Has my 214 kettle blown its Head Gasket

[gadgetgricey]

My 214 has just passed its MOT and was running fine, until earlier today.

On the way to get some LPG and it suddenly started missing. No warnings just would not rev over 2K

 

No mayo. No loss of water.

Just been up and changed the spark plugs and its still doing it.

 

On the flat its fine, but on a hill it starts missing.

 

Any suggestions.

 

Thanks

[EssDeeWon]

No mayo and no loss of water, I would suggest not.

 

Is it overheating??

 

Not every issue on a Rover stems from the headgasket, despite some reports.

[Pillock]

HT Leads? Coil? Distributor?

Sounds a bit like a spark is struggling rather than HGF, nothing there is really a symptom of that.

[vulgalour]

LPG 1400cc.  That's some mega mingebaggery there!

 

blocked catalytic converter (if it has one) or fuel filter can cause problems.  It could also be electrical or timing related.  If you're not consuming water or mixing fluids then it's less likely to have done the head I'd've thought but it could have gone compression to compression.  To rule out the head get it compression tested and find out what's coming out the exhaust.

 

I've heard LPG can cause misfiring issues if you use it exclusively, as opposed to starting on petrol and switching the LPG once running but I wouldn't know what that is, just something I've been made aware of.

[forddeliveryboy]

LPG needs a better spark than petrol, cheap leads don't help. It does eventually burn or wear valves prematurely, worse on some engines than others.

[Sigmund Fraud]

HT Leads? Coil? Distributor?

Sounds a bit like a spark is struggling rather than HGF, nothing there is really a symptom of that.

 

^ WHS. Just go through the usual ignition system checks, starting with the distributor.

[Junkman]

Well, before anything else, I'd run it on petrol and see whether it does the same.

[gadgetgricey]

Did the spark plugs in the street where I left it.

Managed to get it home, so will start with distributor and HT leads as the next.

 

Its a multi point injection and does start on petrol then swap to LPG. I'd run out of LPG, so wondered if it did not like running on petrol. However its now got a full tank and the issues as above remain.

 

Cheers

[MrBiscuits]

Our 214 would eat dizzy caps for fun - usually one a year. Symptoms of a knackered cap were similar to what you've described there.

[Cavcraft]

/\

This plus the rotor arms give up the ghost quite easily too.

[Sigmund Fraud]

In my experience, the problem of dizzy caps is that even genuine ones don't fit particularly well - there's always a small gap that allows humidity to seep in.

 

My own 214 began having all sorts of running problems last autumn, starting with a lumpy idle and ending with the car refusing to start. I took the dizzy cap off, cleaned the contacts with emery paper, wiped it with a WD-40 soaked rag and put it back on, smearing the joint between dizzy base and cap with silicon grease. This fixed the problem, which hasn't recurred since.

[vulgalour]

I haven't touched the cap on my 414 and given what you're all saying I'm not going to either.  It's not broke so I shan't try and fix it.