I know Gilbert travels a good deal and perhaps has better experiences of main dealers, but I lived in France for 15 years and I whole heartedly echo Pierre's frustration there. I never had anything other than indifference or downright rudeness, lack of interest in anything they hadn't sold and of course there is effectively no parts resource there anyway, it all comes to order from the UK and the price structure reflects the much higher cost of operating a business in France. I was cured of any enthusiasm to seek their help after 3 or 4 tries and relied thereafter on Paddocks (mostly) for parts and forum aided selfhelp. I am sure Brexit hasn't helped in France any more than it has here in Ireland.

Wish I had seen your post/website before I did mine, I had the same issues with the plastic shroud and an additional issue, where the drain plug o-ring had no seat, I couldn't fintd a dowty style washer at the time and used some blue Hylomar, then when I found a suitable dowty washer, I couldn't undo the plug after and had to get the boss altered/welded by a local engineer. Direnza professed no knowledge of the shroud issue , but your photo's are better than mine and show it reasonably well.

I had the problem (or half the problem) on my diesel, remember that they are double skinned so collapse may only be due to engine mount failure (or?), actual leakage in the case of the diesel is easy to see because of the soot .... on a V8 it may not be as obvious visually, but should be pretty easy to determine. The flex saves all the stress on the rest of the exhaust and a good flexi I would say is absolutely necessary.... V8's rotate quite a bit as I recall so I wouldn't be temtped to bypass it. .... just storing up trouble.

Gilbertd wrote:

Gunk is horrible smelly stuff. Do you have Screwfix in ROI?

We do,.. they got their act together fairly sharpish after Brexit, a lot of stuff still comes direct from the UK and delivery times vary depending what you order, still better than most though, I'll look out for it thank you.

I recommend a new O-ring for the rigid heater pipe that goes into the block just by the water pump while you have all that stripped out it is part no. PES100150L.
I can tell you that cooling on a P38 diesel can be a struggle, in the last 3 years I have renewed everything, W/pump, fan, ally rad etc. and yet towing (admittedly a probably overweight) trailer back up from the south of France I still had to slow right down on the hills, I could keep the speed up but revving over about 3500 for prolonged periods was guaranteed to see the needle creep into the red.
Also note that a hot M51 uses quite a bit of oil which is essential to good cooling, recommend you check the level there after your troubles.

Thanks, I'll check out the fuse and the condition of the wiring, I do have an annoying leak, .. there is often damp on the rubber mat by the A-pillar.

Regarding the ABS and TC lights, just had that problem and couldn't find a brake related issue...... turned out to be a wheel bearing, I presume the wheel sensor was affected by that. On the Nanocom front mine didn't seem to be able to connect with any of the ecu's is that a common problem?

Dry silicone for windows and sunrooves, less mess, clean to touch after and an annual once over is usually good

Well done,... I usually just miss the vital moment.

Hi Chris,.. many similarities with my own story, .. I have mine about 5 years now having swapped over from a D2 daily driver (which I had for 15yrs)
Having got into various repairs the electronics lose their initial scariness, in fact I recently found myself seriously wondering about an update to an L320, but I think that might be a step too far. I am impressed that the damp electrical gremlins haven't troubled you too much, it sounds as if it was outside unloved for a good while.

Pierre, Symes will no doubt chime in, but missing sounds like you have a problem with one (or more) injectors or lines. There are ways of testing which cylinder it is assuming it is consistant. But really it is impossible for him to say without looking at the car, it could be a number of things. How did you get on with leak off pipes and checking for air? Can you perhaps video the engine running? It might give a better idea of where to start.
Might be no help to you but my trouble seems to have been a MAF sensor issue, cleaning that up has apparently solved my problem. But our symptoms differ with mine being total fuel starvation.

Watching with interest. I do think the modest duty cycle of the original coupled with the increasing quality doubts of available replacements will make Viair and similar swaps more interesting, especially if coupled with on board air. Can't help with the dimensions I am afraid, but there are an increasing number of 3D scanners out there many someone will create a model for you?

Well I am grateful, Thanks for the tip, As it ran and started so well I planned to leave well alone but I will look at that first.

Leak off pipes all new and the top of the engine is still clean and dry since it was all changed so I'd be fairly confident there. FIP, .... don't fancy that while it runs so well otherwise: starting in particular is much better since the change. I'll monitor it for the time being, we have another trip coming up so that could be interesting. Thanks for the sounding board though Dave it does help just to bounce things across.

Update, ... drained a few glugs from the bottom of the filter, no water or anything, and flow tested the in tank pump..... seems to give 190mls according to my Lidl measuring jug. Can't see any visible issue with the stop solenoid; also I tend to think a break in a wire or something of that nature would only get worse with time but who knows....
Direnza rad has had to go to the local machine shop, to have the drain plug rectified, had to put the old one back for the time being.

Thanks Dave, ... I was loooking at Fab-Rats on the tube and wondering about in-tank pump performance.... he was swapping out the pump on a Suzuki build. But filling the tank didn't seem to be the instant cure which I was hoping for.
You are right of course I should do the flow test, ... weather permitting I'll have a crack at that tomorrow. I am half way through putting in a Diresta rad at the moment, just trying to reconcile the slightly different fixings.
Yep can rule out veg oil and I am pretty sure there is no air in the pipe, but I will have another look.

Interested in your 4HP24 swap btw, was that easy to do?

In brief my P38 is now running (mostly) very well on a replacement engine with about 120k on it. Engine was in a few days before a big trip to the Isle of Mull last August, and it performed faultlessly until the way home when it stuttered and died, Nanocom showed a fuelling issue fault logged, it started straight away and appeared to run well so we continued. All in all it happened a handful of times on the remainder of the journey.... not always bringing us to a stop, mostly it cleared and picked up again. I put it down to dirty fuel, put some Redex in the system and changed the new filter for a clean one. Since then it happened only a couple of times on local runs and I subsequently did a trip to Stonehaven near Aberdeen without any trouble at all. Cured I thought........... no!

Happened again yesterday and today on local runs, yesterday I was down to 1/4 tank (hoping the price would go down!) but now I have filled up and it still happened.

In tank sender/pump unit isn't that old... filter is very fresh.... am I just being unlucky with diesel or does it indicate some other problem? Any thoughts or previous experience of similar appreciated.

Sorry Pierre, bit slow this morning, I should have said the passenger footwell.

No need to pull anything to see the OBD port, it hides right down below the kick panel, but isn't covered.... all the way forward on the transmission tunnel side. NCOM06 would be right for the diesel and is what I have.

Well there's something I've learned, ... as I generally look at the 'Portal' for the latest threads I hadn't even realised there were sticky's!, I'll have to browse throiugh that lot now and make sure I'm not missing anything.