Hi Gents, I've just had the Bordeaux blow all the water from the expansion vessel, and when topping up the water just disappears ( presumably to the sump) but not to the floor
Topped her up and did about 1 mile - same again - red hot and steamy - blowing like a whale/
Filled again and ran without the filler cap - started to pump water out as soon as the engine ran - there was "mayonnaise" on the cap and she's been using a bit more coolant than normal - I suspect the head is dead !
Anyhow, I'll not be fixing and asking should I strip out the gas conversion ( done 3 yrs ago by Simon - bloodly lovely job) or just leave it on the eBay listing ?
Somewhat depends on what you want to do with the gas kit afterwards. The general consensus seems to be that it doesn't add anything to the value you might get for it, though you might recover some of the cost of it by reselling the kit seperately, or better still to reuse it on something else.
Thanks - does anyone know roughly how much it would cost to sort out the hg if I sent the engine off on a pallet to a reputable V8 guy
Does anyone out there know of a GOOD outift ?
Thanks Gents
V8 Developments, £2330 for a fully reconditioned 4.6 engine (http://www.v8developments.co.uk/products/engines/long_engines/index.shtml) and they really know their stuff. Give them a bell and speak to Ray.
If you don't need the car daily Hugh then it's not so bad to diy a HG change if you've got a reasonable tool set and a breaker bar...seems daunting at the start, but you just go down the list one by one.
It's also worth doing a proper coolant refill and burping the system...if the gap hasn't been set up correctly it can easily dump the coolant through the overflow and perhaps you didn't notice. Running the system uncapped can easily result in a boiling over and you convince yourself it's the HGs. After I did a refill soon after acquiring I had similar symptoms (but my system has been running as sweets as for a couple of years now) - just saying it would be a shame to strip the HGs and find they were intact after all...
Yeah, double check it is a HG problem first, I got myself a cheap test fluid kit on eBay to make sure before I tackled them.
Although based on your description it does sound like a pretty serious overheat. It sounds odd that so much disappears just when topping up. It must be going somewhere...
Are the hoses expanding? The first sign something was wrong with my head gaskets was the top main hose expanding and a constant but slow need to top up coolant, as it would pressurise and push some out of the tank overflow pipe. Suddenly it became much worse, that's when I bought the test kit to be sure it was exhaust gases getting into the coolant and causing the over pressuring.
I could see coolant (dry stains as well as sometimes still wet) under the header tank where it was being pushed out of the overflow, see if that's where all your coolant is going.
As for removing the engine to send it off, as romanrob says it's not too bad a job to do the head gaskets yourself and if you're willing to remove the engine anyway, it seems like something you could do. I did my first head gasket job a few weeks ago, it did take me almost a week, but I was just doing it on and off, a bit as and when I could.
The easiest check is to remove the plugs and see if they look "steam cleaned". If water's getting in to the cylinder (which it will) then the plug will look cleaner than the rest. Usually it's going to be number 7 or number 8 plug.
Doing head gaskets isn't that bad a job! It's just like doing them on an old Mini but they're twice as big and there's two of them.
My mate at work had his V8 defender over pressurised and chucking coolant out ---- he drained it all out and flushed out any antifreeze Then he put bottle of Steel seal & put 5 litres of water in it then started it up ran for few minutes saw bubbles stop then put cap on left running for a while Anyway he did that to get home Still running really well after 2 years ---- he topped off level with blue anti freeze ---- so it surprised me
Gilbertd wrote:
V8 Developments, £2330 for a fully reconditioned 4.6 engine (http://www.v8developments.co.uk/products/engines/long_engines/index.shtml) and they really know their stuff. Give them a bell and speak to Ray.
£2330 for a fully rebuilt engine?
That's what the price list on the website says. Click the link then click on the Long Engine Comparison Chart.
You probably don't need to go that far. When mine shat out a liner I bought a 500 quid engine from a breaker on eBay. It was in pretty okay shape when I got it, David Hallworth and I dropped it in, and it was pretty rough and clattery and probably a bit down on power. Over 100,000 miles later, it's not any more rough and clattery, so I reckon I got my money's worth.
4.6 short engine is around 2300 from v8 developements
Hugh phoned me last night, I'm on holiday in Wales at the moment but we had a chat.
I think he's suspecting the problem may be the LPG pressure reducer allowing gas to enter the cooling system, so may just need to replace the MJ pressure reducer.
Presume you told him the simple test for that is to run on petrol and see if it still pressurises?
I've just spoken to Ray from V8 developments and he confirms his pricing is out of date. A standard 4.6 long engine starts from £3195.
Still not a bad deal then.
thats just over $6000 AU dollars , i wouldn't call that cheap ? but you do get what you pay for . ask if their is any second hand parts used EG valve springs ,rocker shafts,rods pistons . ask if the motor is actually bored or had top hat liners fitted and crank ground or refaced ,theirs a difference. my experience with engine builders is they will use anything that looks good enough to go another round . its more about you the purchaser knowing what you are purchasing? they do this to keep the price down and when they say starts at 3195 , what do you get if you pay more or what difference is the next level.
PS this comes from my experience with recon engines.
Agreed, that is a lot for a basic rebuild. However, I guess I'm not trying to make a living from doing it, and don't have the overheads either!
Hugh,
If you are able to do the strip & rebuild, I found Classic & Modern Engines in Bracknell really good. Depends where you live though !!