Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but you ain't going to be retiring on it........

Well damn me, it isn't even though it was a couple of days ago. They only list the Britpart and Reinz ones now.. LRDirect list an Allmakes gasket set and the Elring head gaskets separately, that might be the way to go (or just bite the bullet and get the Reinz set)

Problem with doing stretch bolts up to a certain torque figure is that they stretch so you've no real idea of how much pressure they are putting on the joint face. At least with the studs, you know that what your torque wrench says is what they are done up to. The other advantage is that the thread on the nut end is finer than the (5/8th?) UNC thread in the block so you've got far more control.

This https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/head-gasket-incl-elring-head-gaskets-stc4082el-p-6566.html is what I've always used but Island also do the Reinz kit for the same price as LRDirect and it does say it includes the head gaskets. Might be worth checking with LRDirect to make sure it does, you don't want to get the heads off, open the packet and find you don't have any gaskets. You'll end up with loads of left over seals as the kit can also be used on the earlier 14CUX engine as use in the Classic so you'll get seals that are used on that but not on yours. Always handy to keep hold of them, you never know when you'll need a random seal of some sort (I found a random copper washer that comes in the kit was a perfect fit for a leaking bath tap joint).

Misfire codes are P0300 (multiple misfires) and codes P0301 to P0308 for individual cylinders, however, I don't think GEMS is sufficiently OBD compliant to show them. Bear in mind that compliance didn't become mandatory until 2000 by which time the Bosch engine management had been implemented. So the fact that GEMS gives any codes at all is a bonus, some cars of the same era don't even have a socket to plug a code reader into (anything never intended for the US market where they adopted the standard from 1996) or, if they do, it is a socket unique to that manufacturer and can only be interrogated by manufacturer specific hardware.

Running on 7 is quite noticeable at idle and on pick up but smooths out once the revs get up. The GEMS coils feed two cylinders each so a coil breaking down when it gets hot is another possibility but as well as being down on power, you'd only be running on 6 and I'm sure you would notice the roughness if that was the case.

That's strange. I can open the one Chris posted but not the ARP instructions. On this forum for me links normally open in the same window (which is a bit of a pain as I can end up wandering off on a tangent and losing my way back to the forum) but if I right click the arp link and select open link in another tab, it does but all I get is a blank page. Probably something to do with different browsers, pop up blockers, etc. Firefox V62 on Windows 7 using a popup blocker and Ad blocker too here.

Could have been, they don't like being run low. You have been checking it with the engine running as per the book I hope? Checking it when not running and the level is about 4 inches above the max mark on the dipstick but drops when running.

I had a thought the other day when you said it only did it when very hot. There's the anti pollution thing that dumps excess petrol vapour into the inlet manifold when there's too much pressure in there. On mine, just occasionally maybe once every 3 or 4 months, I can start the car and it idles lumpy and doesn't want to rev. If I leave it idling it will clear after a few seconds or I can switch it off and restart. I've always put this down to excess petrol vapour being dumped into the manifold so that along with a good slug of LPG (as my singlepoint runs on LPG from cold) gives it a very rich mixture. I'm wondering if yours is doing the same when it gets really hot?

The ARP instructions won't open for me but no, they don't torque up anything like the stretch bolts (as they don't stretch). If the engine was out of the car you'd screw the studs into the top of the block then drop the gasket and heads on but with the studs in the block and the engine in the car you don't have enough space to get the heads on. So put the gasket and heads on without the studs in place, screw the studs in using an Allen key in the hex hole in the top (after you've made sure the holes are clear of coolant, oil and muck before putting the heads on), then lube the washers and nuts and torque them down like normal. As the instructions won't open for me, I don't know what torque they recommend. I've seen people talk about 80ft/lb which seems too high for an all alloy engine to me. Ray at V8 Dev told me to use 65ft/lb so that's what I did. 3 stages, 30, 50 and 65.

Not that old and still running, but I'm in Stilton, just south of Peterborough and have a Nanocom. It's got the GEMS licence so can't do anything with the engine on a diesel but will do the SRS and other sub-systems.

Chris, found out what I was doing wrong with my CReader, I was using the driver for a VI and mines a VI+. Tried the correct driver and it updated but doesn't appear any different to before. Doesn't seem to allow it to be used with a computer though unless Brian knows any different..

Rimmers do them, https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-RB768020 and I think Turner do too but can't find them on their website. The problem with stretch bolts is that they must be made from the exact same spec steel as original so stretch exactly the right amount. Too soft and they stretch too easily and either don't hold the heads down firmly enough so the gasket blows again not long after or break when you give them the last 90 degree turn, too hard and they don't stretch enough so can pull the threads out of the block. Core plugs are much lower down the block so even with the heads off you still won't have any better access.

As long as you don't find you are short of something goes horribly wrong, yes, easily doable over a weekend. I picked up my engine from V8 Developments on the Friday evening. That was a short engine, the block with no heads. Started on it Saturday morning, engine in, bolted up and then fitted the heads with it in the car. Fired it up for the first time about 1pm on Sunday, took it for a test drive, got cleaned up then drove it to Leeds at 6pm. All you have to remember is that it is two old school 4 cylinder pushrod engines glued together, once the inlet manifold is off, treat it as two engines.

That drip is above the core plugs, they are hidden by the engine mounts and one is behind the starter, so below the head gasket seam. If the engine hasn't been overheated the heads should be fine, just run a straight edge over them, the overhaul manual in RAVE says that the maximum warp allowed is 0.05mm. Rather than using stretch bolts, it's worthwhile replacing them with an ARP stud kit.

Unless you need the car to get to work, i suppose taking the exhaust manifold off to have a good look is about your only next step. At least then you are half way to getting the head off to replace the gasket if that is where it is leaking from.

I had some long M10 bolts that had a thinner shaft before the bolt head, that came from a blown Toyota engine I stripped down.

I cut the head off and tapped an M8 thread onto the plain shaft giving me a stud with M10 at one end that would screw into the re-tapped thread in the head and an M8 thread at the other that I could just use a standard M8 nut on to hold the manifold.

The throbbing you hear is the standard noise you'll get from a V8 as the firing is not even. That alloy block is at the top of the engine block, just below the head gasket joint. The coolant passages run at each end of the heads so it is in the right place for a weeping head gasket at the front. Just because a coolant passage is leaking, doesn't mean the head gasket has failed in the normally accepted way, the idle is far too smooth for that.. The combustion chamber seals have metal fire rings at the sealing point, the coolant passages are in the gasket material with a seam of gasket sealant around them. It's always possible that your engine was built using a gasket that had an air bubble in the sealant.

What happens with a lot of the Chinese assembly companies is that they get a contract to manufacture x,000 units for their customer. They then make a few extra and sell them for less. So you are buying the same thing but not through the normal channels. It happens a lot with radio equipment, you can buy a Kenwood or Icom hand portable radio or you can buy something for less than half the price that looks identical except for the label saying what it is. In fact, they are identical internally and made on the same production line by the same sub contractor that makes the brand name ones.

Been out and checked my Creader and it still works.......

That's why I checked Microcat as I'm sure some of the bolts on the engine are Imperial sizes. As there's no difference between heads on a 4.0 litre and a 4.6, I can't see the threads being different. However, there's different part numbers for the up to 98 and 99 onwards heads and the threads for the GEMS lifting bracket (which I'm fairly sure are the same thread as the exhaust manifold bolts) are shown as 3/8 UNC compared with M8 for the Thor engine. However, if you are helicoiling the holes, as long as the bolt you put in is the same thread as the helicoil, it isn't going to make any difference. On one engine I worked on the exhaust manifold bolt hole threads were stripped due to the bolts having been cross threaded. I tapped the holes out to M10 and then tapped an M8 thread on a stepped bolt so it became a stud with M10 on one end and M8 on the other. Actually made fitting the manifold easier as a stud held it in place while the bolts were put in.

You get further than I do, mine just comes up with Communications failure even though the green OK is lit and the red spanner flashes, it does nothing. On the Launch website there is a warning about pirated Chinese copies but my view is if it still works does it matter? I've got a Chinese copy of a VagCom unit for VAG group cars and although it comes up with lots of warnings that it is unregistered, it still works. Just got to check that mine still works now having been plugged into the computer or if I've turned it into a brick......

Mine's lasted about 4 years so far so Brian must have just got a duff one. I wasn't even aware it could be plugged into a computer so I've just got mine out of the car and checked, sure enough, there's a USB socket in the bottom under a little flap. I'll have a play with it later and see what it can do.

The graph squidges up so it the switching of the lambda sensors get closer together until it decides you'd never be able to read it so the graph scrolls. It will display the last 10 minutes or so. So if you drive it normally and look at the graphs (the most important thing you are looking for is airflow through the MAF rising with revs and lambdas switching between the limits) then keep driving until it goes sick and have another look. You should be able to see the difference and that will give a clue as to what is going on.

Calculated load value is determined by throttle position, revs and MAF. It is a combination of this and the road speed that the gearbox uses to decide when to change gear. So if you have low revs and high throttle opening, it drops down a gear.

GEMS and Bosch ECUs do the same job in the same way but the Bosch is much later technology. GEMS dates back to the early days of electronic fuel injection and was a joint venture between the French company Sagem and Lucas. It was mainly used on BL vehicles while most others used variants of the Bosch systems. Bosch continued to develop their systems (and supplied more and more different manufacturers) but Lucas decided it wasn't worth updating their system to make it fully OBD compliant. The two systems use the same sensors to do the same jobs but they aren't interchangeable.

He's just clueless but it may have had one of the 8 grand Coscast blocks that RPi were selling. They were cast by Cosworth but were still identical to a standard block, just made with a bit more care than a production block. Only problem was they still used standard liners so despite the claims by RPi, although liners didn't slip they could still leak into the combustion chamber.