The past few issues of LandRover Monthly have contained articles by Jeremy Thurston extolling the benefits of performance components produced by Automotive Component Manufacturing Ltd., of Sandycroft, Flintshire.
Automotive Component Remanufacturing Ltd produce performance upgrades for the Series III engine - namely:-
1. Stage 2 Head & SU carb kit 30bhp increase = 44.78% increase in bhp
2. Stage 2 Head, SU carb kit & performance camshaft 43bhp increase = 64.18% increase in bhp
Their advertisements claim "Improved performance with no loss in economy or reliability".
In September last year I commissioned Automotive Component Manufacturing Ltd., to install a stage 2 head and SU carb kit with performance exhaust and at the same time do a LPG conversion (£935) which cost me a total of £2,400.
I collected it from ACR's workshop on the 15th September. In my opinion I was unable to detect any noticable improvement in top end performance; in fact my old Landy had been able to do 70mph and now I was lucky if it would do 60mph. Fuel consumption had dropped from about 19-22mpg to 12mpg on petrol and 10mpg on LPG. And when using LPG the 'popping' in the exhaust on over-run was downright embarrassing.
When I complained ACR admitted that they had not set it up correctly but the fault was primarily mine because I had asked them to install an Autoera electronic distributor which had an incorrect advance curve i.e. it didn't reach full advance at 4200rpm. I did a comparison test of both the Autoera and Ducellier distributors and found no particularly significant difference in advance curves but then I am no expert. When I asked ACR for their recommended advance curve they were unable to produce one.
Between October and end of December I had numerous electrical faults and a major leak in the SU carb that required relaying to a garage.
I returned my LandRover to ACR on the 4th January this year for fault rectification. It was eventually ready to collect at the beginning of March (a 3 month wait)and I was charged another £800 for their performance camshaft and other work that was claimed to be necessary but in my opinion was not.
Frankly, I believed the engine sounded like a bag of old nails. It certainly didn't run nice and smoothly like a well set up series engine should do.
After 35 miles the engine locked up and was eventually stated by a tow from another Landy. It subsequently locked up on numerous occasions which I initially thought was caused by the starter motor jamming on the flywheel. 2 new starter motors later it finally it locked so solid that nothing would turn the engine.
I asked ACR for my money back and they could have their parts back but this they refused.
So I took it to Ward Engineering in Rugby who found some interesting things:-
1. A bell-housing nut loose inside the bell-housing.
2. A flywheel with a chunk missing had been fitted.
3. The con-rods were a non-matching set.
4. The fasteners used to hold the bell-housing were a mixed set of old studs and new bolts and new and old nuts of which one was missing.
The nut in the bell-housing had caused the engine to lock-up intermittently by jamming between the flywheel and its housing behind the engine.
When I asked ACR to pay for the engine rebuild they declined this too.
Dealing with Automotive Component Remanufacturing has left me significantly out of pocket and with a Land-Rover that has been unusable for 8 months.
I have no doubt that some people have found ACR's products beneficial to their Landies, however, I share my experience as a salutary lesson that sometimes these products just don't perform as claimed and sometimes the workmanship is, I believe, total rubbish. And don't rely on warranties - the unscrupulous trader can weasel his way out of them.
I don't know what Jeremy Thurston gets out of writing articles promoting ACR's products in LandRover monthly but it does make one wonder!
June 2nd, 2007
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
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