Oil in water Rover 3.5 P6 high comp.
Posted: Tue May 06, 2025 9:55 am
Been a while since I was here as I've had no issues with my cars (fingers crossed). However, I had my arm twisted by a friend to replace head gaskets on his 3.5 Rover engined Ford Pop. He bought the car last year and it has had oil in the water from then. He's flushed it to death with everything he could think of to no avail, and took the car to a specialist? to have it diagnosed. They said there was evidence of burning coolant on cylinder 4 and cylinder 6 leaking at gasket, but no mention of oil issues. He asked them to replace head gaskets until they quoted him £3.5k, plus extra if machining needed (i've seen the written estimate). It was obvious they didn't want the job.
I said I would assist him in the task and he bought all the neccessary from real steel (composite gaskets). It was a bit of a faff getting the heads off due to the car it was in, but when off I couldn't see any issues and straight edged as best I could the heads and block and all seemed fine. I commented that I thought the engine looked to have been rebuilt very recently as it was super clean, and he said he had pictures of this being done.
I then replaced the gaskets after cleaning the surfaces and torqued them to spec, but only did the outer bolts to 30 lb/ft.
Engined fired up fine and definately ran better than before (Offenhauser intake, holley and long tube headers) so I thought it would be ok. However, he reports that it is still putting oil in coolant despite him having flushed it again (no oil cooler or trans cooler through rad).
I am at a loss as to the issue, so he's looking for another engine for either direct replacement or a rebuilt unit ( a mate has one I think). Good thing is I've saved him £3.5k, but I'd like to hear suggestions of what to try next. My thought was the front timing cover if it's possible for oil to mix there, but my friend tells me he's have advice that this isn't possible.
I'm not going to help him further with engine transplant as I think I buggered my back doing his car and I'm 70 now, so time to stop these bigger tasks (really annoying).
I've told him just to drive the car as i can't see it harming anything if he just uses water and flushes it regularly (until winter).
Your thoughts please guys.
regards,
Pete
I said I would assist him in the task and he bought all the neccessary from real steel (composite gaskets). It was a bit of a faff getting the heads off due to the car it was in, but when off I couldn't see any issues and straight edged as best I could the heads and block and all seemed fine. I commented that I thought the engine looked to have been rebuilt very recently as it was super clean, and he said he had pictures of this being done.
I then replaced the gaskets after cleaning the surfaces and torqued them to spec, but only did the outer bolts to 30 lb/ft.
Engined fired up fine and definately ran better than before (Offenhauser intake, holley and long tube headers) so I thought it would be ok. However, he reports that it is still putting oil in coolant despite him having flushed it again (no oil cooler or trans cooler through rad).
I am at a loss as to the issue, so he's looking for another engine for either direct replacement or a rebuilt unit ( a mate has one I think). Good thing is I've saved him £3.5k, but I'd like to hear suggestions of what to try next. My thought was the front timing cover if it's possible for oil to mix there, but my friend tells me he's have advice that this isn't possible.
I'm not going to help him further with engine transplant as I think I buggered my back doing his car and I'm 70 now, so time to stop these bigger tasks (really annoying).
I've told him just to drive the car as i can't see it harming anything if he just uses water and flushes it regularly (until winter).
Your thoughts please guys.
regards,
Pete