L28 power or lack thereof

[Micky]

Hi everyone,

I'm a new owner of a 1987 160 MQ Patrol which runs on straight LPG and has 380,000k's on the clock. The engine is very (read extremely) underpowered but the fuel consumption is OK, about 18l/100k's. Compression is good. Mixtures are about right (a little on the rich side). Ignition system is old but works OK. The engine was rebulit a little over 100K ago.

Does anyone have any ideas? Or is there a common problem with the L28 which causes such a drastic loss in power without an increase in fuel consumption? For example does the L28 wear cams down. Or are the 160 L28 Patrol's VERY slow to start with. I read somewhere 0-100 in 16 seconds. Mine's more like 40 seconds.

Other than this little (well not THAT little) problem it's great! Tough, starts and goes, cheap to run (LPG), seats 7 and I'm less likely to be knocked off it than off my motorbike. :-)

Ohh, it also has a 5 speed transmission, is that normal?

TIA.

Mick

[g@z]

Sounds slow. Have you had it serviced lateley? Clean air filter, good plugs for LPG and valves adjusted? Also, try fitting an aftermarket electronic ignition module. I made up the Silicon Chip kit that I bough from Dick Smith, made a little difference to top end performance and revability. Extractors also made a difference to top end. Wish I put them on about 300,000K ago

Regards,
g@z.

[JelmerMQ]

Mine was also slow with the standard carburator. Now I have 2 240Z carbs, 280ZX cam and a Zcar header and it has 142,8 Hp at the crank! On the wheels is only 76,1 Hp left!
But mine pretty fast for an old 4WD!

[g@z]

Sounds about the same as what I'm getting. I got about 56 kilowatts at the wheels, which is damn close to 76 HP, and that was on 32 inch tyres.

I've also got an old auto choke webber off a Ford Falcon. Looses a little in the bottom end. over all not happy with it, but I think it needs some attention from a carby specialist.

Regards,
g@z.

[Micky]

I reckon I've got about as much HP as my old diesel Ferguson tractor. I'll go over it on the weekend and check it out. Trouble is I know very little about LPG except that I can cook snags with it. :-)

I had a thought, maybe the carby isn't opening up all the way. That happened to me a few years back. I bought a cheap Ford coupe with a 351C and it wouldn't "pull a sailor off your wife". The carb wasn't opening up all the way, once fixed it'd shred the rear tyres in the first 2 gears.

Mick

[Micky]

OK. The lack of power is due to a very small LPG mixer being installed by the person who orignially installed the system. The mixer that's on it is more suited to a 1600cc engine, not a 2.8 litre. Hmm, some mechanics are very bodgey.