Bypass the throttle body heater, its pointless here. It'll only do one thing - leak again! I think we have enough sources of potential leaks :)

When you pull the cruise control pipe out, you'll probably find a split where it passes through the grommet in the firewall. My silver one split there - I found blowing on it from the actuator end lead to a hissing from behind the engine.

Replacing with silicone, hopefully? :) Just replaced the hose on the red one seeing as its dead easy with no engine in the bay, and found while it was working (having replaced the two bits at the actuator end a while ago), it wouldn't have lasted much longer - a nice split forming at the grommet too.

Got the block out this afternoon. While cleaning it up, a LOT of rubbish was found in the sump and oil pickup, including a large piece of a previous head gasket and the fire ring... whoever last worked on this really didn't give a shit. Presumably the same idiot(s) that 'repaired' the petrol line with a bit of crap hose!

The OCD made an appearance and the sump is now shiny inside and out, as is the rest of the block. Stud kit should appear next week and it can start going back together, hopefully going back in the car next weekend.

I think it might have been an original plastic one, but I can't remember now! Either way... not having the viscous fan is probably the only reason it didn't get launched into something.

How the belt didn't come off I don't know. Conveniently, I'm currently working on the red one today, so I've stolen that one. adds a pulley to the rebuild parts requirements

Checking on things today and noticed something looked a bit... odd

I've got a Honda generator that has been sat for nearly five years since I last used it with petrol still in the tank. On the weekend we dug it out, opened the valve, waited a few seconds... and it started second pull. I had run the bowl dry when it was stored away, which probably helped... tank looked good though.

Sadly my local LPG filling station is a little bit in the wrong direction to go to all the time now, so I'm going through petrol at quite a rate :(

Awesome - I've got some 3/8 UNC bolts on the way (might have gone a bit overkill at 4") and figured Screwfix will sort any M10 needs should I need them.

Thanks!

Thanks :)

Next question... this time I'd like to have a set of bolts to go through the engine stand into the bell housing mounting holes to mount the engine on hand rather than trying to find 4 with the block hanging around...

I presume they're UNC thread of some kind?

Still ordering bits for this.

Where do you find people order your ARP stud kits from?

Knowing how 'good' my door seals are, I don't think I'll be wading anywhere anytime soon with the BECM, EAS, SRS and autobox ECUs all sitting on the floor :P

On my first P38, I had the hole in the condenser, though again it still lost gas after replacing that. It turned out the suction line (the fatter of the two solid pipes) had a pin hole leak where it is pushed up against the foam on the firewall. Under a nitrogen test it nearly went undetected until the soapy water soaked down into the foam a bit, and bubbles started slowly appearing around it.

Another water trap. The suction line gets cold and condensation builds on it. The foam gets damp and over time, the pipe corroded through.

Mmm, I was thinking of getting one of these or something like it to give a better idea of what is going on with temperatures:

They're on eBay around the £40-50 mark from China. A bit cheaper than a Scangauge 2. That to the side of the instrument binnacle wouldn't look too intrusive, and provide more useful data. I believe the temperature can be set as the main 'big' number displayed too from what I've seen - but it does other handy things.

I'd be happy with the Nanocom for this, but its a faff to get it setup and put away again. This looks like it can be left in-situ and turn on/off by itself.

Remove the slam panel that covers the radiator etc and check the top left corner of the AC condenser - you'll probably find it badly corroded and possibly with a hole in it. The block of foam that sits on it traps water, and the combination of a steel end plate and aluminium core doesn't help.

The replacements I've seen don't have the steel bracket all the way up to the top of the condenser, and I then remove the foam blocks to get rid of the water trap.

The dryer will need replacing too as the system will have been open to atmosphere for some time rendering the desiccant in it of no use.

As for the cruise control - have you checked the vacuum pipes? The ECUs did seem a bit problematic on earlier ones, though the usual cause is a split vacuum hose.

What was the issue with the coolant sensor in the end?

Hoses had to be black :) I don't get the obsession with blue hoses!

I don't have any indication that the fan is running, no. I'd thought about it, but for now I'm happy enough relying on the intermotor switch to do its job. They seem to be the one defacto manufacturer for these things so I'm happy enough trusting it.

I don't see any fluctuation in the gauge either, until my thermostat sticks open, which it seems to be doing again slightly. That and a leak on the top hose spout where it bolts to the inlet manifold getting progressively worse means I'll be draining coolant again in the near future and pulling the inlet manifolds off to replace the o-ring and thermostat.

I'm very happy with the performance of the fan, cowling and thermostat switch, however. I doubt I will ever need to use the overrride switch, as at 100c the thermostat switch will bring on the high speed anyway, but it's a handy fail safe, as it is wired to the fan's relay box directly bypassing the thermostat switch.

I should point out for anyone else considering this, I have bridged the single pressure switch that controls the low speed 'on' setting for the condenser fans. This means my front fans always run on low speed when the air conditioning is on. I've only done this for the air conditioning's benefit, as these fans do naff all for cooling the main radiator on a V8. In theory you shouldn't need to do this, as with no air flow while stationary and the engine cooling fan is off, the pressure in the condenser would build up and bring them on anyway. While testing the engine cooling fan, I actually had the condenser fans come on at high speed by themselves, meaning the pressure in the condenser had built up quite a bit beyond the slow speed stage. I can't remember the specs but it's not too bad, and they didn't run for long before going back to my forced low speed. It was a warm day, and the car was sitting with the sun directly overhead too, so inside was mighty warm. There is an 'oh Jesus Christ I'm about to pop' overpressure cut out on the compressor circuit too, which I think is set quite a bit higher than the high speed fan switch, so if it does go thermonuclear, it won't actually do damage.

This assumes of course your air conditioning and condenser fans work. The fans really need to if you're going to lose the viscous fan and want the a/c to work properly.

Just goes to show though, the viscous fan did move a lot of air even when mostly free-wheeling, and pulling air through is a lot more effective than pushing! I'm still happy to no longer have it though, as is my water pump. No more coolant emerging from the weep hole.

Little update - I now have the Intermotor 50174 fan switch fitted into a custom top hose. Interestingly, the 50174 switch is also from... a Volvo!

Random selection of pics from this morning's ventures. Little bracket for the Volvo relay box welded on to the new cowling, and then painted all black to look a bit less obvious.

The 95-90c output on the fan thermostat controls the low speed, and the 100-95 controls the high speed. In the loom I've made, I also have another input to the high speed spliced in, which I will run to an override switch inside the car at some point. The way I've made the loom, its all very easily removable for inevitable maintenance.

Completed cowling with fan and relay box. You can see the studs in the bottom that fit into the original mounts on the radiator.

Control loom:

Plugged in:

This relay takes the ignition feed via a 3 amp fuse from inside the ECU box and outputs a switched ground to the fan thermostat switch. The red wire is the positive to the fan relay box - it still needs shortening and some black conduit over it, but I didn't have any more 10mm crimps today.

And the important bit. I'm mostly happy with this.The 35mm-32mm bend (left side of thermostat switch) is currently touching the alternator mounting bolt. Not much I can do to avoid that - this is all a bit tight. I think some kind of shield around that bit of the silicone pipe is the way I'll go, to at least stop it rubbing. Thus far I only have one small leak, and that's on the thermostat switch itself - I didn't put any PTFE tape etc around its threads. Rookie mistake.

Best bit - on the Nanocom, at 95.2, the fan comes on (on low speed), and at 90.7... it goes off! And it cools it drops those 5 degrees nice and quickly. Even on low, this fan is excellent.

I was thinking of lifting the block out of our red one using these two holes too - as the heads are off, manifolds off etc.

With a P38 its definitely worth having your own kit. My nanocom has saved me at least once where I wouldn't have been able to even limp home - no start 30 miles from home.

I had a Lynx for all of one day before sending it back. That was 2-3 years ago so it might have improved, but it was naff.

The price of the nanocom has gone up slightly, but it's far better, and certainly more convenient than having a laptop if you wanted to leave it in the car.

I've never had a response to an email from Island4x4, though I've usually been able to get through on the phone.

Not really impressed by the lack of response to emails - still got a water pump I'm waiting on them to warranty...

I've not come across it - I need something that will go relatively hard to stop the terminals moving or coming loose with vibration. If it sets quite firmly, then it might do?