Yeah, it's a great winter car - especially with the heated seats/screens.
185/75= 2.46 miles per litre on the Orangebean scale which I'd say is a little low, but everyone drives differently and if you're smashing the throttle these V8s will take pretty much all the fuel you can throw down their necks :)
I usually get about 2.7 on day to day B road commutes (against the clock) and up to 3.1 on the motorway on cruise control at 75mph.
That's broadly similar to GilbertD except for his freakishly good best figure (3.6) which I guess is something to do with the 4.0 vs 4.6. Or maybe he had a sail up :)
Drive it in a tight circle on tarmac and check that the front end doesn't skip. If your Viscous Unit (centre diff) is locked you'll end up knackering lots of expensive parts of your suspension and transmission.
Wow, have you found a source of new NRVs?
I could probably do the international shipping, there's a franking machine at work which will print the relevant labels. I'll need to pay them back of course!
I won't be able to do customs declarations or anything flash like that so you might want to check out the implications - I've no idea what shipping TO the USA will mean for taxes/import duty.
I waved my wife off in the Range Rover today - she actually chose it over her Golf for the School run. Incredible!
Well, I'm impressed!
Nah, they're very well tucked away until you pull on them and then they pivot down. They spring up flush with the headlining when not in use.
Martyuk wrote:
If anyone is around the Swindon area and wants bushed pressed, then I have a 20T bottle jack press and the correct tool to do it.
The tool was about £80 when I bought it and does the job nicely. I've done a few sets on my own without help, and it takes a bit longer to get it all lined up but once it starts pressing, its fine.
Bah, next time I'm just going to watch you struggle :P
The recommended way to clean the sunroof drains is with some smooth flexible wire type device rather than compressed air. Just in case the pipe is really blocked and pops off at a joint when you pressurise it.
Zinc is very important for old flat tappet engines from everything I've read. If a genuine lubrication engineer wants to step in I'd love to hear more.
Yes, the Comma 5w50 is lower in Zinc than some other grades at 900ppm vs 1200ppm which is the highest I've found so far. But I went with the higher viscosity and compromised a bit on the Zinc, because it's still much higher in Zinc than oils designed to the latest manufacturer specs (which don't seem to have any at all).
Who's right? Who can tell?!! See you in 50,000 miles :D
(I hope!)
Yoink!!! :)
It makes even more of a difference in Low Range!
But in a completely different way, it's really cool having a manual option for hill descents etc.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Comma-MS5L-Motorsport-Fully-Synthetic/dp/B003BPSW6A
OK, that's an ugly link :(
But that's the Comma oil I use in the Duchess.
Happy New Year :)
Let's hope for vaccinations, pubs open, a swift economic recovery and maybe a P38 meet!
That's how it should be, but not how mine is!
Back in the days before multigrade oils, 30 weight was very common, and you'd have to change your oil in the winter to a lighter weight for better starting!
The original Buick V8s will have run on single grade oil when they were first produced. I don't know what grade they used back then but it would be interesting to find out and see how the second number in the oil recommendation has changed over the years.
LOL, I disappeared down a bit of a rabbit hole in the internerd and found this: https://www.hometownbuick.com/1955-buick-lubricare-instructions/
It turns out that the recommended oil weight for a 1955 Buick LeSabre (which looks like a V8 on the picture) was 20W when the minimum ambient temp was 32F. That's a lot thinner that I thought! No wonder engines didn't last very long...
Mine will be VERY Merry - there's bugger all else to do!
Have a good one chaps, 21 needs to be a massive party to make up for a lost year :P
One day I'll buy an ultrasonic cleaner but until then, brake cleaner is pretty awesome stuff.
Yes, the good old Jeep 4.0 is another pushrod/flat tappet engine so I run the recommended 5w30 in mine and it has 1200ppm Zinc (ZDDP) to try and keep the tappets in order.
I raised the viscosity in the P38 after Gilbert said the original recommendation for the RV8 was a heavier oil, but I run 5W for superior cold start protection. Of course, the fancy multigrade oils we have now were just not available back when these engines were designed so there had to be more of a compromise between protection for cold start vs running at temp.
I run both vehicles on Comma oils, which are great value IMO.
5W is good for cold start protection. The first number doesn't affect viscosity once the engine is up to temp.
I run 5w50 with lots of zinc (which is recommended for flat tappets), after changing from 10w40.