The V8 Owners Forum -

Hi everyone this my first post on here, thought I would askyou guys for some advice. I have a Westfield Seight with a 3.9 ltr V8. I had it on the rolling road on monday to check the carb was set up fine. while the engine was ticking over the guy said I may have a problem with a valve on No7 cylinder, using a pyrometer he showed me the exhaust primary on that cylinder was 100 degrees less than the others, he did a few more checks and said he thought it may be an exhaust valve whispering (not fully shutting)
Ive Spoken Coltech a local engine builder who said they could sort out the heads if I take them in, as the cost of them doing the removal and fitting would be very expensive as its time consuming.
I have a freind who knows a little bit about engines said he would help me with the removal, where can I find a list of things that I need to buy for the job, gaskes etc and is there anything written telling me in detail how to carry this job out.
thanks

http://www.rover-v8.nl/v8web/v801.html

I found it useful when pulling down my rover, for tools, a good socket set plus a torque wrench and breaker bar should see you fine.

As for gaskets, just use some of the links on the main page such as V8 Dev or V8 Tuners and ask for a head gasket set with exhaust and intake manifold gaskets included for a head removal and re-placement. Any good auto shop should know what you mean, and if they don't you shouldn't shop where the service crew are that badly trained

I would think the exhaust valve not shutting would have the effect of sending the temps rocketing with combustion in the exhaust , why does he think the valve is staying open, it the engine getting old with a few miles on the clock, if it is I would be thinking worn cam, especially as Rover cams are almost a consumable.

I would agree with Ian in that a lower exhaust temperature on one cylinder is indicative of either incomplete combustion in that cylinder which could point to an ignition problem or just a fouled plug or a cam with a bad lobe possibly on the inlet side which is restricting the amount of inlet charge to that cylinder.

So always check the simplest thing first, pull the plugs on cylinder 7 and the adjoining cylinder no. 5 and compare them, if no. 7 is no different to no.5 then remove the rocker cover for that side and by slowly rotating the engine compare the amount of lift for the relevent valves.

Has the engine had a rebuild prior to installation with new cam lifters etc and if so was the cam properly broken in as per manufacturers recommendation.

It is quite common as Ian said for the cam on a 70000+ mile engine to be severely worn and can also occur if a new cam is not properly broken in.

Kevin.

And do a compression test.

Chris.

Thanks for the replies, Im taking the car to a garage who specialise in engine building and are going to do some more checks, I suppose I will be on here asking lots more questions in the next few weeks , thanks for your help

Ps the engine appears to be low mileage it had done 6000 miles when it was installed in the Westfield and has clocked up a further 14000 miles

Update
Today I took the Westfield to Coltec Racing to have further check
Compression test on all cylinders.... No faults
Leakage test on problem cylinder..... No faults
Hydrocarbons in coolant.... No fault
After simple things like checking the ignition leads were going to the right cylinders etc, we found that the spark was very weak and orange, and there is a problem with the advance on initial start up.
They have recomended that I have the distributor overhauled and convert to electronic ignition. I had my last Westfield converted to electronic ignition by a company called H&H ignition solutions who rebuilt my dizzy with their electronics, so Im going to give them a bell tomorrow for a chat.
Im that I now have not got to remove the heads
Any thoughts ?

Do we get a percentage of the money we saved you

Ha ha , Im sure Im going to have lots more questions over the months, thanks for your imputs

tankerman24 wrote:Ha ha , Im sure Im going to have lots more questions over the months, thanks for your imputs

Glad it turned out not to be too serious.

H & H have a good reputation and they were hepful on the phone sorting an ignition problem I had.

Are you saying you have a points dizzy because on a 3.9 it shouild have a 35DLM8 electronic dizzy, if you need one send me a PM as I'll have one spare shortly.

Kevin.

CastleMGBV8 wrote:

tankerman24 wrote:Ha ha , Im sure Im going to have lots more questions over the months, thanks for your imputs

Glad it turned out not to be too serious.

H & H have a good reputation and they were hepful on the phone sorting an ignition problem I had.

Are you saying you have a points dizzy because on a 3.9 it shouild have a 35DLM8 electronic dizzy, if you need one send me a PM as I'll have one spare shortly.

Kevin.

Thanks for your reply, at the moment it has twin points in the distributor, was hoping to send that to H&H to convert to electronic as I did with my last engine Crossflow ., but if thats not the right distibutor Im not sure what to do. Would the proper electronic dizzy be just a case of changing for my one or is it more complicated than that?
Thanks

There is a post on the forum to a place that's flogging dizzys

http://www.duckworthparts.co.uk/acatalo ... very_.html

If you get everything that's in the picture then that's good value.

You will need a new coil but you can get a new one for a tenner, JRV8 knows an interstate one that will work.

You will never get anywhere with a twin point setup, one set is bad enough, two is crap squared, IMHO!

It should be quite easy to change your setup, bung in the new dizzy and coil, feed 12v to it and bobs your uncle! (time it up of course!) There are mods that you can do to the 35DML8 that will have you more grunt low down as well!




Pete

Pete,

If that includes the amp and vacuum unit thats a steal, assuming they are new units.

Last time i looked Rimmer Bros had the price of vac units up to over £50
which is rediculous.

Kevin.

CastleMGBV8 wrote: Last time i looked Rimmer Bros had the price of vac units up to over £50
which is rediculous.

Kevin.

Blimey that's steep, my vac is not even fitted, it's kicking about in a old ice cream tub in my garage

Pete