The V8 Owners Forum -

Is this anything to worry about?




Thanks,
Steve

Fairly normal for an old RV8...if anything it's cleaner than many.

You could remove the covers and valvegear for cleaning.

But IMO I wouldnt bother trying to clean the head unless you're sure you can collect and remove any gunge. You dont want any getting down into the sump which may block the strainer

But the stuff that is there has been there over years, and it aint going to move on it's own. So wouldnt worry too much.

Is this engine an old snotter that you are going to rebuild or is it your current engine that you are using?

Its going in my jeep in place of the 1300 four pot that twas there originally.

Got it a couple years ago running well.

Just going to give it a sump off clean up and forge forward....

Are you going to do a full rebuild of just a quick cleanup of the sump then fit it?

The reason that I ask is that that the way I see it there are a couple of routes that you can go down, if you are stripping the whole engine then all the parts should be cleaned up and checked, if you are going down the quick route you can do the following:-

Take the rocker shafts out (one at a time and refit them to the head that they came off) and clean off all the crud, clean up the heads and the area under the valley gasket, then flush all the crap out of the bottom of the engine and hence off the crankshaft and camshaft using petrel, diesel or something like that, you can then clean up the sump and re-fit it. While the valley gasket is off you can have a look at the state of the camshaft and the followers, don't forget to lube up the cam and followers after the flush.

To be honest I would not really considering using an old Rover lump without a full rebuild as most of them are knackered now but that's just me, I don't know your circumstances.

The carbon that you can see on the rocker gear is pretty typical of a high mileage motor that has not had a huge amount of oil changes.

You can take this as a good thing or a bad thing but the fact that an engine runs is really no indication of the condition of the engine, the Rover lump will run when the bearings are down to the copper and camshaft has no lobes left on it!

Apparently Fairy Power Spray is really good at cleaning carbon out of engines!

Most of the above makes sense.

If the engine is apart, a bit more inspection would be worthwhile.

Clean off easy crud at least, remove sump and clean out etc.

Also, it would be worth removing the camshaft, as good chance it's knackered.

While sump is off, you could remove a bearing or two for inspection and if they look bad replace them.

If they look ok, you could just leave as is.

Whether to remove heads or not....harder to say. Just depends how far you want to go. But it's a lot easier out of the car than in.

BTW, what I meant by "clean up the heads" was just clean the area where the rockershafts sit, not remove the heads and clean out the chambers!

Like I said earlier, before using an old RV8 lump I'd always do a full rebuild anyway so it would all come apart buts that's just me.

Agree with both above at the very least you want to remove the sump and clean out inc the oil pick up strainer is clear and the pick up bolts are secure

Thanks fellas, going to clean the heads and the valley, check the can and if it needs a new one its a new can follows and timing wheels and chain hopefully....

So far I'm down to block and heads, found the cam is furbarred and the timing chain is a little slack..



Cam looks finished according to RPI's webby..



Theres not as much sludge any where else, timing gear looks cleanish apart from the slack..




Can anyone tell me if thats the original timing gears?

Not too bad behind the front cover..



Sump coming of next and a new cam and followers plus timing gear.

Anyone recommend a cam? Seeing as I'm here I might as well warm it up a bit, just looking for one that will go in without any other mods. was thinking of a crower cam.

Cheers,
Steve

Cam gears are original.

And you're engine is full of bits of yellow plastic lol.

As for cam, there will be a good few options, some may require valvesprings though.

I'll leave others with more experience to suggest options

Easy way to check a cam is to measure the cam lobes - they don't all wear at the same rate.

IMHO, changing to a different cam with no other engine mods may actually be worse than the standard one. It's a bit like fitting new tyres - they are always better than the worn out ones. But to assess the true difference you'd need to compare like for like.

Thanks, I'm thinking of the Crower 50230. Rhoads bleed off lifters, Coyles true roller timing set.

Motor is a 3.9 efi with hedman headers, custom open silencers. Dizzy not used, changed to Ford coil pack ignition with trigger wheel an MS2 ecu and Edis8.

9.35/1 comp with standard crank, pistons and heads.

Mated to a ZF22 4 speed auto and full range rover 4x4 system.

I reckon the finished car should be way under 1000kg as the chassis weighs 80kg and the fibreglass body 40kg.

Ah - right. If you can re-map for the new cam you should get the best out of it.

Yep, I picked it up standard and am junking the rover ecu as I need to get the ignition and injectors timed up.

So, with all the new bits I'll be mapping it up.

cheers,
Steve