martynwhiteley
Well-Known Member
I'm a month into ownership of a 1986 Colvic 28 Traveller, fitted with twin Ford 1.6 XLD's / Legs, of which the port one has caused me some frustrations in recent weeks.
I bought the boat with them badged as 1.8's, but unless they are 1.6's bored out to 1.8's then I'm 99.9% certain they are the 1.6 (non turbo) Fiesta engines from the mid-eighties. I've worked my way though some electrical/charging issues, having replaced the port alternator, and rewired the glow-plus, that for some reason were wired as 'always on' !
In fact I thought it was lack of charging/low volts that resulted in the port engine cutting out, some time between 1 and 2 hours of running (canal/river use), but having fixed that problem, this engine still starts to stall after an hour or so, with very rough idle, if it can manage to at all. It does now at least restart if the throttle is up (plenty of volts for a change!) but generally stalls at idle and on pick up unless done very slowly. However once above 1,500 it seems to be 'back to normal' and will get up to about 3,000 at full tilt.
My current guesses are some sort of injector issue, or fuel supply issue due to blockage or bad fuel (fuel bug?). I've not yet had to learn much about, or meddle with diesel injection systems, so not clued up in that regard, however I can't visually see any leaks. The port engine has always seemed a bit rougher at idle than the stb, however, even when cold.
Both engines are fed from their own 75L plastic tank with corresponding filtration. The tanks were about half full when I bought her, and I've since discovered that when it was used before my purchase, it was generally only running the stb engine, so the diesel in the port tank could be quite old. (though I did add 30L of road diesel to it before my first cruise. I guess to have got this far in life and never previously had and diesel bug issues, I've done well, but has anyone had any similar experiences with Ford XLD's, and does a fuel issue seem the most logical?
I bought the boat with them badged as 1.8's, but unless they are 1.6's bored out to 1.8's then I'm 99.9% certain they are the 1.6 (non turbo) Fiesta engines from the mid-eighties. I've worked my way though some electrical/charging issues, having replaced the port alternator, and rewired the glow-plus, that for some reason were wired as 'always on' !
In fact I thought it was lack of charging/low volts that resulted in the port engine cutting out, some time between 1 and 2 hours of running (canal/river use), but having fixed that problem, this engine still starts to stall after an hour or so, with very rough idle, if it can manage to at all. It does now at least restart if the throttle is up (plenty of volts for a change!) but generally stalls at idle and on pick up unless done very slowly. However once above 1,500 it seems to be 'back to normal' and will get up to about 3,000 at full tilt.
My current guesses are some sort of injector issue, or fuel supply issue due to blockage or bad fuel (fuel bug?). I've not yet had to learn much about, or meddle with diesel injection systems, so not clued up in that regard, however I can't visually see any leaks. The port engine has always seemed a bit rougher at idle than the stb, however, even when cold.
Both engines are fed from their own 75L plastic tank with corresponding filtration. The tanks were about half full when I bought her, and I've since discovered that when it was used before my purchase, it was generally only running the stb engine, so the diesel in the port tank could be quite old. (though I did add 30L of road diesel to it before my first cruise. I guess to have got this far in life and never previously had and diesel bug issues, I've done well, but has anyone had any similar experiences with Ford XLD's, and does a fuel issue seem the most logical?
