Tag Archives: landrover

Dissapointing dyno result – Solved..!

This few days, I can not sleep and eat.. I wish I did not do the Dyno.. :). But that is the beauty of having old car, this problem is actually a lot more interesting than problem in the office, you do not know what is wrong… it just does not work as expected but the good thing is almost everything under our control to solve it…

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Dolly at Dyno machine

So what is wrong then… if you read my previous post, you know that Dolly power is low, and peaked at 3000RPM, which should be around 4500 RPM and  lot higher.  A lot of things can be the cause, I need to check it one by one…

  1. Engine Compression, may be the compression is low and resulting low HP… checked… and the result is 165 psi across all pots. so no problem here.
  2. Fuel supply problem… how can it be..? I just replace the seal… and seems works ok
  3. What about ignition timing..? I checked using strobe and the result is 5 deg, should be no problem…
  4. The suspect  now is the carburetor SU HS6 or electronic Ignition or problem with the timing chain

The fellow land rover forum said that the Electronic Ignition can be faulty, or since I do not know the advance curve of this distributor, it may be not suitable for landrover… to prove this point, I did an exercise… set the ignition timing too advance (deliberately) and drive it full power (stopped when it start knocking), and then retard it a bit and drive it full power again, and so on and so forth until the timing is too retarded  loss power at all RPM). In this exercise, I found that no matter what, I lost power after around 3000 RPM at all ignition timing set up. So the Electronic ignition is no longer suspect.

Now how about carburetor, again little exercise in the morning, I set the jetting from too rich to too lean, again the result is the same.. loss power at around 3000 RPM. and I gave up… I am not bother checking the timing chain, the symptom is not relevant for timing chain. I just use it at low rpm, but back in my mind I always have that question… “what the hell is wrong”  something is fundamentally wrong and we can not find out what it is..? even my fellow land rover forum who usually very knowledgeable on this matter can not solve this riddle.

Finally I went to local Land rover garage and discuss it with the garage owner, I show the dyno result… just with one glance he said… ” Fuel supply problem..!”. Can not be… I replaced the seal and clean it… “Fuel supply problem..!” he said again… How can it be..? I challenge him… “FUEL SUPPLY PROBLEM.. ! DAMNED..!” he almost throw the “land rover number one tool” at me.

Ok Ok.. I said… how to solve it…? He then installed an electronic fuel pump after the mechanical lift pump… “this will do” he said. “let me know how it goes…” Why not install it before the mechanical pump..? me questioning his installation… “you fool..! you want the fuel flood your engine and blow you up…?” and it shut me down… :) here is the installation..

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Very true.. this solve the problem… I can feel Dolly is still pulling even after 3000 RPM, very happy, I say thank you to him (and pay of course) and drove home smiling… I do not bother to dyno it again… one because I have to pay, two I am afraid that I will find another problem that keep me awake during the night… may be later, but not now :)

So moral of the story is… don’t dyno even if it is free…. ah ha ha..

One month of using Land Rover Series 3 as daily transport

It is about one month now I am using Land rover series III as my daily transport in Jakarta, that includes going to office, malls, get stuck in traffic jam, trough heavy rain and hot sunny weather… Here are few things on the experience using it daily. On the side note I do have Japs car that I use daily before I have series land rover. Here is the picture of the two.

Land rover and Xtrail
Current and previous daily transport

So lets start: Comfort level: The comfort difference between the two is like day and night… the Japs car is much superior… we all know that… installing Air conditioner in Land rover is a must for city driving, I will not drive land rover series without air condition in Jakarta… it just unbearably hot. I still can tolerate the Non Power Assisted Steering (PAS), but without aircon, I’d rather leave it at home… :) actually even with air conditioning system,  The temperature will not down to human comfort level, it just enough to keep you not sweating. Imagine 31C and you stuck in this kind of traffic jam… :)

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Why I use it for daily transport..?: Because mainstream is boring :), it gives something bit different in day to day work.. something outdoor lifestyle in the indoor job… it is statement that you are a free man without smoking Marlboro :). However it comes with a price,  you have to bring fresh clothes in case you are sweating due to the air con failure or simply the aircon can not cope with the heat outside and you you will burn more gasoline than before

How easy to park it in the office or malls: Lets just say manageable, In the office I can only park in ground floor or underground, never upstairs. In malls, please be careful, some of the malls only allow less than 2.0m car height. if this is the case try to find parking outside the building. here is the picture me parking in mall

How about friends.. what is their comments..?: One thing that we should well aware  is… Although we love land rover series, most of our friends are not… Although their comments mostly very nice.. i.e Cute, WoW, Very nice etc… few friends is actually tried it but that is probably the first and the last time they ever ride a Landy… no matter how nice they say about it…  word of advise: Do not ever try to pick up girl friend with this… I guarantee she will prefer to stay at home.. :).

Have them cleaned: Although Land rover capable of off road and only need car wash once in every year…  Having very clean landy with polished tire is always a good thing, it looks faster and more reliable than actually is.

Last but not least: It does not matter what other think, as long as we enjoy it.. just do it…