Outer Limits 4x4 Board

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

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.

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!

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.

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

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.