okay so i have a 3.5 v8 from an '85 range rover on stromburgs and early electronic ignition (type with an amplifer pack under the coil).

so it starts first time every time and ticks over once warm nicly. but the engine just isnt as smooth as a v8 should be and hesitates juat as you pull away (doesnt really sound like its running on all eight either)

newish plugs and all have sparks at them, the funny thing is i can pull about 2 or 3 leads off without making any difference but if i put no7 off i can hear a dip in the engine note. i can pull 3 and 5 off together and no change. there are only about three leads that i can pull off and tell the diffence straight away.

somebody did tell me it might have a warn cam but i dont know how you can tell this if it aint running on all eight. compression is spot on what the haynes book of lie says.

check inlet manifold bolts are all tight 9/16 or 14mm socket and for air leaks ,you should really change plugs, leads, rotor arm, cap ,king lead and coil at same time for decent quality parts ,check carbs by removing elbows and looking at piston see if piston rises the same each side and vapour pattern seems the same,cams will often have 1or 2 lobes that wear flat limiting valve opening unfortunately a process of elimination unless you no some one with krpton tuner or such

use genuine ignition parts only not pattern or even lucas but genuine landrover all else are ****e!

magnecore are even better than genuine for leads though. I would put the hesitation down to the igntion timing if you other components are up to scratch.

they do say the rover v8's need a cam after 70k but I dont know if its true, how are your rocker covers, clean or gummed up with black crap? the better the oil/the more often its been changed the less worn the cam will be

Tis true about the cam, I had to do mine last year, it was that bad the lobes were non existant!
Easy way to check is whip the rocker covers off disconect the live to the coil so it won't start and get someone to spin it over on the key. The pushrods/rockers/valves should be moving up and down quite a bit,if they hardly move up and down your cams knackered(probably the back ones)

u might be right about the cam but it should still fire on all cylinders. i want to know why although there is sparks at all 8 why to only a few effect tick over when disconnected. it has the early type amplifer pack under the coil do these give trouble?

can but would be trouble to all cylinders equally.

could be cam not opening the valves enough on those cylinders

If the cam lobes are worn right down the valves won't be opening so the plug will still be firing but the fuel can't get past a closed valve to be ignited. Trust me take 20mins to check the rockers are moving,if they are great,start looking at other posibilitys.it took me ages to find out what was causing mine to missfire, I tried everything plugs points,swapped the dizzy,new dizzy cap,new leads,coil,inlet manifold gasket,did a compression test but all ok and still missing "aaarrrrggggh!!!"
in the end I took the heads off and guess what? No burnt out valves no holes in pistons head gaskets not blown between cylinders, it had me stumped.
It was only when I was building the engine back up that I saw the worn cam when I was turning the engine to get the spilt water out of the bores:doh: :doh: