on the bumpstops.

That isn't the question. Pressure will build up when it is overheating due to thermal expansion, it's when they get hard before it gets hot when you have a problem. If you start the engine and let it idle, do the hoses get rock hard, the coolant is spat out the overflow and then it starts to overheat due to a lack of coolant? If not, there isn't an engine problem.

Overheating is caused by one of two things, a lack of coolant or a lack of flow. When a head gasket leaks, combustion gases get forced into the cooling system. That causes the system to pressurise enough to cause the coolant to be forced out. The gases that are in the cooling system get heated too and expand far more than the coolant would normally which speeds up the rate the coolant is being forced out. The engine then overheats because there isn't enough coolant left to keep it cool. Something like a boat engine that has an unlimited supply of coolant, won't overheat because it'll never run out of coolant. Lack of flow is far simpler, the coolant doesn't circulate so it doesn't pass through the radiator and get cooled by the airflow.

My money is still on a lack of flow.......

Authorised rather than main dealer so I suspect they fitted the cheapest they could find but charged you the price of the genuine article. Unless it still has any labels on it you're going to have a job finding out what it is though. Do the hoses get hard?

Was it Land Rover themselves and how much did they charge for it? If they charged less than £500 for a radiator, then they didn't fit a genuine one. See here http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID009567 for the differences in price.

Rather than pulling the engine apart, I'd be treating it to a new radiator if a thermostat change doesn't do anything. If the bottom hose is cold and the top hose is hot, that shows that you've got no flow between the top and the bottom. As you've already changed the water pump, that should be working so the only thing left is that the water can't flow through the radiator. If you had an engine problem, the hoses would be rock hard from the build up of pressure but both the top and bottom hoses would still get hot.

Knowing the problems with Britpart bits and having experienced a few of them (air springs with only 1 O ring so they never seal properly and when I first bought my Classic it took a good 20 seconds at idle before the oil pressure light went out because the Britpart oil filter fitted to it had no non-return valve so all the oil drained back to the sump when it was left overnight), I've always steered well clear of them since. I do have one Britpart component on my car though that I thought they couldn't get wrong. The bottom part of one of my windscreen washer nozzles had broken off so the pipe was jammed onto what remained. It worked but dripped slightly so I had a permanent puddle on one of my rocker covers. At only a fiver I figured that even Britpart couldn't get something as simple as a washer nozzle wrong. They can. Instead of two nice clean jets of water on my windscreen, I get two sprays that look like they are coming from shower heads that sometimes hit the correct part of the screen.....