We also seem to have worked out the essential toolkit for a P38 owner. Going on what seemed to be used most, it was Marty's big club hammer (for hitting anything that should move but wouldn't), my nylon faced mallet (for knocking ABS sensors back into their housing) and my Stanley knife (for opening burger packages, cutting strings of sausages into individual sausages, for cutting the ends off split cruise control hoses and cutting out bits of Mark's carpet). So it seems that a Stanley knife is the most essential tool followed closely by two big hammers........

Miles, in case you haven't noticed, I've sent you a PM.

I'm home, well I've been home a while but been watching the Austrian GP. I must admit that I completely forgot about picking up Chris's tools that he left behind which would have been ideal as I spend at least 3 days a week running up and down the M11 between Peterborough and East London. I could have chucked them into the shrubbery at the Harlow roundabout on my way by if nothing else.

A good fun weekend where we had rather a lot of P38's in varying states of dismantling at times and also spent a lot of time shifting a 3 wheeled Discovery around the place. At least it gave my ex-plod the chance to relive it's previous life by dragging heavy lumps of immobile vehicle around the place on the end of a bit of string. Miles (Morat), the cook Meister, ensured we didn't go hungry with his skills on the barbecue while Marty taught us all a few new words while trying the get the steering arm off the steering box. Eventually brute force and a very large hammer did the trick. Mark (Orangebean) still had no drivers seat when I left and Nick (Sloth) proved just how many bits of a P38 you can cram into another one.

One thing we didn't do was line all the cars up for a photo, but hopefully someone will have taken some even if I didn't......

I've just got back from Tesco with a load of burgers, buns for burgers, sausages, and other assorted bits of dead animal. I was running short on charcoal and noticed they had the one use barbies, so I've got a couple of those. Saves having to clean the one outside so it can go in the car.

I'm about to go on the LPG and food run in a few minutes having spent the evening putting back in, then taking out again (because I'd forgotten to re-connect a fibre optic loom) and then putting it back together again, the dash on a Porsche Macan Turbo. In between finding things in the garage and bunging them in the boot. I've got my Windows 2000 laptop with a serial port that lives in the car, an EAS cable, an AEB LPG cable, a Launch C Reader VI OBD scanner and the Nanocom. I'll also have my everyday laptop with me which has RAVE and the software for just about every LPG system ever made.

I'll bung in a pair of Stillsons......

It's losing gas pressure so is acting as though you've run out of gas. Most likely culprit will be a bad connection to a solenoid coil, one of the solenoid coils breaking down or the solenoid plunger sticking. I don't have any spares or you could have come along and we'd have sorted it. Tinley Tech will supply you with a new coil if that's the problem.

You could always arrive running on petrol though.......

When I saw you'd posted in this thread, I thought you were coming over too.......

Looks more like something's clouted it to me. That same one on mine sprung a leak that couldn't be seen. At some point someone had leant on it and bent it slightly so it was touching the inner wing under the airbox. With many miles of vibration it started to chafe through until it developed a pinhole leak. I knew I was losing refrigerant but wasn't sure where from until I saw a puddle of green stuff around the body mounting behind the headlight. Nobody that was breaking a car had one at the time, nobody does an aftermarket part so it had to be genuine LR at around £70!

That's the one to have, not some doggy old Ford Zetec (or even worse, a Kent pushrod motor). If it's the right R1 engine (2005 ish), it'll be running 180 bhp at 12,500 rpm. So more power than your V8 is probably producing in something a fifth of the weight. Mental!!

To check engine codes and live data, I've got one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Launch-Creader-VI-6-OBD2-Fault-Code-Reader-Scanner-Auto-Diagnostic-DIY-Tool/181882872565?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D747e216b1a624386bd2226ab2faa8889%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D3%26sd%3D221654982685 Obviously it doesn't do as much as the Nanocom which can connect to all the other P38 systems, but it will do the engine stuff on a P38 and virtually every other car too. I bought it to replace an old U581 code reader (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/U581-CAN-OBD2-Car-Diagnostic-Scanner-EOBD-Scan-Tool-Engine-Fault-Code-Reader-UK-/162113010395?hash=item25beb03adb:g:ywYAAOSwGIRXamcW) as it can also do Japanese OBD and my daughter has a Jap import Toyota MRS Roadster but have since found that being able to look at live data as a graph makes it far easier than just looking at numbers. The live data will show you the sort of things you need to know, fuel temp, air temp, air flow, etc. It will also show you fault codes and allow you to clear them too. About the only thing it can't do is reset the adaptive values.

Hmm, that sounds fun. What motor is in it?

Why are you taking the steering shaft off now? Normally you only need to take it off to give access to the manifold bolts but as it looks like you took the head off with the manifold still attached, so you don't need to.

The carbon build up looks like it's been burning some oil. There's one that is worse than the others (2nd from the left in the photos, number 3 cylinder) and that same cylinder is a darker colour on the head too. I suppose it's possible the rings are getting tired, or, more likely from the state of the rest of the engine, the oil control ring is gummed into it's groove. From the general blackness in the valley, it seems oil changes and decent quality oil, are two things your engine hasn't seen very often in the past.

Check all the connectors you've had off, fuel temp, coolant temp, air intake temp, MAF sensor, etc. I had something similar when I first got mine (with a blown head gasket) and one of the wires to the air intake temperature plug had broken off where it goes into the moulded on plug. I was able to cut the plastic moulding away with a Stanley knife and solder the broken wire to the remains of the bit sticking out of the plug. If it's OK until it warms up, it would suggest a dodgy connection on one of the temp sensors.

It's the English early defences. If you were in South Lanarkshire you were heading south and we thought you were going to invade......

There's not much I need to do on mine, I'm there more to lend a hand/tools/moral support. Other half has decided she wants to come and be on hand for brake pedal pushing, switch twiddling, computer screen/Nanocom watching while someone else twiddles and anything that doesn't require any great mechanical knowledge, just a second person. It was her suggestion to bung a BBQ in the back of the car. As she said, once a bunch of blokes start mucking about with cars, nobody will even think about food.

From the point of view of little jobs, I've a few that need doing at some point before I do yet another run around Europe but nothing that is urgent so I could do them there or could leave them until later. I do need the odd part though. I need a drivers side heater blower. My old one died of overuse (brushes were non-existent) so I got one from eBay and fitted it. Didn't seem to make a lot of difference and when I checked it's a passenger side one so rather than blow air into the car, it just shoves the air that the passenger one sucks in back out again. I also need a seat belt socket for the smaller part of the rear seat as the plastic surround has broken off. But, as I've got a dark grey cloth interior the plastic surround is dark grey so probably a different colour to the ones used in cars with the posh leather interior. So if anyone (Sloth?) is bringing a few bits, they would be appreciated.

Oh yes, and I've got dancing locks whenever the weather is hot but I've got the microswitches to replace the ones in my drivers door latch anyway, it's just a case of getting around to fitting them.

Eventually. I speak from experience after spending a day grovelling on the floor working on a Bentley and then getting in to move it. The white leather drivers seat took on a decidedly different colour to the other seats......

If there's a build up of leak fixing gloop, then it was trying to do what it is claimed to do and plugging a gap, so that would make sense. Getting coolant into the inlet passages would allow it into the combustion chamber but whether the fuel/air mixture in the manifold would manage to go the other way, I've no idea. I would have thought it wouldn't but I suppose it depends on how sensitive the testing stuff is.

If you're running on LPG and the diaphragm in the reducer is starting to perish, LPG can seep through into the coolant passage in the reducer. That will give a positive reading for hydrocarbons in the cooling system. It's not common but has caused quite a few people to strip their engines down unnecessarily.

Seems I owe Sloth a pint for being spot on. Went outside this morning to get to the bottom of this and found the problem. Got another one now but I'll get on to that in a minute.

Crawled underneath to look at the wiring and plug on the RH bank lambda sensor(s) and couldn't see anything wrong (for some reason I was convinced it was the RH bank one that was causing the problem). Looked across at the LH bank and noticed that the cable was very close to the exhaust downpipe. The outer sheath had a hole in it but the insulation on the wires wasn't touched. However, while moving it around to see why it was dangling against the exhaust I noticed it was also very close to the propshaft. When I'd looked before it had been from above and I could see the sensor and propshaft but the cable then just went towards the front of the car to the plug clipped to the side of the sump. At the front it had been just, only just, rubbed by the propshaft to the point where the insulation on the red (12V heater) wire had rubbed through. When going forwards the rotation of the prop had pushed it away from the prop but when in reverse.....

So, having taped up the dodgy bits, I re-ran the cable behind the transmission cooler pipes so it wasn't anywhere near the exhaust or propshaft, I decided to check that everything was working as it should. Rather than use the Nanocom, I plugged in my Launch C Reader as it can display live data as a graph with different coloured traces for different things. Started it up on petrol (as it now runs properly on petrol since I cleared the clogged injector) and at idle the lambda sensors were switching from 5 to 0V just as they should (although the C Reader displays it as 1 to 0V as that is what the OBD spec calls for). Drove off down the road and still switching. Stopped at a shop, switched off. I had intended checking that all was fine on petrol before switching to LPG to make sure it was holding the fuel trims correct. As the single point LPG system uses it's own separate lambda sensor, if there is any resistance in the feed, the controller will set the mixture slightly rich. So I wanted to make sure that the fuel trims stayed the same and the lambdas were still switching when on LPG too.

A couple of minutes later, got back in, restarted (still on petrol), rebooted the C Reader (as it disconnects as soon as the ignition is switched off) and both sensors were flatlined at 1V. Ran it for a mile or so in case they were still cold and still it showed a flatline on both. Unplugged the C Reader and plugged in the Nanocom. It showed bank 2 as running closed loop but the lambda sensor was only switching from 5.0V to about 4.6V while bank 1 showed OPEN FAULT with no switching at all. So why would it be switching perfectly until I switched it off for a couple of minutes and then not switching and showing a fault on one bank when restarted? Switching it off and restarting again and still the same. No fault codes have been logged either, weird. Sloth, what's your verdict this time?

I think I see what you are getting at. Using a 5 pin relay so with dip and the fogs on the feed to the fogs would be via the normally closed contact in the relay so would work as normal. When you switch to main beam, the relay would operate so the fogs would come on as auxiliary lights. It shouldn't cause a problem though because normally as soon as you switch to main beam, the supply to the fogs is cut so there would be no current to monitor anyway. You're right on the law. Dipped beam headlights must be no greater than a total of 110W (or the equivalent if the car has HIDs), front fogs may only be used with dipped beam as the theory is that if the fog is light enough that you can use main beam without blinding yourself with the glare, you don't need fog lights. But main beam is as much light as you can chuck out of the front as you like. There's no restrictions on number of lights or total Wattage.

Maybe turning off the bulb monitoring is another of those odd things that the Police spec setting in the BeCM does so they can wire the front fogs to flash along with all the other lights. It's never really bothered me to be honest, I've spent most of my life having to look at the reflection of my lights on the garage door or the back of another car to see if all the bulbs are working, that the monitoring is just a bonus (or, in the case of a dodgy front sidelight bulb holder, a pain in the arse, all that beeping to tell me a light I would never use on it's own isn't working).