That does look shiny.

I have OMVL Dream something something that I've taken off of mine for the time being - I may visit refitting it all down the road - once I've tidied that wiring up and now that I've seen that... perhaps acquired one of those too!

I might have to consider some (actual) new shocks for the rear of mine... the passenger rear corner has been a bit crash-abouty over bumps for a while... I put a used replacement on and it has improved it - but its not perfect.

Little new toy for mine - mostly to fill one of the blanks on the switch panel I made up a while ago... a matching dual USB outlet:

It's incredibly hard to photograph the lighting - and I couldn't be bothered to crack a DSLR out, but it isn't that garish in person.

Still haven't actually wired the two switches up to do anything - they light up, and light up amber on the top half when 'on', but neither the Volvo fan high speed override nor anderson connector solenoid are wired in yet. Maybe this weekend...

I'm in - I mean... literally, its not like anybody is/should be going anywhere these days :)

:) It doesn't scrub up toooo badly considering the failing paint.

Driven in again today and so far so good. I need to learn to have a less heavy foot given its petroleum only for the time being - and actually its kind of nice wafting along with it a bit quieter. Though I think it is a bit too quiet... the centre silencer will probably be going in the near future - but it was all I could get in a (well, supposedly) reasonable time frame.

The knock sensors are definitely connected, but that isn't to say they're either working or even enabled - given the oddity of my P38. Further investigation required at some point.

Don't let it hear me say this, but I might have cracked it.

Popped to my parents to pick up the pump filler to get the ATF back into the gearbox (social distancing style, obviously), and while there, I nabbed the MAF off of my dad's P38 as its currently not in use. I'd noticed mine at idle is reading 16 or so, where the internet suggests it should be 20-25. Put his on, reset adaptives (again) and it still read about the same. The only thing I hadn't checked on either was what it should read at higher engine speeds - because I couldn't remember the figures, and I'd been making enough noise with it on the driveway.

Went for another drive, expecting to only get half way up the road where there is a turning circle and then to come back - and it was glorious. Did 5 miles or so, and did a lap of a very steep hill a couple of times that puts a heavy load on any engine and everything sounded as it should.

So - has this noise actually been pinging all along due to intermittently dodgy fuelling? The trims have looked okay when I've been checking them, but I have had additive adaptive faults for both banks for a LONG time - I put this down to the LPG map in the past, and then to the hilariously worn cam when I found that. The live data didn't seem to make sense with the fault codes present. I don't know if this has now cleared - I will check in a few days if things stay good.

Next step was to take it to work and see how it went. But that required it get a bath... it was properly minging inside and out with oil, ATF and general grime over the sides and bonnet where I'd been dragging myself out from under it. And all manners of dust and the same inside. Plus several weeks of storing most of the top engine bits inside - lovely. The roof hasn't been cleaned properly in well over a year too - so out came the steps. The bonnet needs a respray, and there are quite a lot of little areas that need corrosion sorting at some point.

My 16 mile commute of mixed motorway and the bit around down ended on 20.2mpg. Now - I hadn't reset it before changing the MAF so I don't know if that is down to the new cam, MAF, or both - but if it wants to keep returning that kind of figure, I'll be a happy bunny. Later in the week I'll hopefully be ordering a brand new Bosch MAF.

That's only the second time I've done a cam break in - I didn't like it any more this time either! I'd love to now go out and give it a bit of a hooning to see if we've got some more power back - but so far I've just driven it round a few times being back at square one.

Sure, I could just drive it as-is and eventually, maybe, the issue may make itself more obviously known. But the whole reason I bought my first P38 was wanting something V8 that wasn't any old saloon or something that didn't offer anything over a normal car. I drive it because I enjoy the noise it makes. This currently just sounds like its broken... like the ubiquitous hatchback with a throwout bearing that is moments away from letting go, or the Transit running on 3 being ragged off its tits. I don't drive my P38 everyday, I only really do now because I want to. Which I really do - but not sounding like this.

I'll happily pull the gearbox out if it comes to it, roping a certain Marty who has definitely volunteered already into it :) But as I'm sure you can imagine - it would be nice to narrow it down fairly definitively before taking that plunge. Frankly I'd rather pull an engine out again than drop the gearbox. I could do that and just swap the TC... but if you're going that far, wouldn't it make sense to change both?

Minor update... and actually, as a few have suggested just this evening - mount related. I have discovered that the passenger side engine mount is backwards, so the throughbolt is hard against the framerail. The rubber is also a bit perished - I can shift the engine over about 5mm by levering with not massive force in the mount using a spanner. Tomorrow once I've refilled the gearbox, I'll see about lifting the engine up, extracting the mount and turning it round. While I'm at it, the drivers side mount can be loosened off and the engine pulled over slightly. I do remember it being a pain in the arse to get back in when we had it out for the flex plate - but we didn't remove the mounts, so it has been fitted backwards since before my time. It might be the rubber has perished over time and now allowing more flex perhaps... I can see the drivers side is fitted correctly, but couldn't easily get leverage on it to give it a wiggle.

Which might explain not hearing anything on the clamp microphone anywhere on the engine - if the noise has been isolated by the mount. Could all be wishful thinking but nothing to lose I suppose.

Right - I'm really running out of ideas on this and I'm not sure what to look at next.

Things I have done that should rule out certain areas:

1. Pulled entire inlet and valley gasket arrangement apart and refitted with new gaskets after cleanup.
2. Removed LPG nozzles and blanked with locktited M6 bolts. Vacuum port on inlet blocked up as not currently required.
3. Replaced camshaft and followers etc. Cam broken in.
4. Front cover resealed.
5. Checked oil pump gears - look fine, were replaced 18 months ago because we had it out and in bits to replace the flex plate.
6. Water pump changed (was noisy and leaking before)
7. Sump resealed.
8. Both exhaust manifolds removed, looked over, refitted with new gaskets. Heat shields tidied up and secured.
9. Any cooler pipes etc touching body or framework have been isolated or adjusted to clear.
10. Can't see any cracks in the flex plate.
11. Removed front prop as I did find some play in both ends - I couldn't see this making a difference as the noise can be heard when loading up on the brakes in drive.
12. Made up a clamp on mic/pickup like an electronic stethoscope and clamped it on to the gearbox, bell housing, engine sump, engine lifting point, and went for several drives - could not pickup the noise over this at all. Could hear other internal noises though so I am relatively confident I should have heard the damned noise if it was present at the locations.
13. Had the gearbox sump off to inspect for glitter, nothing seemingly alarming.

I can't see how this noise could be coming from the engine. I can't see any sign of a head gasket blow on the outside of the block, nor was there any evidence of one in the valley. The noise is identical to the engine work and removal of LPG. Won't do it free revving, will happily do it when accelerating or loading up the gearbox foot on brake when hot.

I am at a loss... any suggestions?

Back together, cam bed in.

Still squeaking when driving on throttle. Slightly frustrating.

Exhaust parts finally turned up yesterday, and I left work early to stock up on more essentials - another mountain of bog roll etc. Oh and some food. And then on to finishing off the RR.

Got everything back together, and the car just fought me the whole damned way. To be fair, the exhaust all appeared to go in pretty much fine. Finished up the wiring, refitted the starter etc. The wheel arch liner proceeded to jump out and twat me in the face giving me a nose bleed. Appropriate use of my foot then had it beaten into submission and clipped back in.

I'd been waiting on the exhaust bits all week and I'd then forgotten I needed some bungs to block up the currently unused LPG coolant lines. Ended up just looping the hose and putting a hose squeezing clamp tool on it to block the flow.

All the relays bar the ABS pump back in, key to pos2, no smoke, no pops. Turned over a few times and no nasty noises. So - let it start. And after getting the fuel rail filled up - it did.

Annnnnnd massive exhaust leak. Kept the revs high while trying to work out where it was coming from - it is very eager to rev now, and sounds lovely, until it started seemingly cutting fuel and dropping the revs, which repeated almost like it was being caused by the ECU.

The leak was coming from bank 1 downpipe joint (passenger side for us RHD). For some reason, the flanges hadn't pulled tight, and trying to tighten the fixings wasn't having it. Attempted to loosen them off to separate it and inspect, and despite everything going together without binding etc, one of the studs just snapped clean off. Several new interesting words were then invented.

So now I have the other manifold off... it might have been possible to drill it out in-situ, but given the passenger manifold is piss easy to remove, it made no sense to try.

Welded a bar on to the remains of the stud and after it lost that fight, out it came. I've taken all three out now, as the threads are buggered. Will drill the remains out and then nut and bolt it.

I am hoping the fuel cut oddity was either a) still air in the fuel rail, as it only ran for about a minute total or b) the massive exhaust leak causing the o2 sensor to screw up the injection, which I think makes more sense as it appeared to start doing it after about the time I'd expect it to go closed loop.

I have a Milwaukee 1/2" impact gun - with a mere 600nm of ugga and duggas. It was the beastiest one they did - but that was almost 5 years ago now and they've moved on to even 1" battery guns with enough torque to put most air powered tools to shame.

I've actually binned my old air powered one, because since getting the battery one, I simply never used it.

There are still times when the breaker bar is the better choice though - usually when breaking the fixing off is going to cause a problem.

My favourite new battery tool though is the M12 3/8" ratchet - I use it all the time for whizzing nuts/bolts on/off quickly. Very little torque, but if its critical, you just come back with a normal ratchet/spanner and do the final tighten with that.

Yes, the SSL certificate expired - I think Gordon probably has it on auto-renew, but sometimes it doesn't always work.

Nothing, in this case, to be concerned about :)

I'd thought about wrapping them as I did that on my last P38 with good results - I just haven't got any wrap to hand this time.

Probably not on the video front, as it'll be a case of bleeding coolant while not letting it idle to break the cam in, and I don't remember it being a fun game last time :)

New cam and lifters are in. Exhaust manifold and somewhat modified heat shield back on...

Part of the inside of the heat shield (the engine side bit has been missing since I got the car) appeared to have been rubbing against one of the header pipes. Some tactical tapping should have corrected that clearance, but if not - when it went back onto the manifold, I spacered it out with some M6 washers and longer bolts.

The bottom was pretty rusty too, so a section was lopped off with the grinder, then a few tack welds now holds it together.

I know some don't bother putting them back on at all - but under bonnet temps are high enough... I'd rather not risk it. The other side is actually a bit rattly, so I might take that off and give it similar cut/shut/weld treatment at some point.

The electric Volvo fan shroud also had a bit of a small upgrade - welded captive nuts on the inside. Should the fan fail down the track, replacement now won't need pulling the top hose off to remove the whole shroud - the fan can be unbolted in-situ and swapped out.

Other than that... the inlet manifolds are all on, wiring loom is in, and most of the front of the engine and sump is back together. The wind yesterday was just too annoying to carry on. Hopefully the rest of the exhaust turns up in the next few days, so it can all be fitted and cam break in done in an evening during the week.

Gearbox coolers seem to leak as one of the P38 rites of passage. They usually leak on either of the end tanks - and I doubt there is much hope in repairing.

You should probably buy both lines too while you're at it, as the steel vs alu corrosion results in either the connections snapping off or stripping the threads on removal.

Guess what I found on mine while having it in bits for the engine work? Gearbox cooler leaking :) So that will be the third one this P38 sees when I get around to replacing it... to be fair the one it has now was a used one that happened to comply and come off my old P38 without too much fuss.

The one on our red P38 did not come off without a fight however.

Last thing - the britpart (and maybe others, I don't know) replacements don't have the screw hole for the overheat switch on the end tank. I think I stuck it on with JB weld rather than risk drilling/tapping a £100 heat exchanger.

I'm obviously up for another RR camp when ye olde gov' and pandemic et al allow!

Be good to have a bit more socialising pub style-in-the-workshop-yard - maybe slightly less on the big jobs and some easy things? Obviously we had a slight unforeseen late nighter last time, but it involved a P38... things happen! And it probably won't be the last time it happens.

Mine is coming from Island, but is the Allmakes branded parts - so fingers crossed!

Having seen this in person - it is looking very good!

If it wasn't for the ever growing list of things I need to do elsewhere I'd be sorely tempted to give it a go myself... maybe one day.

Definitely the best setup I've seen to date.

If you've got depinning tools and various decent crimping supplies, it isn't that bad of a job.

If I re-fit the LPG to this, then I will be soldering in the LPG pickup wiring instead of using the injector piggy back loom - makes for a much neater installation. I'll probably do the actual connections within the flexible rubber pipe as there is a fair bit of room in there. Just slide it down the loom, cut in etc, then slide it back. I'm actually thinking of locating the LPG ECU within the vehicle next to the ABS ECU, as there is room there, and the big loom grommet at the edge of the bulkhead will have plenty of space to get the LPG wiring through. The GEMS ECU box is a good place normally, but I already have plans to re-use it for something else, and the wiring loom spread over the engine bay always seemed a bit messy.

Loom is done for now - I still need to replace the MAF connector with one Chris sent me yonks ago (thank you!) as the insulation is now cracked on all the wires, but I can do that when its back on the car and more importantly... when I find the replacement connector! :)

Island4x4 order with the engine parts should turn up today, so I can get started on reassembling things over the weekend, then fight with the centre section/rear silencer exhaust stuff next week. New cats were the first thing to arrive so they can go on too beforehand.

I am slightly worried about fitting the replacement full exhaust to mine... its all aftermarket. After the fun/pain of fitting most of the £249 stainless eBay special, I'm having concerns about this mild steel stuff when it turns up...

The remains of the eBay special is going in the bin - I won't miss it.

Disturbing them is certainly what will cause issues - but most of these issues have been exacerbated by the LPG pickup loom being crammed in too.

Bit of progress over the last few nights. Stripped most of the oily and crispy coverings off before a bit of cleanup, repair, and recovering. I'm using cloth loom tape on parts of the loom at the top of the engine - where they should be safe from most oil leak sources. On the lower parts I'm reusing the split conduit covering, but cable tieing it in place where required.

Had to move to the floor to lay it out before I completely lost track of how it was supposed to be physically laid out. Not the most exciting update but I'll be happier with it cleaned up and less messy.