Range Rover 3.9 ltr elf in a 90 - not starting

Just because it's new doesnt mean it's not fubar where did you buy it and how much did it cost...still dont understand why replacing suspension parts has led to this problem...

That’s what I was thinking why had it started all this, but now checking it it’s to low? I got it from bearmach? Is that good or bad or what one should of I got? It’s all werid y low fuel pressure is doing this

but today I took the exghust off so half exghust and so much white smoke was coming out and when it turned on I put my hand near the exghust and it would blow out in like second gaps was a bit werid

anything u recommend to do?

Toddy99 said:

anything u recommend to do?

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Think you need someone with V8 experiance and Land Rovers to take a look...you seem to be jumping all over the place trying to fault find...you have to be logical when fault finding so go back to what you did and check you havnt trapped a fuel pipe or disturbed a supply wire to pump etc...

Ok I’ll look at all the wires and pipes on Friday and get back I hope I can find it taken 2 weeks already

cheers

Toddy99 said:

Ok I’ll look at all the wires and pipes on Friday and get back I hope I can find it taken 2 weeks already

cheers

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@Toddy99 This was suggested before you started buying and swapping things willy-nilly

Change one thing at a time, test it after the change, if no change then it's something else. Changing more than one thing at a time and you'll never know what the actual problem is.

From your first post this all started after you lifted the 90 to do springs and shocks:


Do you mean it turned over but wouldn't fire up? You obviously thought fuel problem hence the pump but why? No sound from the pump or fuel to the injectors?

Power as in electrical or revs? Does it turn over but not fire or not turn over at all? You may have said this but I can't be bothered to go back and read it all again.

I have a 3.5 efi in my 90 so am interested in your problem

29psi does sound a bit low, is it definitely an efi high pressure pump? Is the pump earthed properly, all connections good? Hoses tight and not leaking?

What connectors or hoses related to the fuel system could have been disturbed/kinked/snagged when lifting the 90? Wiring and connectors on older vehicles can become brittle and fragile, being stretched to tugged might have disturbed something.

Thats all I can advise you. I don't really believe in coincidences...........you worked on the 90 and now its playing up ergo you did something! Good luck

I’m going to check eveything again I’ve done like 1 weeks of checks before I started to buy a couple of bits

So sometimes it turns on frist time and other times it won’t turn on all day it’s werid then other times it will take 5/6 goes of Turing the key turning it off and turning the key again to start

But what was werid is when I put new plugs in brand new spark plugs it started staight away but ever since been a bit poor or starting it not starting at all like today it started only once

Going to look at all the pipes and put new jubilee clips on as some of the air hoses don’t have jubilee clips on the ends so I’ll do that just so I know it’s got nice new clips as well as I do like new parts on the car to be honest.

I’ll do so looking tomorrow, but I read up about the ignition coil. On mine somone fitted a cheap Chinese one on it and it’s a bit rusty around the outside and bits doesn’t look amazing but when I drove it the other day it got to hot them it died and he said that’s something to do with the coil? And these cheap one might be giving you the right readings but are just bad anyway I looked it up and it’s £17.99 the ingtion coil on it atm when the Bosch one is like 3/4 times the price that alone is ringing alarm bells

would that makw the ingtion coil at fault? I’m going to check the readings tomorrow and Friday and see what I get on it and looks over all fuel lines and wires and bits and give them a clean and stuff

I’ll let you know as you always read them but they never say what the problem was in the end

Toddy99 said:

So sometimes it turns on frist time and other times it won’t turn on all day it’s werid then other times it will take 5/6 goes of Turing the key turning it off and turning the key again to start

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Please explain this more - "sometimes it turns on first time and other times it won't turn on all day....... .....take 5/6 goes of Turing (sic) the key turning it off and turning the key again to start."

Do you mean the starter motor spins the engine and sometimes fires up or the starter doesn't turn i.e silence when turning the key. In other words does it turn over but not fire or does it not turn over at all?

If the former, i.e. turns over but doesn't fire, then it could be the coil or any ignition related connection; is there a condenser? Have you checked for a spark?
Or it's a fuelling problem. Can you hear the fuel pump running? Is petrol getting to the injectors?

If the latter, i.e. doesn't turn over, I'd look at the exciter wire from the ignition to the solenoid, these are a simple small tag and can become loose and are poor contact. Lifting the 90 could have stitched that part of the loom and tugged that connection?

As I said above, if everything was hunky-dory before you lifted the 90 then my guess is something got disturbed during the lift.

So engine turns so that’s good

I get spark I took a spark plug out held it on the top then get a spark I get a orange spark, I read up I should be getting a blue spark? Is that right so I have got a new ingtion coil I’m getting tomorrow and fitting to see if that solves that problem and give me a better spark.

fuel wise I’m getting fuel I put my fuel pressure tester on and getting 30psi I also read up saying u lose 8psi from something as u don’t actually get 38psi so on so on. So that seems right then comapre to what other people are saying

I haven’t checked for fuel in the injectors or cleaned them though? But fuel seems likes it working alright

I get fuel pump running when I do frist turn off key leave in 5 seconds and it turns off I’m guessing as it’s built up pressure then I start the engine and it turns but won’t fire up

I’m got the new coil coming tomorrow as the cheap Chinese viper it’s called on it, is not in best condition so I don’t mind changing that anyway, the next thing I have been looking at and final thing I want to change anyway would be the ingtion amplifier looks old very mmdusty and muddy so that would be next thing to change if it doesn’t work tomorrow then after that go back through eveything again over the whole weekend all connections I might pull out and clean again and see if that does anything

Why are you chasing a non running engine and replacing parts if it was running before you changed suspension parts?..or was it?..dont waste more money buying parts to try and fix a problem you cant solve go to someone who can is my advice...

Ok my last chance is to change the coil tbh and then look through all wires and fuel pipes and bits around the springs

then if that all fails next week all call a landy mechanic to check it out

to be honest the parts needed placing anyway so that doesn’t matter so it’s better to change all the parts I wnated changed when I’m doing it all now

Just remember cheap ebay Rover V8 ignition parts are crap and normally dont work...yours was running before you messed about altering the suspension was it not?...

Yes the one on it atm is cheap that’s what came with it when I bought it, I’m changing it to a Bosch one that’s on sale atm to £60 instead of £90 and read online that was a good one to go for

so I thought I would change it anyway so I’ll see how it goes with that if not more wire chasing again and start over again 3rd time lucky

Toddy99 said:

I get fuel pump running when I do frist turn off key leave in 5 seconds and it turns off I’m guessing as it’s built up pressure then I start the engine and it turns but won’t fire up

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The efi ecu primes the fuel pump for about 3 seconds then switches the fuel pump off until cranking, nothing to do with fuel pressure.

It's good to replace old parts but when you're chasing a problem it still pays to change one thing at a time and monitor the effect of the change before proceeding.
Let's see if a new coil improves things; you said yours gets hot.

If you have a digital multimeter set it to the 200-ohm setting and attach the meter's leads corresponding to the terminal markings, red being positive and black being negative. The normal primary reading for a standard 12V coil is 1.5 to 1.7ohm.

Next measure the resistance of the secondary coil, switch the meter's resistance range to the 20K-ohm setting and attach the negative (black) meter lead to the centre terminal of the coil. The reading here should be 11.00 or better, with 13.5 being about normal. If your coil reads under 11.00, then chances are you're not getting any spark or a very weak one.

Shippers said:

Just remember cheap ebay Rover V8 ignition parts are crap and normally dont work...yours was running before you messed about altering the suspension was it not?...

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What @Shippers said - always use genuine parts - cap, rotor arm, leads - as RV8s are notoriously fussy and will throw a wobbly if the ignition parts aren't spot on; and it all went to pot after you did the suspension...........correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation but it's good place to start investigating!
Good luck

Ok I’ll do the ingtion coil check tomorrow

thank you for the readings I’ll check the old to the new and see if any of them have different readings

cheers

Sounds like you are just guessing. You will not find the problem, understand why or what and then if it is miraculously "fixed" you have not learned anything.
Sorry to sound harsh but you need to STOP. I know you will be mad keen to get it up and running but seriously, you need to have a clear and methodical plan. It could be an ignition problem but sometimes it could be an efi problem. The idle air control valve AKA stepper motor is unlikely to be the issue. If stuck open, it should start but revs will be high. If stuck closed, a touch of throttle when starting should get it to start.
You haven't said what year the engine is? Is it running cats or not?
Understand how the EFI and ignition interact. The EFI needs to see a "run" signal which it gets from the coil negative. If it doesn't get this signal the EFI ecu will not fire the injectors which are earth switched. Irrespective of fuel pressure, the injectors are only switched by the input from the coil because the EFI doesn't have a pressure switch on the fuel system, nor does it have a crank sensor, cam sensor or MAP sensor.
The orange spark isn't good. You need a nice blue spark. First things first, what's your battery like?
Next, ignition parts - are they original? Lucas distributors do not like pattern parts. Buy a Lucas rotor arm and cap and be done with it.
Do a search for "ignition checks" and do them. There are lots of posts about ignition problems, misfires and no ignition. It will be something simple and just throwing parts at it won't help you to properly understand how it all works.
Ignition amplifier is possibly the issue but whatever you do, do not put a "performance" coil on it.
As part of the checks you should do, don't forget to check the pick up in the distributor.
If you don't fancy doing any of that, and you think everything is as it needs to be, then try advancing your ignition timing. Make sure you mark the position of the dizzy before you loosen the clamp and move it. Once you've put some advance in it, try and start it. Sometimes this works and sometimes not.
Once you had a good look at the ignition system including the condition of the connectors and wires come back and let us know what, if anything, you find.

Right I put the new ignition coil Bosch and it started straight up, next thing now is the car says after 2 minutes it goes straight up to the hot on the gauge like works it’s way up? How comes this has started to happen now? It was dripping loads of coolant out of the overflow I did just top it up with new coolant to the middle mark so don’t know why it was doing that?

that was the old coil that was bad and giving orange spark

I have tested what spark colour the Bosch is giving out yet but will do and get back over next few days

I can’t understand why the ingtion coil would just pack up?? Does look rusty

After reading the comments, I could not get the possibility of a faulty coolant temperature sensor out of my head.

Many years ago, I changed a alternator on a 3.9 disco, little did I know at the time but I damaged the plug on top of the coolant temp sensor, which is located right behind the alternator.

Basically that sensor controls the choke.

Essex Mike said:

After reading the comments, I could not get the possibility of a faulty coolant temperature sensor out of my head.

Many years ago, I changed a alternator on a 3.9 disco, little did I know at the time but I damaged the plug on top of the coolant temp sensor, which is located right behind the alternator.

Basically that sensor controls the choke.

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The sensor provides engine coolant information to the ECM. The ECM increases the injector opening time when cold to provide improved driveability, and reduces the opening time as the engine reaches normal operating temperature.
Basically there isnt a choke on a 3.9, or any other EFI engine as far as I know

Be nice if the OP updated with any result.
But as their last activity shows as their June 2021 post I'm not holding my breath!