I wish I could have gotten mine off in 20 minutes! Didn't quite take me 2 days but it still took longer than I would have liked.
If they ever have to come off again it should be nice and easy. After hammering and shaping the shields back in to an acceptable shape new holes were drilled in them and some stainless steel rivnuts and stainless steel bolts were fitted.
I do need to replace the bonnet release cable as the plastic handle/lever in the cabin snapped at the weekend. I hope it's not as difficult as the Citroen clutch cable!
BrianH wrote:
dave3d wrote:
Worth investing in a radiator pressure testing kit. You can then pressurise the system with the pump that comes with the kit and see where the leak is coming from.
Would agree with this - far easier to find coolant leaks with a cold engine that way. Think someone else here recently made one with a replacement pressure cap with a hole drilled into it, and a suitable pump (a bike tyre pump would be adequate as you don't need much pressure there, you just need a way to get it into the pressure cap then).
That was me :P
Some investigation is planned for the weekend
Didn't notice any pressurised pipes when bleeding the coolant system.
Drove it around for a couple of days (5 miles or so) before it started leaking as badly as it is now. It might have been leaking slightly before but I didn't notice. MOT man didn't note any coolant leaks either but he did note a slight oil leak at the rear of the engine.
The metal coolant pipe in the front of the engine got a new O-ring when I did the head gaskets, lubed it with Vaseline to stop it snagging as it went back in.
The other metal coolant pipe on the side also got a new O-ring with Vaseline lube too.
It's possible and preferable as an idea but at this point (it's taken 6 weeks of various set backs to get the head gasket job done) me and the car are on borrowed time at home :P
Time to seek outside help.
Leaking valley gasket wouldn't pressurise the coolant to the point of splitting the radiator though, would it? The radiator was brand new a couple of years ago and wasn't warped when I fitted it. Given that the rad has been fine for a few years I think it's more likely that if it has split it's been done by pressure following a cock up of the recent repairs.
I've been out and had another look.
I think there's water coming out all over the place.
There's steam coming from one of the exhaust manifolds.
There's water running down the oil filter (again) faster than it was before.
And yes, the water in that corner.
I think I've colosally screwed up my head gasket job :(
Fresh off the back of replacing the head gaskets to fix one coolant leak and a week after a clean MOT where no coolant was leaking the car has sprung another leak!
Bottom right hand side of the radiator and the pipes below that are soaked and it's leaving a large puddle under the car. Over night the level in the header tank has dropped about two inches.
The thermostat appears dry in this image so I don't think it's leaking from there.
The view from the top shows no leak from there and the (brand new) top hose is dry.
So...what lives on that side of the radiator and is located somewhere above the thermostat but below the top hose that could leak coolant?
I'm really hoping no one says there's nothing and it must be a split radiator :(
The off roading I do is on private land with a Land Rover club.
We have to pay the land owners for use of the land, usually around £200 for the weekend and we're not allowed to "damage" the land. We do a mix of TYRO, RTV and CCV trials. Trials are a series of gates you have navigate through without stopping for any reason and score points. TYRO and RTV would be suitable for P38s as they're non-damaging to vehicles. CCV trials are nuts. Those are for dedicated, modified cars that aren't road legal. They must have things like roll cages etc.
It's very different to what you find at pay and play days. There's a lot fewer big muddy hills and water splashes etc.
As for pay and play locations I'm not familiar with many. I know Tixover near Peterborough (used by the Peterborough Land Rover show) and Avalanche Adventure in Sibbertoft. I've never been to Avalanche though.
Yeah, I tend to agree but occasionally there are worthwhile offers that crop up :)
Is it worth us having a thread to share any good deals we find for things Range Rover related? Tools, parts, mods etc.
I don't have any to share yet (at work with very restricted internet access) has anyone else found anything useful?
Mine froze up in the snow earlier in the year but I was lucky in that it at least latched closed.
I was able to latch it and drive off until it warmed up enough for to close it properly.
I hope he managed to find one :)
Given the age of these cars now I do sometimes wonder how many of the different types of srcews and nuts were Land Rover and how many are down to previous owners/other repairers just using what they had to hand during other repairs.
Someone here was looking for one a while ago - did you find one?
Sjovn Xii on the Range Rover P38 UK Facebook group has put up a post saying he has one.
Gilbertd wrote:
So does the GEMS P38. Most of the car is metric but the engine is Imperial so there's things like the exhaust manifold bolts are UNC but on a Thor they are M8. As the ARP stud kit is the same for GEMS and Thor I assume the Thor block still uses 7/16 UNC head bolts.
Yep, but I was able to undo mine with a 16mm 6 sided socket. 12 point socket was just slipping off though.
I locked my keys in a P38 years ago. I changed the battery with them on the seat and the windows closed.
I got in using a wire coat hanger.
Straighten out, shape a hook in the end and pull the top of the door out slightly.
With a a bit of practice you can get the hook under the lock pin and pull it up.
Also, IIRC, does the small window in the rear door come out fairly easily if you pull off the rubber strips around it? If so you can then reach in and unlock the rear door and open that. Not sure if I read that about a different car though.
Ah, I didn't notice the seller name!
This claims to be single ply 8mm: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F201838045925
It was the top and bottom ball joints of the front axle. I bought 4 new Lemforder ball joints :)
Ah well, now I have them for when I need them. Can't be too long until they're worn with split boots. There has to be some amount of crud getting in there now.
It's had a new sump gasket too - had to fish a screwdriver bit out after my bit holder disintegrated while assembling the top end.
TBH I've no idea if it's marking its territory - I've not driven it since I out it back together. The MOT was its first journey.
The running rich thing might be to do with idle speed. When I bleeding the coolant system this morning I noticed that it seemed to be holding the revs when revving the engine. I'd blip it, they'd rise, then fall and at around 1500rpm they'd kind of hover and then drop more slowly. Once or twice the revs got stuck at 3000 or so, even though the pedal was no longer pressed and the cable at the throttle body end was resting against the stop. Had to switch the engine off when that happened.
Need to look at that but I just needed it running for the MOT at that point. MOT guy didn't mention any problems when he brought it back though.
Disconnecting a spark plug and injector to lower emissions would lead to very lumpy running engine and possible warning lights/error codes (on a more modern car) wouldn't it? I'm sure that would give other problems for an MOT.
Ah, looks like I've misunderstood the term single ply then.
Is single ply a silicone hose with one additional layer surrounding it?
I took it to mean the hose was comprised of just a single layer of material, which is the case with the hose I linked.