I seem to remember someone on here made up their own tool to do this and mentioned the possibility of sharing the plans for it.

I've no idea who or even if I'm completely making that up though!

Yeah, I think it was very close to a full on fire. The ember line was glowing/pulsing like wood on a fire!

And now I can't find the key for the damn thing to go and check the wiring :(

Sloth wrote:

I'd seriously consider replacing what remains of your heat shields too.... lucky not to have had a proper fire with the state they're in. Well done for having the extinguisher though.

But yes, the idle valve/motor thing has the same shape connector as the coil pack stupidly.

I'll be honest, it wasn't my extinguisher. It belonged to my girlfriends dad who luckily lives next door and was helping me out!

I'm definitely purchasing one of my own though.

I did think about replacing them after seeing what had happened. Not looked in to it yet though.

The two plugs that went in the to coils were black IIRC.

So the idle valve uses the same shape plug but a different colour? Is that the piece attached to the top of the inlet manifold with two large P Clips? I'll check that when I get home.

Idle seemed to be ok though, besides the miss fire. It settled and slowed when the engine warmed up etc.

[Gilbertd](/user/GilberGilbertd wrote:**

Isn't there something on the Thor engine where there's a plug for the coils and another plug that should go somewhere else that can be interchanged?

I don't know. There were two plugs for the coils and they were both connected. There didn't seem to be anything else in that area.

[Gilbertd](/user/GilberGilbertd wrote:**

Have you connected everything up right?

I'm pretty sure I did. As far as I could tell each plug could only go in one place based on the shape of the connector. And I didn't see any plugs left disconnected.

I have a generic Bluetooth OBD2 reader bit it won't connect to the P38. Works fine on my girlfriend's Astra though :(

I'll have to try it again and check the OBD2 port - it could have damaged pins or something.

Each plug lead is only long enough to reach the plug it's attached to. I didn't remove them from the coils when I took those off so they've not been crossed over at that end either.

There's no warnings lights on the dashboard - are there any diagnostic software tools that would identify if/where the miss fire is?

I imagine a Nanocom would but I don't have one, the prices keep going up and up and I imagine it would take a fair while to get here from Cyprus.

Just finished putting the car back together rather replacing the head gaskets, fired it up and left it to run a while to get the coolant drawn through.

I'm pretty sure there's a miss fire as it's running a little lumpy but it smooths out a little when it warms up. When blipping the throttle the revs seem to cough/dip before rising.

After a while a good amount of smoke started rising from the back of the engine bay.

Looked underneath and found this:

Got the fire extinguisher out and cooled it down and the smoke eventually stopped.

Would a miss fire cause the cat to get hot enough to almost set fire to the heatshielding on the floor? I'm thinking the unburnt fuel from the miss fire is being pumped in to the cat where it's burning off.

What's weird is that the cat itself wasn't glowing and the red patch is only at the rear of the cat rather alongside the whole cat.

When it had cooled a bit I reached down to the coil and made sure all the leads were attached, they seemed ok but one or two did move in a little. I then checked the leads to the plugs and they seemed ok too.

I then started the engine up but I'm not sure if it sounded better or not. I didn't let it run long.

Pulled the spark plugs out (passenger side) and looked at them. I'm not sure of the cylinder numbers but I think that side is 1, 3, 5 and 7? 1 and 7 were a nice grey-ish colour and 3 and 5 were black.

Possible miss fires on 3 and 5 that cleared up with the leads/plug check and the excess fuel then burnt off and turned them black on the second start up?

Or, any other ideas? Kind of reluctant to start it up again until I get the fire extinguisher refilled!

I've had a play around with the Android Imgur app (I don't own an iOS device).

If you press and hold on the image you get an option to image link (or something like that).

Copy that and you can paste in to the box the forum gives you when you click to add an image.

While they're there? Aren't the ball joints on the front axle?

The TD4 in the FL1 and the TD4 in the FL2 are different engines.

FL1 is a 2.0 and FL2 is a 2.2.

FL1 ran 1997 to 2006 with a facelift in 2003. The 2.0 TD4 engine replaced the L Series in 2001.

FL2 ran 2006 to 2014 and had a 2.2 TD4

Cheers for the link, I'll download it a bit later this evening.

L Series was the the older Rover diesel engine.

TD4 was the later BMW diesel engine.

I'll take a look, might turn out to be better than the one I had. Cheers :)

We now have a 2004 TD4 Freelander in the household and finding that the copy of RAVE that I have seems to have very little for the TD4 Freelander.

It only seems to have service procedures for the 1.8 and 2.5 petrol engines - which makes sense as the workshop manual is listed as 3rd edition - NAS.

Is there a version out there that has procedures for the TD4?

no10chris wrote:

I hope it was fixed free of charge, half of the half wits that work on cars shouldn’t go anywhere neer them.
Most probably got there nvq and think there qualified mechanics.

It was.

I still don't entirely trust the story he was given.

He drives a delivery truck for a new car dealership group, based at their national PDI centre. They have a huge workshop where they carry out PDI's and pre-delivery rectification/warranty work.

He had the brakes and drop links replaced there before going for the MOT.

He then had the techs at his depot who did the brake and drop link work look in to the noises. They found the "loose pipe" and blamed the MOT man.

Having heard the noises myself I really can't believe that any of them were caused by any kind of loose ventilation pipe, most of which would be inside the cabin behind the dashboard. Certainly not running past the suspension and steering on both sides of the car. The noises were definitely coming from somewhere around the wheels/steering/suspension.

I think the brakes and drop links were done in a rush and not done properly, they fixed it and blamed it on something else to pass the blame knowing my dad's not overly mechanically minded and would just be happy to have the car fixed again.

Lpgc wrote:

no10chris wrote:

I hope it was fixed free of charge, half of the half wits that work on cars shouldn’t go anywhere neer them.
Most probably got there nvq and think there qualified mechanics.

Problem is, get their NVQ and they are qualified mechanics lol.. Still, the NVQ is probably slightly a better sign of experience and aptitude than any supposed sign in my (LPG conversion) trade! I used to deliver NVQ's for a chamber of commerce training dept, would agree they don't mean much. Learners varied a lot in terms of previous experience, aptitude and attitude... but most passed. You know the story already, at one end of the scale were kids who had been slotting V8's into Fiestas with their dads (and then by themselves) since they were 6 years old, loved learning mechanics / electronics and computer stuff / lots of aptitude and great attitude. At the other end of the scale were people with no experience and every opposite trait who'd been coerced into a course they weren't really fussed about... Both types might end up working as a mechanic, both might work for themselves, both might say the same things when advertising.

We see something similar occasionally with apprentice applicants.

There's English and maths tests to pass to be accepted on to an apprenticeship. We occasionally see young lads that ace the tests, score highly and get on the course. They then turn out to not enjoy being a mechanic, can't be bothered and do a terrible job. They stick around for ages as an apprentice is hard to "fire". They find any reason to not do much and only ever end up doing basic services etc. They never ask questions like "what does that bit do?" or "how does this work?".

I once saw on given the task of modifying an empty oil barrel for something. It needed a hole in it to accept something to do some special task (I'm not sure what). I watched him try to punch a hole in it using a hammer. Just a hammer. I told him it would be much easier to use something pointy to make a hole, like a chisel or a drill, and it would make a significantly smaller dent around the hole. He said no, he prefers it to use the hammer so it would take longer.

At the other end of the scale there are guys that are really enthusiastic, very mechanically minded and can't wait to get stuck in to big/complicated jobs with the experienced techs but didn't do well at school so struggle to make it on to the course.

Did you modify the the valve spring or the tool?

Yeah, I have the heads back.

I'll give that a go then :)

Ah...yes..that is a good point.

D'oh!

Someone in the comments had used it on XK8, which had a "proper" engine.

Does the P38 V8 engine have unusually large valves?

I bought a valve spring compressor but none of the adapters are large enough. The kits goes up to 30mm but I measured the valve spring (after finding it didn't fit) and it seems to be 31mm.

This is the kit I bought:

neilsen CT1112 Valve Spring Compressor Kit - Red (7-Piece) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0044ZRCMQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Kl4XBb334JHAM

Anyone know if larger adapters are available? I can't find any so far.

Gilbertd wrote:

RutlandRover wrote:

It quickly settled down and became lighter again though.

Or was that just that you got used to it?

I'm pretty sure it eased up. The self centering was affected by the new damper and that improved too.