Interesting.
more and more people are suffering these sorts of woes with their geriatric EFi systems
Yes, that makes sense, more and more Land-Rovers with flapper or hotwire EFI are getting older. Okay, some might say they're not the best systems to begin with, but as things get older they wear out.
He looks after about 200 old discos and various RRC's - there is always one in the workshop needing a new dizzy or ecu or injector or something like that.
Those things you mentioned make sense. Distributors are mechanical and spin around doing their job, they have moving parts so of course they're going to wear out slightly. ECUs may not be mechanical but they do have solder joints. While sitting in a car for ~20 years, vibration, temperature etc may cause bad solder joints, then giving you a dodgy ECU.
Derek's advice now - switch to carbs mate - easy to install - tune and forget - more torque and power as well if you go for an edelbrock 500.
Tune and forget? Okay so you tune it and forget. You've put a new carburettor system on now but look at carburettor systems that are now 20 years old, they're now worn out and need rebuilding or replacing. So what happens in another 20 years time when this system starts going dodgy? Aad don't tell me the Land-Rover will have been scrapped by then, its a Land-Rover remember? We rebuild them and keep them going! (For some strange reason!
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More torque and power? Remember that if someone is going from a broken, temperamental or not correctly setup or even worn out EFI system to a brand new properly tuned carburettor of course the engine is going to run properly.
Early last year he had in a disco 3.9 that was doing about 8 mpg and horrendous emissions - was in for service and MOT - the client was availed of the info about the edelbrock setup and agreed to have it done - parts are about 600 quid - inlet, carb, gaskets, regulator, air cleaner, and it takes about 6 hours to do the swap.
The car was transformed - emissions were really good (Edelbrock are in California so all there stuff is tuned for low-emissions anyway) and the car went like a rocket.
In that case there was definitely something wrong with the injection/ignition system and or they were driving it like they stole it!
Again see above, I'm not surprised it was transformed going from something that isn't working correctly to something that is.
£600? If you want improvements then for a little bit more, some learning, etc then why not fit megasquirt? Not only will that be a far better improvement on the original injection system but you will also not have potential problems with running the car at silly angles like you may do with a carburettor. Oh and with EDIS your 'vunerable' rover v8 is now water proof. Bye bye original injection and ignition system.
But if perhaps 'lecky' things aren't someones special point then just bringing the original EFI system back to its working state will be better & cheaper. Heck, you could even go and buy working flapper/hotwire injection systems a few times over for the price of a carburettor & new manifold. Problem solved and a lot cheaper!
Just a thought based on some very positive experiences - as long as your dizzy,leads and coil are in good order this setup will give you the reliability you are looking for.
Yet another thing that possibly isn't taken care of properly, Rover V8 igntiion system, but thats simple enough and I won't go into it.
Now I didn't want this to come across as antagonist or attack you specifically. I just see a lot of stick given to the Rover V8 injection systems and everyone throws "change it to carbs mate!" instead of being methodical and fixing what is broken.
As for the OP, classic kev has given some great advice. When funds allow, an ECUmate would be a great investment. You can see what is happening while the engine is running, read faults and clear them without having to do it the poor mans way of unplugging the ECU, waiting and putting it back in again.
The test of patience is very true. You do have to stick with it and make sure you use methodical, logical problem solving. If you just change this and that then you will go round in circles and potentially replace things that don't need replacing. Test don't guess! Good luck Steve!