Ok. New CKP is in.

I went to turn it over. It was rough. I only gave it a few turns. A potable water truck is filling the trailer next to me and has his pump making too much noise for me to hear what the engine is doing. So I left it for now.

My battery is a little weak. I'll put the booster pack on it and turn it over again in a few minutes.

 

I tried again to turn it over. It sparked! Ran really rough for about 5 seconds. I tried turning it over again and nothing. Could smell gas. I read somewhere about turning the key to position 2 and leaving it on for 8 minutes so the BCU and ECU or some other things could talk to each other.

It's been about 7 minutes. I'm going to give it one more try, and then go for supper. If I get to the kitchen much past 6 it's a mad house. Then right after that my heavy work load begins….

 

Good luck! this has been a pain.

 

Went for supper. Tried again. It almost fired! Then it did fire but quit a second later. Made a big hissing sound, and died. I could smell a lot of gas. I have to get some work done.

Any ideas? I guess the first thing I should check for is spark. Then check to make sure I've got the CKP sensor seated properly.

 

Man this sucks, I'm on my way!!

I think its flooded, its been to cold for the gas in the cylinders to evaporate completely, I would pull the fuel pump fuse, crank the engine over for 10 seconds, replace the fuse and try again.

 

I have spark! Now I'm just looking to see which is the fuel pump fuse and give her another try.

 

I pulled the engine compartment fusebox fuse number 10. Cranked it and after about 8 seconds it caught and ran for about 3 seconds and died! I cranked another 10 seconds, and got nothing.
I then plugged the fuse back in, and cranked it. It sputtered a bit, and after about 15 seconds it really, really wanted to start. It ran for a few seconds and sputtered out, ending with a hissing sound. I cranked some more and then got the same thing. Then I think I flooded it again.
So I repeated and got the exact same symptoms.
I'm happy at this point because I have spark.
There is just under half a tank of low octane gas (with STP octane boost) and gas line antifreeze in the tank.
I'm not sure where to go from here. I HAVE to get some work done. I'm doing all this in-between tasks.
The hissing sound scares me.

I also noticed a coolant leak. Not much, but after sitting for a number of days, there is some coolant very slowly dripping from the bottom of the radiator. The cold level overflow is down a couple of inches. I'll look in the radiator on my next break.

 

The hissing sound is a vacuum leak, that very well could not let it run.
Octane booster is a waste of money, you would have to add about 10 pint sized bottles to a full tank of gas to do any good.
You're fine running the low octane if thats all you can get, then switch back to the good stuff when you get back to civilization.

 

This was a big moment in "trials and tribulations" of vonrock's issues. (a good read so far)
As I was reading post 67 , thought the next line was going to read... "it fired up, idled smoothly and back on the road...."
Darn it! Get this truck running!... Give hope to the entire Land Rover community that a truck north of FT. McMurray can be brought back to life!

 

Maybe it's possible I knocked a vacuum hose off while trying to squeeze my fat arm down into that tight space by the CKP.

Looking for a vacuum leak now.