Awww, you old romantic Tony!
Whisking the missus off for a trip down memory lane and stopping half way down it to do a bit of maintenance on the old girl (car that is!)
Now if only I had a bead blaster to finish off those alloy parts...
Ah well, all ready to bolt back together tomorrow
Rings and shells were only if I did actually pull it completely apart, but for now it's getting a days soak of 20cc naptha per pot (Redex injector cleaner) as I get everything clean to put top end back together.
The oil separator was in 3 bits so have put a new one in. Just the bananas left to scrub now.
Parts washer's getting intensive use this weekend!
Found a bottle of Redex injector cleaner. Mostly Naptha so that'll do nicely for marinating the pistons!
OK- plan for today. Good soak for all cylinders and continue putting top end back together. Hopefully get it back to the stage where running and driveable by Tuesday, giving me enough time to road test and get the parts I'd need to pull the heads/ sump/ pistons ordered and here before Christmas if I need to go there.
I was wondering how to fill the gap between Queens speech and Jools Holland. Now have a feeling I'll have plenty to do!
The advantage of using your pressure tester in combination with the uv fluid would be that you don't have to run the engine and have the fan blast blowing your leak in all directions. Blow your system up to 1.3 bar and wait patiently in the dark.
Time to deploy your cooling system pressure tester? You could go high tech and add
http://www.ringautomotive.com/uk/products/Workshop+Tools/Leak+Detection/Fluorescent+Dyes/RLD2
That way you could deploy your black light and darkness would be your friend :)
:)
Just remembered, threw the last of my Mystery Oil in a lawn tractor a couple of weeks ago. ATF/ Acetone mix a suitable alternative?
Goolies?! I'll have you know it's a she (named Patience by the kids) and she certainly doesn't have goolies.
Right- I've slammed the workshop door on it and walked away to ponder.
So, massive oil leak from top end, which I put down to crunchy rocker gaskets. Oil in inlet which could have come through breather pipes (nowhere else for it to have come from really), so likely pressurising crankcase.
Good result on leak-down test so compression rings must be OK.
Conclusion- one or more oil control rings stuck. A possible scenario as June 2013 to July 2014 it did 13 miles and then only 2667 miles to MOT in Nov 16 when I bought it.
The fix- heads off, sump off, pistons out.
That's a large lump of cash I don't want to spend.
ARP studs- £130
Big end shells (stupid not to while I've got it down) - £33.00
Bottom end gaskets- £15.00
Ring set £76.50
Conrod bolts- £37.60
Top gasket set £99.00
Bloody £400 :(
Or I could pour a generous shot of Mystery Oil down each pot, leave to marinade for a few days, put it all back together again, then take it all to bits again.
Hmmmm
I think that's a sensible call. Dry it all off then run it around for a while and see if it comes back.
Life's too short to be pulling valley gaskets without hard facts. Possibly a touch of P38 paranoia there!
I've just found a load of oil where there shouldn't be any on my new one and I'm at the point of ripping off the heads and sump to pull pistons, but have decided to walk away and ponder awhile. I'm a living example of P38 paranoia :)
Awww cr@p. Just went to clean upper inlet manifold. Tipped it and a few of tablespoons of engine oil poured out down my leg!
If I had to pin down which cylinder intakes I'd say 7 or 8, but hard to tell cos when I moved it the oil washed around everywhere.
So...
No breather hoses collapsed. Oil separator tree thingy cleanish. Negligible leak-down on all cylinders. Where the feck is it coming from?
Thoughts on a postcard??!!
Where did you order your enthusiasm from Sloth? I could do with some to stick on the shelf!
Reflecting this morning about how unpleasant it is to do a 3 stage clean of the RR's underparts, or at least the front ones. Ultimately satisfying to see exactly what's hidden under all the oily muck, but the fact that all of the muck transfers to self indicates that the job is best done by... someone else.
I'll put off removing/ replacing what's left of the baked/ flaking Waxoil until some indeterminate time in the future though, and get on with putting it back together now...
Satisfyingly, the leak-down test was passed with flying colours. Plugs and HT leads next...
You'd think so, but I've never had the rocker covers off the '95 and every other RV8 I've ever dug into had cheese head screws!
May well do all the hoses in the medium term as a preventative measure, but LPG hoses are all still soft (ish) and flexible.
Love the 12.8mm socket story :)
Enjoy that. All those crunchy electrical cables and connectors just waiting to fracture!
I'm probably going to recable my LPG while I'm in there. Get rid of all the extraneous cable in the standard length loom and make a neat tidy sub loom for the LPG, nicely bound in heat resistant braiding/ screening.
Far too much insulation tape, random single wires and cable ties for my liking!
Thought I'd share my musings on the new car, as I work my way through all of its issues. and there are many!
Firstly, dealing with missfires reported on #5 and #8. I'm guessing these are related to the oil leak/ gush from somewhere at the top of the engine. Everything under the bonnet is oily and old looking anyway:
So... into the top end.
What a pain in the @rse getting the upper inlet and rocker covers off. So much plumbing and wiring in the way, as well as having to clean everything before exposing the innards
Major moan- I have a huge amount of sockets that I've amassed over the years, of all shapes and sizes and drive sizes, but did I have a bi-hex 8mm 1/4 drive socket to get the rocker covers off? I did not, and they're not easy to get hold of at short notice. Ended up paying £7 on Amazon Prime, for 1 tiny socket.Most I've ever paid for a socket of any size!
Anyway, rocker covers off. Rocker gaskets had deteriorated into inflexible bakelite like material, so there's the top end leak! What is surprising is the pristine state of the heads and valve gear. After 100 000 ish miles since Turner tophat engine went in, I was expecting a blackened mess, but instead found this:
So, today, leak-down test all cylinders then back together with new leads and plugs
Onwards...
Sort of Busmans Holiday then?!
In my old RR I can easily hear the EAS and brake pumps running. It's reassuring, or fuels my paranoia, depending on my mood.
In the new one I can just about hear the EAS, mainly because my ears are tuned to it by now. I can hear the brake pump easily though- mainly because it's running too often.
New accumulator and a fluid flush will sort that out though.
Once you've got the part number, stick it into LR Direct, like this, for example:
https://www.lrdirect.com/ANR3332-Bush-Frt-Arm-To-Axle-P38-See-Not/?keep_https=yes
You'll see many options. Hover over the "i" button to see the provenance and make sure there's not a hidden $hitpart connection.
In this example, I'd go for these:
https://www.lrdirect.com/ANR3332-supplied-by-bearmach-branded-bm.html
LRD are my preferred supplier, They'll dispatch same day if ordered before 1430 and their prices tend to be lower than !sland- except for genuine Dunlop air-bags. You do have to know the part number though, which you can get from other suppliers sites (R!mmers etc)