The Rover-Landers of BC

Gday all,

Took my 1965 109" Series 2a up to Mt Cheam today. She did pretty well minus one snag.

Some of the washouts were quite intense, especially close to the top. I stopped at one particularly big rut, with my Rover pointed up hill and off, as it was quite hot at this point. So after about 30 min of scouting and waiting and eating lunch, I tired to start it up. The starter turned over, caught, but wouldn't fire. I eventually got it going (phew), but that made me wonder...
If it was a fuel issue, what caused it? maybe the fuel pump is weak up hill? Is there a pressure leak in the fuel line so the fuel ran back to the pump while the vehicle is off? Would manually priming the pump solve this? Is maybe an electric pump in order?

thanks for your guys thoughts.

Does your truck have a side fill, under seat tank? If so, on a steep incline your fuel pickup in the tank may have been starved of fuel. The pick up is pretty far forward in the tank so heading uphill fuel can get low at the pick up if you don’t have at least half a tank of fuel.
Another check you can do is manually pump the fuel pump and see if the engine fires right away. This can indicate fuel is leaking back through the fuel pump valves or the carb needle valve/float may be sticking.

Matt

May also have been vapour lock which can be compounded by carburetor model, high temperatures, ethanol content in fuel. If you choose to investigate further it may also be worth checking the condition of the diaphragm in the fuel pump.

I agree with John, on a hot day, a Vapour lock is the most likely. Search the web for "Land Rover Series Vapour Lock" and you will get lots of reading on the subject. Adding a heat shield between the carb and manifold is quite common. Some times the original heat shields are missing so check for that.

One other thing to check is that your fuel tank breather filter located in the fuel cap, is clean and clear. The fuel tank has to breath to prevent vacuum building up in the tank and will cause stalling / hard starting.

Sorry for the late reply here, I’ve been away on vacation. John is right about the vapour lock. On my Series 2A I deleted the manual pump and replaced it with an electric one and never had another issue.