The V8 Owners Forum -

1983 Land Rover 110 V8 running on original carbs (Solex) and single point open loop LPG system. Runs absolutely fine on petrol.

LPG system has been completely reliable for the 3 years since installed - until recently. While it runs fine 99% of the time, twice in the last 3 weeks (and about 1600 miles) it has faltered after switching from petrol to LPG.

It will switch over to LPG fine, but only runs normally for a couple of hundred yards then suffers a radical loss of power and eventually dies - unless I switch to petrol, when it picks up & runs normally. There is no obvious misfire; if it were petrol, I would suspect fuel starvation - but with LPG ... ? Trying to switch to LPG a second time results in immediate power loss.

Ignition system is fine. Plugs, rotor arm and distributor cap were all replaced at last service a month ago; leads (Magnecor blue) are 18 months old; distributor has Aldon electronic conversion module and there is a healthy spark at all plugs.

The only common factor to both times this problem has occured is that both times it has been the day after a long run (Wiltshire to Argyll and Pembrokeshire respectively) towing a boat.

As I said, most of the time, this does not happen; intermittent problems are a s*d. Any ideas ?

Many thanks.

I doubt this would give you an intermittent problem, more of a continuous one, but:

Have you checked the filter on the LPG? Mine gets dirty (with a grey looking dust) every 6 months or so. Last time I changed it out the mixture became quite a bit richer afterward...

How quickly is it dying? Could it be that the LPG switchover gear is losing the signal from the ignition telling it that the engine is running- therefore causing the solenoids to close? Mine will run for 3 seconds (default setting) after losing the signal from ignition before the valves close down.

Or could you be losing any water, preventing the vapouriser from well, vapourising?

I found my vapouriser had a lot of oily gunge in it at one time, which can't have helped.

But it sounds like a problem with one of the fuel shutoff solenoids to me.

Chris.

Thanks for the replies.

LPG filter was changed and vapouriser cleaned out during the service a month ago. No problems with water loss.

The engine running signal sounds worth investigating, though; good idea. It can, however, be much longer than 3 seconds before it dies. Might be a dodgy electrical connection somewhere there ? I'll check.

No problems at all today - typical !

I have had an odd problem where the solenoid on the vapouriser seemed to fail to open properly. I dismantled, cleaned it up, and away we went for a few months.

But it wasn't intermittent, when it played up, it wouldn't run on LPG at all.

Chris.

Wiring all seems to be OK. I'll try cleaning up the solenoids. Problem is still there .... occasionally.