I don't know if any of you remember all the problems I've had with my van.. well I got sick of it, and gave it to the mechanic and just said "fix it".

(1990, 2L L300 4wd)

Well.. $7k later.

Engine Recon, including head and rods (head was cracked, one of the rods was bent.)
Recon'd Carby.
New 2 Core Radiator.
Recond Alternator.
Recond Starter Motor.
New Rear Brakes.
New Reverse + 4wd Switches.
New Manifold.
Distributor ceased.
Various other little things.

Now, I know the engine must be worn in a bit, so I wasn't expecting total performance from go.

But I must say.. It's still struggling to get to 100ks, the initial acceleration is ok, but the 80-100km mark is a chore, if not impossible to hit sometimes. Maybe I just have to ring the upper RPM range more than I feel comfortable with. And it's getting up hills better no doubt, but there was still one yesterday I hit a max of 60km's uphill with no acceleration in 3rd, and dropping to 2nd was putting it up to 5000RPM so I didn't feel comfortable leaving it there. Granted it was a reasonably long steep hill, but I thought the hills were where these things were meant to excell.

It's because of this that I posted about the gear ratios, i'm trying to figure out if there is ANYTHING left that could be reducing my power after getting all that work done, or if this really is it and I just have to learn to drive it a bit better, or it will loosen up more after a few thousand km's. I mean, i'm still getting overtaken by trucks!

Can only say something about the 2,5 Turbo diesel: 100 km/h is easy to reach with a lot of extra power in reserve ( top should be about 125 km/h) and no overtaking by lorries on the hills. :)
The 2,0 petrol ( for the MPI engine ) should have higher topspeed.

How many km's have you been driving since the engine recon ?

Only about 350km's now.

Forgot to mention its the Cyclone.

Mate, that has got to be soul destroying after $7K!
I have a few suggestions that may help, some maybe a bit dumb but hey, worth a few minutes to check.

1/ Are the new back brakes dragging? Go for a short drive, try not to brake too much then feel the centre of the back wheel to see if it is hot.

2/ Got the right jetting and settings on the recon carby? A bit hard to check quickly but a yarn with the mechanic should iron that out. A recon engine might have to be jetted up a bit if it is bored out more than one over size.

3/ Is the new manifold the same as the old one? I had a long drawn out horror story years ago using a Holden 202 manifold on a Holden 161. I shudder just thinking about it but the biggest problem was lack of guts.

4/ Not sure but what "distributor ceased" is but is the timing right? Got the same advance curve and all that stuff? Again, maybe a question for the mechanic.

5/ When the carby was overhauled, did it have any charcoal inside? I had the carby on my 1985 L300 overhauled and the shop that did the overhaul said that the guts of the carbon cannister had shat itself and filled the carby up with charcoal, it sounded just as you described regarding hills and lack of power. Needless to say that cannister is no longer part of the vehicle.

6/ Air cleaner element okay?

7/ Using the right grade fuel?

After a recon engine you do have to be careful running them in and it does take a while for them to loosen up but something is not right there somewhere. You should get way better performance than what you are getting now, even after only 350k's.

I have never had anything to do with your model van so some of these suggestions may be a bit wide of the mark. Also don't mean to cast any doubts on the skill of the mechanic.

Good luck and let us know how you go.

Thanks for the suggestions, I've just gotten back from overseas and am driving back down to Welly over the next few days. Will talk to my mechanic when I get back down :)