Seemed to be still using a fair amount of coolant until i noticed it was all over the side step, the hose into the coolant bottle wasnt clamped up properly. Fixed that and i've done another 50 or so miles in it, and its now much better, however i'm noticing there is still some pressure in the cooling system after a drive.
For instance i topped it off on sunday morning, the wife drove it to work and back yesterday and this morning i've just checked it again, and opening the tank made a big "tishhhh" noise. Water level has dropped a very small amount, maybe a few milimeters below the line.
The better condition cars are likely to be younger models too which adds futher complexity. I will bear that in mind when looking.
yeah exactly, I'd much rather it wasnt there. Just pondering future options, my shell is pretty rusty. So wondering if its worthwhile trying to find a tidier car, perhaps with mechanical issues, and potentially swap the good bits over. If i was gonna do that, i think it'd have to be a non-sunroof car. But having perused ebay a little, it seems finding one without a sunroof is rare, and they are almost always lower spec cars, eg manual 4.0/2.5's
Finally got it completed on Saturday. Well mostly.
Dug out my new and old coolant hoses and spent some time swapping those onto the thermostat. Lots of time spend fighting with the constant tension clamps as the new hoses were thicker than the old ones and a few of the clamps simply werent large enough. Fitted a new water pump as the old one was wobbly.
Dismantled the dashboard to get at the heater core o rings and installed some nice fresh Viton 22x2.5 o-rings. Spent some time trying to fix the hacked up ducting as someone has cut the horizontal duct that leads to the drivers face vent. Broke the end of the dashboard in the process, but the ducting is now very neatly taped back together.
With that done i finished up the engine bay coolant lines (left the LPG stuff out for now) and fitted the replacement serpentine belt and filled it up with coolant. Fought with the fan shroud but eventually persuaded the thermostat into the small slot. I havent refitted the fan yet.
With everything done i popped the grille back on and took it out for a short drive. Everything seems to work. No pressure in the cooling system after it cooled down. Coolant level dropped a bit but i'm assuming its just working the air out the system. Topped it off and done another slightly longer drive to screwfix on sunday morning. I think the engine actually sounds quieter, there was a tickyness previously which has gone (perhaps the exhaust manifolds?). It doesnt feel any peppier than previously and still sounds fairly harsh at high RPM's, i presume mainly down to the camshaft and chain.
So i guess now i need to put some more miles on it and try to get a feel for whether or not the cylinder liners are leaking. I want to re-do the coolant pipework for the LPG system so i'm going to order some 10mm hose and will plumb that in and get that back up and running at some point, but for now it can stay on petrol until i get those bits sorted. And i need to refit the fan at some point, dislike those things so i quietly ignored it for now. I also need to reinstall the manifold heatsheilds. If the coolant issues seem to be fixed then i guess the next step is ordering a camshaft and associated bits.
Was there a particular spec of car that did NOT have a sunroof? Was it simply an option?
From what i can see it seems to be low spec cars that were missing it? Would be good to confirm though.
Those seals are leaking on mine, and have already been replaced a couple times... I suspect the balljoint alignment is out, but it needs special tools to set it up, so its just been ignored.
cant find it on their current site, but their old site had an FAQ and one of the first questions was loss of forward drive:
Failed A clutch, seems a common failure point.
Theres also the possibility of an inverted sprag clutch, in which case it'll pull away in "1" but not D.
Still chugging away at this, thought i'd post a bit of an update. Things have been slow due to the awful weather we've had.
Heads went back on a couple weeks ago. Put the valve train together and then spun the engine over on the starter until i could see oil appearing out the rocker shafts. Noticed a few of the lifters werent spinning that well, though it did seem to improve once the oil pressure came up. Clearly, it needs a cam, but the main point now is to figure out if the rest of the engines worth fitting a cam to!
Last weekend i started on the exhaust manifolds. All the downpipe studs were ruined and snapped off trying to get them out. Ended up drilling them all out, and welding in bolts to act as a stud instead. Welded up a small hairline crack on the nearside manifold collector. The offside manifold had a split flexi so i bought another manifold from ebay (also with ruined studs) and gave it the same treatment. Bought a set of new bolts (3/8" UNC Zinc plated cap heads) along with spring and flat washers. After what felt like two whole days of messing about i finally had two usable manifolds attached to the engine. Tightening up the offside manifold lower bolts was somewhat awkward, i ended up cutting a 5/16" allen key, and using that with a ring spanner over the end to tighten them. getting a ratchet in was impossible for the rear two (at least without removing the steering shaft). NO idea why they didnt just move the engine over an inch in the bay...
Yesterday i finally got the intake reinstalled. Repinned the crank sensor plug into a new housing, the old one was cracked and held on with zip ties. Got all the wiring back together for the EFI, installed spark plugs (although realised i only had 6 new ones, so stuck two old ones in for now). Attached the alternator bracket for engine earth, then decided to see if it would fire... Lit streight off first turn, at which point i realised i hadnt bolted the downpipes on 😂. It also died after a few seconds. Intake had various vacuum hoses not fitted (EVAP, fuel pressure reg, LPG) and the throttle cable wasnt attached. Sorted all that out and fired it up again, and it sounded fine and settled into a 1000rpm idle. Didnt leave it running as theres no coolant in it, but at least it works!
Then i went indoors onto ebay and ordered more spark plugs, a serpentine belt (the shorter non-AC one, will leave the AC bits off for now), a coolant hose set to replace the hoses that have gotten deformed from the engine pressure and an air filter. I also discovered the water pump pulley was wobbly, so i ordered a water pump while i was there. So much for not spending money on it until i'm sure its good...
Still need to reinstall all of the cooling system. I also need to get inside the cab and do the heater core o-rings. Maybe next weekend it'll drive around the block!
My Skodas electric, and its increase was more or less inline with everything else.
The statistics show EV's are LESS likely to go on fire than an ICE, which isnt really a surprise, given the ICE is the one carrying around vast amounts of flammable liquid mixed with high temperatures.
These companies are all just making up whatever excuse they fancy to avoid saying "yeah we just want to make more profit".
I'd been with direct line for quite a few years, and until this year the renewals have been very sane. Always competitive. Unlike Admiral, who in the past tempted me in with a cheap multi-car policy, only to jack the prices up the next year. This year though they've gone off the rails a bit.
Read an interesting article about Admiral group recently, and it was saying that despite losing thousands of customers due to the price hikes, they're making more money than before, so dont see any need to lower their prices to be more competitive.
Insurance going up after passing a test is quite typical. A learner driver is supervised by someone experienced, one who has passed no longer is, so the risk increases substantially.
All insurance prices have gone up this year, they're using the "cost of living crisis" as an excuse to massively increase their profits (just like every other company)
Last year i was paying £250, the renewal came thru at 450 from direct line. My Skoda went from 350 to 650. They both renew at the same time.
Ran thru the usual comparison sites, managed to get the RR insured for £280 and the Skoda for £450.
You certain there is no missfire?
The lambdas detect oxygen in the exhaust gas stream. A missfire dumps unburnt mixture into the exhaust stream, which raises the O2 levels. The Lambdas see that oxygen, and report back to the ECU as "lean condition", which causes it to enrich the mixture. Ofcourse the dead cylinder doesnt respond so theres still too much oxygen and the ECU will just keep adding fuel until it reaches the adaption limit and then will register a fault code. Meanwhile the remaining cylinders are running way too rich.
Garvin wrote:
Have changed many diffs in my time but all have required thrusts/preloads, backlash and pinion to crown wheel measurements/adjustments et al to be made. Usually meaning the damn thing has to go in and out at least three times! This looks to be pretty simple in comparison . . . except for the weight issue. I do have various jacks to help on that score though.
Thats a function of the design. Theres essentially two common ways to build a diff.
On some, (Ford Atlas or Landrover Salisbury for instance) the cast part the holds the pinion and centre bearings is part of the axle case. On those, you have a removable rear cover on the axle case, and then need to load a bare diff into the axle case, and thus need to setup all the preloads and pinion engagement etc.
On others, like the P38 (and other Landrover Axles), or the Ford English or 9", the cast housing holding all the bearings is a seperate piece which bolts into the front of the axle case. With those, you can thus have the cast "pumpkin" all setup ready to go so it just needs to be installed into the case.
I guess you've just been unlucky to have always had the former style.
Ofcourse, to fit the actual diff into the cast part still requires the same work. The advantage being you can easily ship the bolt-in cast housing and thus have someone else do the work for you, rather than having to ship the entire axle.
Under heavy shock loading (think low range, big knobbly tyres, offroading) the rover diffs suffer from flex in/around the pinion support bearings. This causes the pinion to move away from the crown wheel under load which increases wear, and in the worst case, it can move far enough that it jumps a tooth which is likely to break things.
The pegged diff adds a "bump stop" essentially behind the pinion, to limit how much it can move under extreme loading, making them much stronger for extreme use.
If its a road car on standard tyres, its unlikely you'll need a pegged diff.
Finally got the other bank off. Cyl 8 was fully steam cleaned on this bank. Oddly enough thats also the cylinder that fouls its plug with oil. Valves were even covered in horrible rusty deposits.
Drivers manifold fought me the whole way, one of the bolts rounded off, ended up removing the head with the manifold (which was also a challenge getting the head bolts out with the manifold in the way...)
Found that despite internet lore suggesting they are metric, both the new heads from the Thor engine, and the old (replacement) heads used 3/8UNC threads for the exhaust manifolds. Both were dated "00" on the castings, so they're both from 2000ish. So i've had to order up a set of new bolts for those. One of the manifolds also has a cracked Flexi, so i need to do something about that.
Two of the cylinder walls looked somewhat unhappy on this bank, sorta marred up and definitely not the usual shiney crosshatched look.
Oh and ofcourse the lifters are all dished and the camshaft looks a bit crap, as expected.
Not sure how to proceed, on the one hand the camshaft does need replacing, on the other i'd be super pissed if i replaced it, built the engine all back up and discovered it was still leaking coolant...
I think i'm leaning towards just putting it back together and see how it goes. If the head gaskets have fixed all the coolant issues, then i'll need to pull the top off again and do the cam and lifters. At least the actual heads (and those bloody manifolds!) dont have to come back off for the camshaft work.
i imagine a lot of these cleaners are somewhat snakeoily...
On mine, i found the injectors from a Rover K series were a direct fit and had similar flow characteristics, while being a much more modern design with better atomisation etc, so i just swapped them out. I can dig out the part number if you like? Was cheaper than paying to get the old ones cleaned.
Just checked. There was some sort of headgasket failure circa May 2000 at ~91k miles, it appears it was recovered to landrover cardiff and they replaced the heads with new units, but recommended engine block replacement due to "hot spots and scoring on the cylinder block". Its quite hard to make out all the details as the invoice is a fax on ancient faded thermal paper. However you can make out the basics and theres a charge for two new heads etc.
Then October 2000 there is an invoice from sheffield landrover, who replaced the short motor, along with all the gaskets etc that you'd expect.
Oddly enough, the car had only done 10miles between the original failure, and the Sheffield invoice.
It was rebuilt by landrover sometime around 2000ish I'd need to dig out the receipts, but i think they replaced the heads then shortly thereafter replaced the shortblock. Dont think its been touched since then though.
They were pretty tight, needed breaker plus cheater to crack a lot of them off.
Dont do a lot of mileage TBH. Few thousand miles a year.
I guess i clean everything up and reassemble with the new heads and fresh gaskets and see what happens. If its still leaking coolant then give it a dose of water glass.
I held off from using it before as i had the red long-life coolant in it, apparently its incompatible with that?
someone on another forum suggesting that these marks are potentially signs of liner leaks:
