Thread: 87 drinking vast quantites of fuel!

I'm considering taking her somewhere to get everything checked out, would probably work out a little cheaper (and quicker) to get it all sorted by someone who knows what they're doing


Any recommendations in the Melbourne area? I'm in Tullamarine and most of the mechanics around here either know nothing about them or are too scared to work on them lol


TIA


Dave

To me it seems to be a simple case of / requirement to remove, check, replace or clean & refit a number of key system components - if only to ensure they are in good working order (even if it doesn't solve your problem, checking them helps you to know what is OK before you find yourself in a position of needing to take it somewhere, then being charged for replacing things that are OK)

fuel pressure regulator, injectors (not leaking= good, crappy spray pattern / leaks = replace / reco) the temp sender units, tps, MAF / flapper and ignition (particularly distributor, HT components and module).

Since I recently rebuilt my distributor and did the module relocation / new coil, my fuel economy has picked up by about 3L/100km. the engine has 333,000km on it and has a little blowby, a couple of noisy rockers and it still has good power and acceleration for it's displacement and vehicle mass.

There are loads of things you can do yourself for very little cost. but for a grossly rich fuelling issue, I would look at leaky injectors and temp senders first of all. even replacing the sender won't hurt. replacing injectors - well that is up to you. If you're keeping the engine, then yes worth it. if not.... grab some from a later model with less KM. or a replacement long engine from someone parting out a D1 or something.

I understand you may want to let someone else root around with it, whether that's because you're short on time, or reached your limits - but theyre not likely to be doing anything different to the factory manual diagnostic processes anyway.... fuel, air, spark, and send you on your merry way, then charge you 500 bucks for the pleasure. Without wanting to sound facetious, You can pretty much do the checking without too much effort. Sometimes though, it's better to let someone else get the grease all over them

If you must take it to someone, then yes, absolutely take it to a reputable specialist LR mechanic. It might be a 2 hour drive, but that's at least 2 hours of labour you probably wouldn't need to be paying for. It might be time you don't have - but I'd argue that the time you 'don't have' is time that costs you money and you want to be wise about spending that money.

in the end, it all adds up and evens out. But if you're going to let someone else near your car, make sure they are widely recommended specialist LR workshop.

I know quite a few Mercedes ones down in Melbourne, but no Land Rover ones. Perhaps there are a few mexicans who can vouch for or recommend a professional?

oh, and get a quote for labour rates...... just in case.

G`day ,

none of your post mention the mechanical condition of your engine .

If you have just overlooked mentioning it do the same with this .

The first step of a tune up is an assessment of mechanical condition , it won`t matter how much you do with all the other things if there is a mechanical flaw .

I`d suggest you start with a compression gauge it can tell you some like rings , valves. gasket ETC and a vacuum gauge it can tell of valve timing , camshaft ETC . All these things affect economy .

Cheers

I have a compression tester, will try that later today if the rain holds off.
Don't have a vacuum gauge though.

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

See my reply to Konradical in his post about his 89 model using a lot of fuel.
Being in Melbourne you should be able to find a high end diagnostic workshop to sort you out.
Good luck - you can get very good fuel economy out of the later 3.9 models and reasonable out of you flapper type.