Quagmire

Looks like Chris beat me to it...

My 2.25 90 will do 70 too! The noise isnt that bad after using a series vehicle for 5 years as my daily drive. Its the canvas flapping that makes the loudest noise, unless its wet and then its like a drumskin -no flap. I would put some new fuel in, maybe run some redex through and make sure all the ignition components are up to scratch. I wouldnt fiddle with any timing or anything yet as you say it runs fine when warm. Enjoy!

Thanks for the replies guys- dont know why i hadnt thought of that seeing as you can clearly (well almost) see the hoses from the rocker covers into the carbs....

I fitted an electronic dizzy from ebay to my 2.25 90- made a world of difference, the main benefit as far as i saw it was that once i got it into a nice state of tune i should theoretically not have to change it. I get 21mpg from mine on unleaded. However i do drive 99.99% of the time on motorways and only at 60mph. When i first got the thing it was giving about 17mpg. Thats running BFG AT's, no roofrack or other items that might cause drag fitted (its a rag top).

Quick question- And before anyone says anything i know this should be under military but hey the largest number of v8's has got to be the RaRo forum surely? Anyway... Dads 101 runs really sweet.... until you take the oil filler cap off whilst its running, then it starts to run really rough. :1-picture6: Further investigation showed that there is a vacuum being created, trying to suck air down into rocker cover- see pic of sandwich bag being drawn into filler neck below: With filler blocked by cap/hand/sandwich bag it runs fine. Is this a bad thing? Any ideas on causes? Cheers

When a big end bearing went on my 2.25 the noise was horrendous, became very apparent all of a sudden. Like a loud deep metallic slapping- donk, donk, donk, donk. i stopped straight away and towed it back to my parents place where i found that the end cap bolts on one of them were not a the torque they should be. I was very lucky and got away without breaking anything or damaging the crank. I changed the bearings, retorqued and some 6000 miles later all is good. I was very lucky though.

Les, that looks fantastic- i'm rebuilding a v8 at the moment and would like it to look as good as that how well does the paint hold up to heat, oil etc?

Keep it serviced and keep whatever you can with you at all times to help you get rolling again should an 'average' (i.e not catastrophic) breakdown occur. Thats what i do

Does the problem change at all depending on engine temp? Once it has stopped running on petrol how long before it will start on petrol again? If it were the solenoids i think it would die pretty quickly, how long does it run badly for before it dies? 5 secs, 30 secs, a minute or 2? I would check your fuel pump, make sure it's clicking away, see what it sounds like with the ignition on after it has stopped running. If its in the wheearch and not the tank (like mine) reach under and see how hot it is. My fuel lines visibily stiffen under pressure when the fuel pump is running but the petrol cut-off solenoid is closed (in the lpg running position) can you see this on yours? As for what happens with a dried out card- i have no idea, i have only had lpg for 2 weeks so far! Anyone?

Check fuel pump, but also the two solenoids on the carb itself, are they working ok? I once spent ages trying to figure out why mine wouldnt idle but would run with a bit of pedal- but then realised that i accidentally knocked off the wire to one of them during some tinkering. Does it still run if you keep you foot on the pedal or does it just die no matter what you do? Does it stop dead or hiccup a bit first? Before the issue did you ever run it on petrol at all (you say you have gas) did the carb dry out significantly?

I replaced my hardtop on the series with a ragtop and that saved a whole lot of weight- the glass in the alu roof really adds up! Imagine lifting the roof assembly yourself, and then imagine lifting a ragtop- what essentially is a small tent. My 90 has a ragtop and would bet that if weighed against a similar specced hardtop it would come out lighter...

B-Reg 90 ragtop with its original 2.25 petrol- 22.5mpg on average. I do a 70mile a day commute and so it spends most of its life on the m3 and m25, it'll do 80 at a push but is happier at 70... however my wallet will only survive if i drive a bit slower , and so i stick to 60 and only use warp speed for overtaking. Recently i have been driving at 58ish, and even that makes a difference! Tyres are BFG AT's. No power steering, and have a kenlowe fitted. LPG kit ordered and on its way! 3.5 currently being rebuilt ready to be fitted this summer too

I think cheap oil was what finished off my end cap bearings on my 2.25, although i cannot prove it- that was also about £5 for 5l. My Dad uses the 20w50 Tesco oil in his 101, although this is more like £1.50/l This has run fine for years on the stuff. The idea being use cheaper oil and change it more frequently than more expensive high mileage stuff as the Rv8's are killed off by letting the condition of the oil slip. I too was using this oil in both my 2.25 for years with no issues until the temptation of the above mentioned very cheap oil got me. Last check in the 101 rocker covers it was lovely in there But we have also heard that Valvoline is supposed to be the dogs danglies too. I'm currently rebuilding a v8 (when time and money allow) to fit to my 90, i was going to go the Tesco route for my oil... Each to their own i guess, but there is such a thing as too cheap

I have BFG AT's on my 2.25p 90 and the ride is much better than the Michelins i had on it previously, and the tyre noise is negligible... ...compared to the noise of the canvas at 60-70mph. 60 mostly though, it saves fuel.

I have a 2.25 90 that i use everyday to commute to work, i am also in the process of gathering the parts together and making them ready to convert to v8 later this year. However, i need to be running on lpg to afford the v8, and so i am thinking i may just purchase the kit now, install on my 2.25 and using the money saved i can push the v8 ahead that much quicker I will obviously need a couple of bits later when the v8 goes in. I am currently insured with Equity Red Star through Adrian Flux, i havent spoken to them yet so was just wondering what your insurers have said about lpg conversions? Does it put the premium up much? Do they need any paperwork to certify that it is up to standard? I will likely be getting the kit from Tinley Tech and fitting it myself... Thanks

I'd do as Diff says, you have got to take the rocker cover off to remove the head anyway, and so you might as well have a quick look at the clearances before you proceed. Could save yourself a lot of work!

D'oh!

If you are having trouble getting running when it looks right on the timing marks then maybe your pulley isnt in the right place, i know mine isnt on the series 2! Take the plugs out and turn the engine over until number one is at TDC and compare it to the pulley, ideally the pointer should be dead on 0deg. I just timed mine by ear and then continued tweaking over a couple of weeks until happy. Twist dizzy with engine running (wear thick rubber gloves!) until idle smooths out and picks up speed, keep turning until it the idle peaks at its fastest and then back off a bit. Take it for a drive, see how it feels and listen carefully Pinking= too advanced, burbling= too retarded. You may not notice the pinking until you go up a hill or generally put the engine under load so bear this in mind.

Not meaning to hi-jack your thread but i'm doing this conversion to my 1980's 90 too! Am currently in the process of trying to get a good engine- every one i have bought so far seems to have scoring on the frontmost cylinders of each bank! I'll get a good one eventually...

Oh yeah, check your exhaust as well, if its leaking you'll likely smell it or the car will sound burbly on overrun and sound carp on acceleration with lots of blowing. A leaky exhaust will drop the power you are getting

Jason, I would recommend you post questions about the 2.25 in the series section as well as here- there are a lot more people with them in there (its what i do) Before you go adjusting the tappets you might wanna try a few other things first... Have you done a compression test? This will tell you a lot about the state of the engine. Have you looked at the plugs? The colour will tell you a lot about the state of tune the engine is running in. You want a nice chocolatey brown- grey colour. Black is too rich, and i cant remember what too lean looks like although i think knackered electrodes are a symptom. I'm sure someone can come up with a better description. If the plugs are wet you likely have oil getting in from somewhere, valve stem seals or knackered rings. These would show some smoke however so this goes onto my next question- Do you get any smoke? If so, is it on start up only, or continuously? What colour is it? (my s2 makes a James Bond-esque cloud of smoke on startup esp. when warm due to the stem seals but once its running is totally fine ) Assuming that the compression is ok, the plugs look good, you have no visible smoke and the tappet clearances are ok the best way to get more go is to keep your ignition system in tip top shape and make sure the timing is dead on. As for carburation- my carb is still the original one and is pretty much knackered i think. Saying that though i use mine everyday to get to work and it can easily cruise at 70mph. I choose to drive at 60mph as it saves fuel and i get about 21mpg that way 70 is strictly for overtaking trucks and old ladies Do make sure that you have a nice clean air filter as a dirty one will artificially richen the mixture by restricting airflow. On my 90 i have fitted an electronic dizzy, and a kenlowe fan to cut down on the drag caused by the mech one. This made it much more free-revving. I also regularly check the gap on my plugs. You need to ensure your coil is still doing its job too. Make sure your dizzy cap and rotor are in good nick also, and ensure that your points are not worn, and are setup correctly. A good cheap modification i have on my series2, and had on the 90 before the electronic distributor was a 'transistor assisted ignition' kit. These are sold by maplin in the UK and are produced by a company called Velleman, i'm sure they are sold all over the place. They do require some soldering but nothing tricky. http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?Module...162&doy=4m3 The kit costs about £10 and basically means that your points simply act as a switch, they therefore dont carry an arc and last longer- helping to keep your car in a good state of tune. They make a noticeable difference to the starting of the engine and add a bit to the power If i think of anything else i'll add it later. Hope it all makes sense Jamie

Changed the pressure switch for a new one. Light doesnt come on now at idle (but working OK)

I just rebuilt the head on the 2.25 fitted to my 90- as everyone says its a straightforward task, and the head itself is pretty much bombproof. Take the head off and see what the bores look like- is there any scoring, is there a noticeable lip at the top of the bore etc. How does the bore and the associated valvegear etc for the good (i.e the one with compression) cylinder compare to the others? Having said all this i have just embarked on the journey of rebuilding a rover v8 to fit to mine as the 2.25 just doesnt cut it- and mines a 90! good luck

Thanks for the replies guys, will try a new sender and see what happens! It is only Tesco cheap oil, but i have used it for years in my s2 with no problems so far.

Ok, so my oil pressure light has started coming on when the engine is warm and at idle. I drive 33miles to work each day and it usually comes on for the first time in a journey when i stop at the first roundabout at the end of the motorway slip road one mile from my destination. The tiniest touch of the throttle is enough to make the light go out. Because of this it was decided to lash up a pressure gauge and see what the situation is. During testing the pressure seemed to hover at 40psi when cold at idle, and peaked at around 50-55 psi when about to change gear. As the book figure (i think) is around 45-65 i thought this was on the low side but not as bad as it could be. Remedial work could wait another week... However. When driving home last night (25 miles) i maintained a steady 45-50 psi, but when coming to the first stop of the journey from 70mph, the oil pressure gauge showed the pressure drop to around 10psi!. This only went back up to around 30psi by itself, at which point a light dab of throttle brought it back up to 40ish. The bearing shells were changed recently when #4 big end came loose. At the time the crank was inspected and deemed to be ok. I did inspect the oil pump too, but admit i did not check the pressure relief valve to see if it was working correctly. The engine is running fine, no funny noises, and plenty of power. Any ideas? Oh yeah, am running 20w/50. No oil leaks. Thanks!