sounds pretty similar in terms of location, obviously no intercooler, but its in the same gap between the condenser and rad.
The v8 has its gearbox cooler mounted below the oil cooler, but i think the diesels have the gearbox cooler elsewhere as the intercooler sits there instead.
The old barge has sprung a leak from the engine oil cooler. Its been weepy for a while so been on borrowed time, but today i realised there was oil bloody everywhere and a constant drip drip drip from the pipe into the cooler.
I've ordered a new cooler and pipe kit from Maltings Offroad, but i'm wondering a) how exactly to get into it, and b) if i should change anything else while in there... I've been considering swapping out the AC condenser too,
I've had the main rad out before and the oil coolers dont seem to be accessible from that side, so i'm assuming i need to go in the front and remove the AC condenser to get at them?
Looking at the pipework around there, the PAS hoses also dont look great, so i will price those up too. Any tips or pointers or "defo change X while your in there" jobs?
Cheers
Kev
What is water glass?
Morat wrote:
There's a lot of thought going into this, so I'll just make two points.
- It's hard to forgive corrosion on a P38 as there are plenty around with good bodywork
- As you're already set up for EV, don't sell the P38 before the much rumoured (trailed?) scrappage scheme comes into effect or you might be losing £3k or £6k depending on how you look at it.
Yeh, its a fair point. But i guess the other side is, If i sort the engine and mechanicals, then worst case, when i come to actually sorting the body, the option is there to buy one with a tidy body and rooted engine/mechanicals and swap things over. Wether that means an actual body swap, or putting the good engine/axles etc into the other car.
as for 2, yeah i'll certainly keep an eye on it, maybe i can trade in the TT instead. Not sure how realistic buying a brand new EV is though. Would need to see the numbers. I quite fancy the e-niro, but its a bit too expensive and impossible to actually buy.
leolito wrote:
The A4 is a long term project. Its a 1.8T Quattro which i've got a 4.2L V8 to swap in
This is a project on its own, and not a small one. Might got very off topic in here ... many pro and many cons to that.
If you have the engine and it is running nice and fine and you crave only the throaty V8 sound go for it, but for me the 2.7TT is also a sensible proposition. Equal power, fantastic run-up if you tune it properly, fairly robust, and all in all equally expensive to run ... you'd miss the V8 roar but instead you get the whine/hiss of the turbos ... equally deadly :-)
I have the 4.2 already. Been around B5's a long time and the 2.7 just doesnt press my buttons. Everything in it just costs a fortune. My brother had one for a few years. I broke a C5 A6 for its engine so i've got everything needed for the swap, its pretty much a weekend bolt-in swap at this point. Even the wiring harness pretty much just plugs in. The only thing i need to buy for it is service stuff like belts/waterpump/thermostat and filters.
Symes wrote:
Well what about Cummins diesel --- just a thought --- I got a 4.6 HSE gems P38 the engine is fubar -- I'm thinking of going Cummins diesel or chev V8 I can get a 300tdi with manual box(disco 2) whole thing £200 but am seriously considering Cummins
Diesel isnt for me.
Martyuk wrote:
Hmm... I want to look at your RR in person then at some point and try to sort the key sync out... things like that bug me when they should all work! lol... maybe if I host a summer camp, then if you wanted to come over to that we can try and get a few bits ticked off... I have the press and tool to do radius arm bushes... people have the knowledge/experience to do the headlining, I can take a look at the key/locking stuff...
And probably get a few more things looked at too...
Yeah i'll keep an eye out on the forum and see what gets arranged. I'm in Fife, Scotland, so its a fair old trek to make...
I guess the fact that theres only one key is also annoying, dunno wether to try and get another key-set with a pair of good fobs or something.
yeah i figured as much. I'd end up with a nice reliable modern V8 and everything else knackered around it haha.
You should price up a local custom exhaust shop, they can actually be cheaper than you'd imagine.
On mine, the exhaust was wrecked. I'd found a used "streight thru" stainless rear pipe on ebay, but needed a middle section and maybe even a Y pipe. Took it along to my local exhaust fabricator, and they made up a system which started after the cats, and had a new Y piece and a middle box and it cost less than buying the bits in stainless off ebay.
Martyuk wrote:
Sounds like you need a fair bit doing alright...
Out of interest - does the key sync WITHOUT the RF filter plugged in? or just no key sync/central locking at all?
The engine does by and far sound like the biggest project alright - the only real part of that I read and find to be the biggest pain would be the rear crank seal - the rest of it you can do with the engine in the vehicle if needs be...
Cosmetic bits... I guess they could wait a bit until the mechanical bits are sorted...
I'm definitely a 'if it can be fixed then it's worth having a go' kind of person - but then my 1998 that I'm restoring has become a real labour of love, and motivation lacks a lot of the time... but I'm slowly persevering with it - I think I've had it going on 4 years now and it's still all in bits!
I don't know the answer to your question about whether to keep it or not - but I'm always happy to look at anything on the electronics side... if we were nearer, then I'd have looked at the central locking for you by now ;)
Marty
When i first got it, the remote had no batteries. I got a new holder and a new stack of batteries and paried up the key and it worked. At elast for a few weeks until the battery holder moved in my pocket and reset the fob... Crappy design that for sure.
The car battery also went flat a few times, because of the usual wakeup issue. So i unplugged the receiver and ignored it for ages. The car often sits for a week or more so the drain was too much.
It locked me out one day 500miles from home, which at the time i didnt realise was a dicky microswitch. In typical P38 style i ran it with the iffy microswitch for ages, just making sure that the car actually unlocked before opening the door (sometimes you had to unlock 2 or 3 times), as if you opened the door before it had actually "unlocked" it would get angry.
Eventually i spent out and bought a refurbished door latch and remote filter from you. After that i couldnt get it to pair the remote again (albeit i hadnt tried to for a long time). Tried with and without the filter. Scoped the output from the box and the fob is definitely transmitting info when the button is pressed. The BECM just wont pair with it.
I guess the biggest thing with the whole project is you start thinking "if i'm going to spend ££££ on the engine, what else could i buy instead?". I sold the 90 thinking i should sort the P38 out, and now i'm thinking "yeah but should i sort the P38?" I do like driving it, and with a fresh engine that had a bit more zing would definitely improve the car quite a bit. I will admit i saw a cheap 2 grand L322 on ebay recently and thought "hmm!" However i suspect realistically an L322 is liekly to be just as much of a money pit.
Theres also the fact that its approaching the age where if i AM going to spend a lot of money sorting it out, i should probably get the chassis cleaned up and protected. Because while its not bad, its 25 years old.
Gilbertd wrote:
Isn't this the car you inherited so has an attachment beyond just you like it? I was in a similar situation about 5 years ago. My P38 hit 285k miles, although I had done the headgaskets it really needed a bit more. It was slightly pressurising the cooling system, not enough to spit the coolant out but enough to make the hoses hard, it was leaking oil from just about everywhere and the compression was down to no more than 110 psi. I considered selling it and putting some extra money to it and getting another but then thought about it. As police spec with an odd range of options, very high mileage and a very tired engine, it wouldn't fetch a lot. I had gone through it getting the EAS working properly, done the heater O rings, the blend motors, the door latches, etc so I knew what bits were good and what weren't. Rust isn't a worry in most cases (unless they've lived near the sea) as the chassis is damn good and the only parts of the bodywork that rust are the rear arches, bonnet front edge and, if you are really unlucky the base of the rear lower tailgate. I decided that rather than sell it and buy someone else's problems (they are selling a car for a reason after all) and having to start from scratch again, I'd put the money into mine. £2,100 to V8 Developments gave me an oil tight engine complete with top hat liners, big ends, mains, cam and followers, etc. Two years later, on the instruction of her indoors, it got a respray and East Coast Range Rovers supplied me with a complete (identical) interior, with seats and all interior plastics so I did a mix and match using the best bits from the two sets I had.
It's a case of the devil you know. You know what yours needs, but it doesn't need to all be done at once, whereas buying another you are into uncharted territory. Whining diffs are common but cheap enough for a recon unit from Ashcrofts. My rear has been replaced but even at just short of 400k miles, the rest of the transmission is still original and still working fine.
Aye, the thing is the P38 has soo many issues, i suspect buying any other "cheap" one is just likely to result in another arms length list of jobs. And buying a "sorted" one is likely to be expensive, and still might have issues...
I think i just need to start chipping away at jobs instead of ignoring it all. Start collecting bits to sort the engine, and maybe sort out the front radius arms as a starting point. Ofcourse running it with a "known" gasket issue somehow makes me more anxious than driving it around blissfully unaware haha.
Thanks guys.
leolito wrote:
Aragon son of Arathorn thanks for being so open and frank. I will respond with equal openness, as I take delight in debating these matters, being in a very (very) messy swamp myself, with too many toys to deal with, and will benefit from some advice as well!
Thanks leolito.
The A4 is a long term project. Its a 1.8T Quattro which i've got a 4.2L V8 to swap in. General plan is to get the TT sorted with minimal expense, and run that while i sort the A4, then punt the TT on. I've had the A4 10 years and have no plans to sell.
LEAF as you say is just a daily runner. Cheap, reliable etc.
Its certainly something of a basket case, i paid £300 for it as a non-runner 3 or 4 years ago. Fixed a crank sensor and a few minor bits and it went thru an MOT just fine. The previous owner had spent cash on it sorting various bits (like airbags, compressor etc). However to be fair to it, its never actually left me stranded (although been close a few times with a string of shitty aftermarket crank sensors!). It goes thru MOT's with relative ease, it has working LPG etc etc. For all the bad theres plenty good stuff.
I suspect also, i have a tendancy to want things "right", but the knock on effect is that because of that, i've actually NOT touched many of the P38 bits because i've shied away from the snowballing that will liekly occur. I could just chuck headgaskets into it. BUT its a Rover V8, with an arms length list of stuff that wears out and needs attention. The cars on 190k, but it had a new engine fitted by landrover in ~2000 when it had 100k on it.
The biggest thing that worries me is actually the rust on the rear of the roof..
Gilbertd wrote:
Orange colouration on the plugs is usually a sign that you are burning coolant, which the rusty ends to the base of the plugs would seem to confirm. The oily plug from number 8 would suggest oil getting in there so likely to be valve stem seals. Sounds like a top end refresh is on the cards in a while. The plugs look to be the BKR6E with the smaller hex that would normally only be fitted in the later Thor engine, for an early car you want to be running NGK BPR6ES plugs.
Plug choice does make quite a difference. I worked on one a car few months ago that simply wouldn't start. It would fire sometimes but would also backfire down the exhaust suggesting timing. We spent ages checking (and changing) the crank position sensor and making sure the tags on the flywheel were all there and not bent and the output from it was good and that all the HT leads were in the correct place. Even though it had a brand new set of plugs in it I ended up taking one out to find it was a Denso. Owner had been recommended these by an 'expert' on facebook so had fitted a full set. Pulled them out, fitted NKGs and it fired up first turn of the key.
Yeah the orange puzzled me. I had a google and folk were suggesting "fuel additives", but i guess coolant might well make sense, especially when we add in what looks like rust on the plug. I've suspected a gasket for a while, but it never overheats. Coolant disappears at a fair old rate, but there are loads of external leaks. Oddly i've had a leak on a T piece for the LPG vapouriser that even after brand new hoses, new metal T and new clips, continued leaking. It also only seems to leak when cold. I suppose if theres a leaky gasket it might seal up when warm... Lots of short journeys seem to consume much more water than one long journey.
BKR6E are basically the same as BCPR6ES
NGK say the only difference between K and CP is that the whole plug is slightly shorter. K is the newer "ISO" version of CP:
My Audis use BKR6E so i tend to have them on hand, and the smaller hex makes them easier to get in and out.
Hey guys,
Been having a bit of a think/restructure of my automotive fleet and would appreciate some thoughts.
I had a 90 project in the garage that i've not touched for 6 years. I decided to get shot of it, as it really doesnt fit with having a family now. So thats gone barring some bits and pieces i need to shift. My thinking was that the P38 fits much better as a "family 4x4" than the 90 does. I also had a track car which has sat unloved on the drive since the kids arrived 4 years ago, so i parted that out and got shot of that. I've ended up with a TT convertible (swapped it for another car i ended up with), had planned to give it a quick tidy up and smoke around in it for the summer months, but ofcourse these things always take longer than you plan, so its currently sat with no timing belt waiting for some nice weather to finish it. My other cars are an A4 i've had for years, and a Nissan LEAF which fits the "modern, reliable, keep the wife happy" box. The A4 needs to come off the road for some TLC, but i can use the TT while i do that.
So back to the P38. Its not the cleanest example, but i've done various bits on it over the years to keep it going. However it feels like jobs are mounting up, and its reaching that point where it needs a massive overhaul. I'll try to give a brief summary....
Starting in the engine bay, its had a new radiator, and a new brake accumulator, so thats good. Its also had a sprinkling of new coolant hoses and new LPG injectors and petrol injectors. However the engine itself is a sieve. It leaks coolant from the front timing case, inlet manifold, various hose fittings and the LPG vapouriser leaks from its central gasket. The PAS line is rusty and seeps fluid from the swaged joint. The engine oil cooler is also leaky. The engine also leaks oil from everywhere, front and rear oil seals, sump gasket etc etc.It also burns a bit of oil, a hard rev after starting it (when the cats are still cold) will get a nice cloud of blue smoke, and it fouls spark plug 8 quite badly... AC system worked until all the gas leaked from the ORings on the compressor, the condenser looks pretty wrecked though.
Underneath, i fitted new balljoints to the front axle, and its had the brake disks/pads/calipers done all round. I've also done the front shocks. But its needing bushes all round as it drives like a pig. It also has an appetite for axle end oil seals, presumably because the balljoints arent properly centred any more. It probably wants brake hoses, and the brake lines themselves have been replaced previously by a blind monkey, so while they work, they're a bit shonky. Rear axle i think has pinion issues, its a bit noisey on overrun, but hasnt really gotten any worse in the years i've had it. Air suspension all works as it should, Infact its one of the things thats worked perfectly since i bought the car. I did have to replace a height sensor but otherwise its sound.
Moving inside, the headliners knackered, but i've got a kit to sort it out. Various bits of trim are iffy but everything does work. Climate control knob is a bit finicky. Remote locking doesnt work which is infuriating especially after i spent money on the remote filter kit from the guys on here. Cruise control works fine after i replaced the hose. Grey leather is in reasonable nick, though i really fancy some Tan leather for it, have rage with myself that i didnt pick up the interior i saw at U Pull It some years ago.
Exterior is varied. The wife smashed the front bumper, so i got a new one nicely resprayed for it. The rear tailgate was rotten so again i got a nice one all painted up. The upper tailgate is a rusty mess though, and theres a horrible patch of rust at the rear of the roof panel where it meets the tailgate thats particularly worrying. Additionally, it originally had the light guards fitted, which have since been removed but have left holes (and broken off rivnuts) in the rear quarter panels. A couple of the doors could do with replacing, and a lot of the black trim really wants replaced and/or painted.
Theres probably more, but i figure you get the idea. And i'm kinda stuck. The engine clearly needs sorted. And it feels like one of those jobs that basiaclly ends up with a almost complete rebuild... By the time its out and you've got the sump and timing case off to sort those gaskets, you might as well pull the heads and sort those out... with the heads off and timing case off, it probably wants a new camshaft and associated parts... and then, once stripped to that point, do you reassemble the block and hope the liners dont move? Theres also the cylinder 8 issue... It could just be valve stem seals and thus fixed in the head rebuild, but if its piston/bore related then its highly likely at that point its needing liners and basically a complete rebuild. And that feels like a LOT of money to be pouring into an old car, even if i can do all the work myself... and i know once i start the job, i wont want to half-arse it back together with known faults... It also needs all the pipework sorted and a new oil cooler rad, stuff that can be awkward and expensive to source.
Mechanically, its not tooo bad, if i can get a spare set of radius arms i can get the bushes swapped out in my spare time and i can probably tidy up the brake lines (though i do hate working on those!). Rear axle i'll probably jsut ignore unless it gets worse, but it probably wants rear radius arm bushes and rear shocks.
The bodywork is a sticking point, i dont like working on body, and i feel tarting up the exteriors the last job that really should be done when all the other stuff is busted. But putting a lot of money into a rotten shell also makes no sense?!
I sometimes wonder, should i try to find a better one? But knowing these cars, the question is then, am i better with the one i know, rather than potentially buying into a whole host of new issues? If i do plan on keeping this one, then i need to start sorting stuff thats actually broken, rather than just ignoring it. But its difficult to figure out what to do... Thoughts much appreciated!
The engine in the old bus isnt the healthiest. It leaks every fluid imaginable, but runs acceptably well that it just sort of gets ignored and soldiers on.
Its always started missing a few cylinders, but they all seem to come alive after a few seconds and a bit of RPM.
It leaks coolant from various places, and i so slightly suspect a headgasket issue as it seems to pressurise the hoses pretty quickly (and they often stay pressurised) but it doesnt over heat and will do hundreds of miles without issue. Its always been like that since i've had it. Again, works well enough that i dont want to start fiddling.
Cylinder 8 also always fouls its spark plugs, they end up crusted with oily deposits.
So thats the background. Last week i was taking an old car to the scrap man, so she was pulling probably 2 tonnes of trailer. It felt a bit flat, but i wasnt really beating on it and just taking it easy trundling up the duallie at 50. However once i got to the yard (about 5 miles away) it was clear it was idling dog rough. RPMs were down below 500, and it sounded like crap. Revving it, it sounded like an old aircooled beetle. Clearly some cylinders not happy.
Got offloaded and drove home and it was clearly unhappy, missfiring badly at low rpm pulling away and down on power. I knew i had some spark plugs on the shelf so i decided to change them. Unfortunately what i actually had was 3 new plugs, and 5 used ones (no idea!). So i installed the new plugs in cylinders 8, 6 and 4, figuring it might be the fouled plug that was causing issues, and gave it a try. Still missfiring as bad as ever so i gave up and ordered 5 new plugs.
Plugs came today, so i swapped the remaining 5 out, and went for a test drive... And its fixed. Hurray? I dont know. The plugs that came out looked perfectly serviceable, so currently i have no idea wether its just a coincidence or the problem is actually sorted. I guess some more miles needed to tell.
However, i noticed that theres vast differences between the plugs in terms of the deposits, so i took some photos:
Starting with bank 2, plugs 4 and 6 look ok i think? 8 is obviously fouled, but then 2 is very strange, pale and minimal deposits.
Moving to bank 1, plugs 1 and 3 have odd orange coloration to their ceramic insulators, perhaps a touch rich? 1 also has weird deposits or maybe corrosion around the base of the plug thread? 5 is almost normal? 7 looks lean/hot, perhaps a bit like 2 from the other bank.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. None of these plugs look bad enough to cause a missfire, with the exception of 8, but swapping that out didnt fix it. The varying plug condition also makes me wonder whats going on here.
another 100 miles yesterday and no issues at all....
I hate problems that fix themselves :(
yeh i looked at the table, and like roman says, it doesnt make much sense. For P to show as 2 that requires Z to be stuck at 0, For drive to show as 3, that requires X to be stuck at 0. But neutral works and that requires both Z and X to be set to 1...
She says it said Gearbox Fault when she went out in the afternoon, and wouldnt move in D at all until she cycled it thru all the gears, and then it worked. Shes just got back in to come home and its all back to normal with gears showing correctly and the gearbox fault message has gone.
Yey.
Quick clip of her shifting:
You can see P = 2, N works, Reverse and drive seem to show 3. 1st seems to show 2 as well.
Oh, and it happily starts in P with "2" showing on the gate.
Wifes out driving the car today, sent me a video showing the gear selection acting really oddly.
The lights dont line up with whats selected, and they jump about a bit randomly as you cycle thru the gears.
I presume theres some sort of position switch involved here? Where about is it likely to be and is it likely just a bad switch or potential wiring issues?
It does seem to be driving properly by all accounts despite drive and reverse both showing "3", and its also starting just fine, despite Park showing "2"
Cheers