The V8 Owners Forum -

It's getting dynoed on Friday so that should be interesting. I was thinking about checking my cam timing. Is there any reason I can't do this when the engine is in the car? As far as I can see all I need to do is make something to stop the piston via the spark plug hole, take a rocker cover off to m...

Forgot to mention there are no fault codes ever appear. I don't think the brakes are seized. All were checked recently when I changed the pads and I the front calipers. No I've never tried a different one. I'd like to though. I think it feels reasonably ok at full throttle it just feels like it's la...

Hi, I've got a P38 with a GEMS 4.6 engine in which feels like it is down on power and also has a slightly rough idle. I recently rebuilt the engine with a top hat liner block because my old one cracked. Even with the previous engine it never had much power so I don't think it's a mechanical problem....

Fixed! I swapped back to the old rockers and rocker shaft and the noise went away. Perhaps the new ones ended up being damaged when the valves hit the pistons? I couldn't see anything obvious and it didn't have a huge amount of play between the rockers and the shaft. It was assembled correctly too s...

I tried all each of the different size shims I have (small, medium, large) and no shim under the rocker posts and none of them made any difference to the noise. It might have been louder with the largest size shim if anything. Checked all the pushrods and they're all solid and can't be pushed down a...

I think I did assemble the rockers the right way round as I remember spending ages trying to figure out if I had them oriented correctly. I did check it when I assembled the engine - ended up putting in the medium thickness shims from the kit I had (like this) . I'll make sure I check the rocker sha...

I thought I'd make a new thread rather than continue this in the "big-end bearing wear" thread I made a while back. I'm trying to figure out what is causing the tapping noise in my 4.6 engine that's in my P38. The noise is there all the time at idle, when accelerating, when decelerating an...

It's back in the P38 now and seems to work well. It feels a lot more powerful than my old 4.0. When I put it together it was much easier to turn over by hand than the first time I built it which seems to suggest that I did install the pistons the wrong way around last time! The only problem I've got...

Damn it - I actually meant the way around you said but mixed it up in my head.

I'll edit that post to avoid confusing anyone else.

Found it myself actually - "References to RH and LH banks of cylinders are taken viewing from the flywheel end of the engine."

Thanks Chris - I'll make sure to check that tomorrow.

I've reassembled the crank and the pistons and the marks on the connecting rods are definitely facing each other and the marks on the pistons are all facing towards the front of the engine. A couple more final questions. When the overhaul manual refers to the LH and RH bank of cylinders is this from...

I didn't remove the pistons from the rods when I got them and I'm sure the pistons were on the correct way for both sides when I looked at them. The valves hit the pistons because the timing was one tooth out. There were some grooves in the pistons where the valves but I couldn't actually see any da...

Yeah they're from the engine where the valves hit the pistons. Although the marks on the pistons were quite small and I could see no damage to the valves. When I put it back together I'm going to use another set of heads I've got and I've also fitted new pistons. I'll make sure I get it right this t...

I definitely had the shells installed like this - https://imgur.com/a/Yz3P3

They are in pairs on the pictures you linked to but the wear is on opposite sides (as in the above link).

It's a 4.0 engine from a P38. in your first pictures on this page you can see the caps are on backwards, the chamfer and the shells are not lining up between the two halves Yeah I did have them the opposite way so they lined up but I had been swapping them around to look at them. I think I probably ...