Austin Shackles wrote:
On or around Wed, 03 Sep 2003 08:58:14 +0100, Dave Wheatley
enlightened us thusly:


Austin has voiced my thoughts about a head gasket, but I was trying to
avoid depressing you too much before you had eliminated other causes.

I didn't expect a simple cheap answer...as I said I've not had the car
long, could explain the eagerness to sell?


4) When the engine is warmed up, but spluttering on LPG, check how
warm the vapouriser is to the touch. It should be on the hot side of
warm.

How far on the hot side of warm?? When I tried it after the 'spluttering
run' it was BLOODY hot!


not unusual for them to be too hot to touch. Mine runs OK like that. If
you take away the supply of coolant (which is actually heating the
vapouriser) it'll freeze in under a minute, especially under load.


5) Whilst you are there, try squeezing one of the radiator hoses. It
should be reasonably firm (the system is pressurised) but still
squeezable. If it feels very tight and hard to squeeze the system may
be over-pressurising (symptom of a blown head gasket).

The top rad hose is extremely hot, as can be expected I guess, but quite
easily squeezable. As are most of the hoses going to the heater and
vapouriser. I did check them although I don't know what I would have
deduced from the result!! I guess I was hoping that the simple answer
was a cooling 'problem' airlock or whatever causing the gas wobbly! as
it's fine on petrol and fine until warmed up.


compression test is worthwhile, picked up a dubious head gasket on me
sister's boyfriend's Range Rover.

If you end up lifting heads, make sure to check that the head's not warped -
not too expense to have it skimmed, unless you've already put it back
together...




I'll get the compression checked then first, see where to go from there.
There are 2 issues I have- spluttering when running gas & the coolant one.
Would the problems caused by a bad gasket be evident on both gas and
petrol though, rather than just the gas. Is the timing/compression etc
more critical when not using petrol thus causing the misfiring?

Dave