The V8 Owners Forum -

I've got another block free of repairs which has also kept 60 odd psi contained over night so that at least got a fighting chance of holding pressure The thing with the current engine is the joint wouldn't hold any pressure long enough to get leak detector on it so I had to get it up to at least 50p...

The pressure I seen as an arbitrary measure to really put the casting through its paces as any weakness would have been exposed as the fault Once I move over to adding heads to the test it leaked under any applied pressure. I've checked the bolt insertion and even just hand tightening them in I can ...

I'll check the head bolt insertion depth and report back, it's both heads that are doing it and one deck has not had any repairs, I'll pressure test a spare clean engine block and see if that is doing the same thing.

I note some random brands of composite gaskets have a PU seal ring applied to the oil drilling and water passages which is possibly what your emulating with the silicone sealant , I see felpro gaskets on ebay but that's a 90quid gamble on this engine certainly

Just a thought on this if a v8 doesn't show up imo a side valve lawnmower engine is perfect for this as the valves are on show synchronised with the corresponding piston , obviously not as complex but contemporary add on subjects like gasoline direct injection, miller cycle and other recent developm...

All this test gear has come about due to this engine upon first fire leaking coolant onto the exhaust manifold and also emulsifying the oil straight away, I pressure tested the block and heads as separate entities to rule out internal cracking etc and then added the heads to the block multiple times...

That's a valid point certainly ! In this case the heads are untouched aside from being vapour cleaned and ported etc I reckon I've narrowed it down to cheap gaskets showing up weaknesses prematurely, the composite headgaskets were comparatively cheap at 16 quid as were the tin gaskets at 2.40 each, ...

10 torque to 70, and the outer ones were torque to 70, then backed off and redone to 20

Just had another look and it almost seems to be leaking literally all the way around the edges of the gasket even bubbling out of the little v joints that the end seals for the valley gasket seat into !!

That's with the heads torque to 70lb/ft and going round after to ensure they are all equally tight, it's a proper head scratcher as the air is absolutely blowing out the joint in the valley audibly yet cracks are ruled out and the faces seem flat as far as the straight side of an extra long vernier ...

Hello I've spent a few months cleaning an early 3.5 and basically doing minor fettle jobs to refresh it, one thing that is causing a minor headache though is that the heads wont seal to the block at all!! I've pressure tested the heads individually and also the block to 80psi and could see any drop ...

i tried removing the tps plug and it basically ran the same but with a sluggish throttle response but if power was fed in gradually it had the same torque i checked the hot spot and it is fitted, but i omitted to run coolant via it hence me thinking i had removed it the breather from the rocker cove...

may i say thankyou all very much for your replies, i shall have a drive with the tps disconnected to see what happens as a cheeky easy test but it does change voltage smoothly over its operation the timing is ok and stable ,advanced till it pinked,then backed back as an interim ,it doesnt have a poi...

hello all not much of a poster more of a lurker type but certainly enjoy reading up the experiences people have with various projects on here 8-) just looking tap into other peoples v8 knowledge to see if anyone has had similar experience of a 4cu rover 3500 intermittently running badly and what cau...

Possibly scimitar axle could be a suitable item, they are essentially british made dana 60 with 114.4 pcd hubs and also are effectively jag IRS diffs in live axle form 4HA being a solid axle and a 4HU being a irs se5a axles are 54" wide and se6 ones are 56" with a crownwheel spacer ring and half sha...