Yep, but not in a P38 :)

Well, not something that I did personally. My next project was collected this morning from Halifax and is now sitting in the transport companies yard before being delivered on Sunday.

BrianH wrote:

Of course, it might be something easy to fix and not VSR at all.

That would be fantastic but I’m never that lucky! I found a genuine coil on eBay for a tenner so have bought that and have ordered a set of plugs for it as I’ll need them regardless of it needing valve work or not as I’d not rebuild it with the old plugs anyway.

David.

Well, my next project has been purchased and should arrive shortly. Thanks to Nicola closing the border and telling us we can’t go to England I’m having it delivered via a transport company on Shiply rather then going for it myself.

Originally I was looking for a 5.0 Supercharged L322, in the end I’ve bought a 2007 4.2 Supercharged. It’s got a couple of issues that need sorting but it was at a price that I couldn’t refuse.

The biggest issue is a misfire on one cylinder. Normally I’d think it was a coil (one per cylinder on this engine) or a spark plug, however, for the last 10 years this car has been running on LPG. These engines suffer from valve seat recession when running on LPG. It does have flashlube on it but that prolongs an issue rather then prevents it as far as I’m aware.

So, it’s either going to be a very simple fix or it’s going to involve a lot of stripping down and having the valve seats replaced.

David.

It was done in a weekend thankfully.

Thankfully, when squeezing the carpet and getting your hands wet then licking the tip of your finger, it’s fresh water on the carpet, not coolant.

I’ve just done the heater matrix on my other P38 last weekend, I really don’t want to do another one so soon! Cutting and duct tape aren’t in my vocabulary unfortunately so the dash was removed and refitted with the help of another member.

David.

Bugger!

I noticed my Range Rover was very fogged up the other night. I had a look at the underside of the drivers carpet and it’s soaking wet again. Going to need to have another look at this and see what is going on.

David.

The only person I’d speak to about P38 tuning is Mark Adams at Tornado Systems. I’ve dealt with Mark several times and can only describe him as totally helpful and incredibly knowledgable. He can be difficult to get hold of but he’ll sort you out once you do.

David.

Nah, it was empty long before it got thrown down there! :D

It’s been a heater matrix weekend! A massive thanks to Miah and Gordon for their help with this.

Think it’s fairly safe to say the old matrix was leaking!

The new matrix was installed with minimum problems, however, the pipes just wouldn’t seal on the o-rings when using the vacuum tester on the heater matrix. It turns out someone had been in there before and one of the aluminium pipes was slightly bent. Applying a little heat and bending it back appears to have sorted it. It held a perfect vacuum for 30 minutes and has been filled and run up to pressure before doing 30 miles this evening.

Thankfully it’s over and finished with as that’s a job I’m not in a huge hurry to repeat!

David.

Yea, i was going to put a load of thread lock on it so that it set tight in the hope that it wouldn’t rattle loose and suck through.

Given that it’s not really visible, maybe I should just stop being fussy and use a normal bolt.

David.

Well, the vacuum lines were all tidied up tonight with the extra hole in the manifold blanked. I’m going to order a little grub screw rather then using a bolt with a hex head on it as it’ll be neater.

Other then that, it’s running perfectly on gas and LPG and the changeover is barely noticeable other then when the injectors start rattling.

Heater matrix tomorrow and reconnect the pipes and the car is pretty much finished thankfully.

David.

One more question...

On the Magic 3 Power LPG reducer, does it matter which side is coolant flow and coolant return? I know which is which on the cooling system on the car but don't know if it matters on the reducer. The reducer didn't come with a manual and I can't find anything online.

Thanks,
David.

V8 Developments told me to use a 10w40 oil that has Zinc in it to prolong the life of the camshaft. I’m sure it was Valvolene they recommended.

Excellent :)

In that case, thanks to your advice on the selection of the reducer, this car is now running perfectly on LPG again as well!

Just got the heater matrix to get done at the weekend and she’s finished now.

Thanks again, Simon.

David.

Thanks Simon, I forgot to put .jpg at the end of them so was probably correcting that as you were reading.

So I should be good just to block off that port in the inlet manifold?

David.

Another vote for soaking it in brake cleaner and giving it a gentle prod with a screwdriver whilst shaking it.

David.

Right, I’m just in the process of connecting the LPG to the P38 that had the new engine fitted. I’ve got the wiring all done, rerouted the gas pipe and repositioned the reducer. I’ve run a second gas feed pipe so each set of injectors now has it’s own gas feed. The little vacuum/pressure pipes have got me confused though...

Art was never my strong point so excuse the quality of the drawing below.

As you can see, the pressure switch has 2 ports plus the electrical connection. One of the ports goes to the gas injectors. The other one has a Y in it that connects it to the pressure port on the reducer and to the inlet manifold. All simple enough, no problems there!

My inlet manifold has a gas injector on it on the banana for cylinder 3. You can’t see it in the picture below so I’ve put a red circle around where it is. The reducer was originally on this side of the car and I’m sure that pipe went to the pressure point on the reducer to give the pressure switch a reading.

I’m using the spigot on the front of the inlet manifold to get a pressure/vacuum reading from so I’m thinking I’m just going to put a bolt in the hole in the manifold to blank it. Anyone got any thoughts?

(God I hope this makes sense)

David.

The 5.0's aren't that bad if they've been looked after.

The later engine that's in my XFR with it being a 2014 have got the revised chain guides fitted from new but on the older engines it's just a matter of time before they need doing. I'd possibly give the chains a go myself if I wasn't in a hurry. Other then the chain guides there's not much that goes wrong with the 5.0's. Well, the Supercharger torsion isolator wears but they're easy enough and cheap enough to do myself.

The only reason I'm thinking of one of them over the 4.2 is the 25% increase in power, sharper throttle response, and better economy along with the more modern interior and 6 piston brakes.

David.

We’ve had a 2012 Autobiography in the family since it was new. It’s now covered a total of 23.5k miles lol.

It’s not all about the speed, I just love how much smoother the petrol is. The 4.4 diesel is wonderful but you still get that very front low frequency diesel vibration that you don’t get from a petrol. It’s feint, very feint to the point my wife doesn’t even notice it but when sitting at traffic lights you know it’s idling whereas the XFR is inaudible at idle at the lights and is so smooth you can’t tell it’s running.

There’s not much that’ll touch the XFR for performance either so chasing speed is pointless now I’ve got that. 0-60 in 4.7 seconds which isn’t great but the 50-70 midrange is 1.5 seconds.

With all of the hatred for Diesels these days, I’m not sure I want another one either to be honest. The most reliable engine in the L322 has been the 4.2 Supercharged as the 5.0’s can suffer timing chain tensioner wear but there’s not many decent 4.2’s for sale these days.

David.