Here we go again...
Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:16 pm
Hello all.
The _long_ story so far:-
Approaching a couple of years ago now, the tired all-original SD1 EFI lump in my kit car had served me well for many years. It was burning a good bit oil, fowling its plugs and in need of some attention. I'd been saving up for a while and decided to go for the new engine option, as it was my only car and I didn't want her off the road for too long. A brand new 4.6 turn key engine with a webber on top seemed like good value for money. From a reasonably reputable V8 specialist (not V8D or DJE).
After a little trimming & tightening the odd loose bold on the timing cover, and taking a few of the missing bits from my old engine ('turn key'?)... Engine in. Oil pressure comes up after a while of cranking. Fires-up, roughly set the timing, seems a bit noisey but thats to be expected. Noises quieten down, seems healthy. Up to temperature, seems good so far! First oil change, dark and filthy after about 200 gentle miles... I guess thats normal on a new block. Noisey... sounds like tappets. Rocker covers off, rockers look oilly. Builder assures me this will go away and to keep driving. 500 miles, the noise doesn't seem much better and the supplier arrange for a local range rover specialist to change the tappets, as thats the likely problem. A week later, I get the car back, no different. 700 miles, next oil change, much clearer, still tapping at low revs.
>CRUNCH!< An on coming car turns infront of me on a junction and writes the car off by a gentleman who put it down to a "senior moment".
<sigh>
Nearly a year later, the car is rebuilt with lots of new shiney bits and all was looking good for this years road trip. Except the tapping was now much worse. The suppliers are still helpful, despite the warrently being long gone. "Ahh.. When did you buy your engine? Err... Start it up with the rockers off and check there's oil oozing from the rockers." I do. One side seems dry. Odd. It turns out my engine had a semi-drilled oil passage way on one side... something to do with a troublesome CNC machine making a big batch of them. FFS!
Rather than taking the engine out of the car and transporting it hundreds of miles, I took the suppliers offer of new rockers, shafts, rods, gaskets, £500 and vacuum cleaner attachment. "Rover went round fixing a lot of the blocks, but its not a difficult job..." Apart from removing the oil core plugs, it went smoothly... Plugging surrounging holes, vacuum in the right place and some careful drilling. Lots of swarf in the vacuum cleaner and little in the engine. Back together, quick run up to temperature, sounding much better. Oil change to be on the safe side.
Two weeks until road trip time was cutting it a bit fine, but everything seems OK at last. A quick tune up at the local engine whisperers before departure, as it didn't seem quite as quick as I remember... The vacuum advance/retard diaphram was bust, probably from the senior moment incident. More worrying was the 50% compression on No5 cylinder, and roughly 75% on the two either side. No time for that! A new diaphram fitted the day before departure didn't fix the advance/retard problem, but it'll have to do!
3000 miles later, Italy and back was a nice enough trip (despite all the rain). Guzzling a lot of petrol and feeling slower than the old 3.5, everything kept working despite no serious shakedown (OK.. apart from a gearbox linkage ball joint falling apart, blowing 20 odd fuses and intermitent rear lights!) The engine was no better or worse by the end of the trip.
Back in to the garage with car... I'd spent the best half of 2008 working on it, the problems can wait!
Right, Xmas time-off is here, the garage is cold, but its time to get this car working properly.
The timing is not a problem, the old EFI one should solve that for now.
Now the questions:-
1) I found this site a little too late regarding all the shinanigans the missing oil passage. It was the one joining to more vertical passage going up to the head. Drilling, flushing and replacing the hole rocker assembly on that side should be OK after 500 miles of gentle use? There was supprisingly little wear, which I put down to the oil splashing up there. ?
2) The low compression. This is on the other side to where the oil problem was, and so I guessing is unrelated. How should I approach this? I'm assuming the bores are fine, considering the very very low milage. The fact that the cyclinder either side is also low make me think head gasket is blown between them. Is this likely on a barely run in 4.6 with composite gasket? Or is it the dreaded porous block? Coolant is clean, very little muck in the catch tank, oil uncontaminated.
Any suggestions before taking the head off and having a look? Would it be worth have the block pressure tested before hand? If its going to end up needing top hat liners, I need to get busy sooner rather than later...
cheers for reading this far,
Dave
The _long_ story so far:-
Approaching a couple of years ago now, the tired all-original SD1 EFI lump in my kit car had served me well for many years. It was burning a good bit oil, fowling its plugs and in need of some attention. I'd been saving up for a while and decided to go for the new engine option, as it was my only car and I didn't want her off the road for too long. A brand new 4.6 turn key engine with a webber on top seemed like good value for money. From a reasonably reputable V8 specialist (not V8D or DJE).
After a little trimming & tightening the odd loose bold on the timing cover, and taking a few of the missing bits from my old engine ('turn key'?)... Engine in. Oil pressure comes up after a while of cranking. Fires-up, roughly set the timing, seems a bit noisey but thats to be expected. Noises quieten down, seems healthy. Up to temperature, seems good so far! First oil change, dark and filthy after about 200 gentle miles... I guess thats normal on a new block. Noisey... sounds like tappets. Rocker covers off, rockers look oilly. Builder assures me this will go away and to keep driving. 500 miles, the noise doesn't seem much better and the supplier arrange for a local range rover specialist to change the tappets, as thats the likely problem. A week later, I get the car back, no different. 700 miles, next oil change, much clearer, still tapping at low revs.
>CRUNCH!< An on coming car turns infront of me on a junction and writes the car off by a gentleman who put it down to a "senior moment".
<sigh>
Nearly a year later, the car is rebuilt with lots of new shiney bits and all was looking good for this years road trip. Except the tapping was now much worse. The suppliers are still helpful, despite the warrently being long gone. "Ahh.. When did you buy your engine? Err... Start it up with the rockers off and check there's oil oozing from the rockers." I do. One side seems dry. Odd. It turns out my engine had a semi-drilled oil passage way on one side... something to do with a troublesome CNC machine making a big batch of them. FFS!
Rather than taking the engine out of the car and transporting it hundreds of miles, I took the suppliers offer of new rockers, shafts, rods, gaskets, £500 and vacuum cleaner attachment. "Rover went round fixing a lot of the blocks, but its not a difficult job..." Apart from removing the oil core plugs, it went smoothly... Plugging surrounging holes, vacuum in the right place and some careful drilling. Lots of swarf in the vacuum cleaner and little in the engine. Back together, quick run up to temperature, sounding much better. Oil change to be on the safe side.
Two weeks until road trip time was cutting it a bit fine, but everything seems OK at last. A quick tune up at the local engine whisperers before departure, as it didn't seem quite as quick as I remember... The vacuum advance/retard diaphram was bust, probably from the senior moment incident. More worrying was the 50% compression on No5 cylinder, and roughly 75% on the two either side. No time for that! A new diaphram fitted the day before departure didn't fix the advance/retard problem, but it'll have to do!
3000 miles later, Italy and back was a nice enough trip (despite all the rain). Guzzling a lot of petrol and feeling slower than the old 3.5, everything kept working despite no serious shakedown (OK.. apart from a gearbox linkage ball joint falling apart, blowing 20 odd fuses and intermitent rear lights!) The engine was no better or worse by the end of the trip.
Back in to the garage with car... I'd spent the best half of 2008 working on it, the problems can wait!
Right, Xmas time-off is here, the garage is cold, but its time to get this car working properly.
The timing is not a problem, the old EFI one should solve that for now.
Now the questions:-
1) I found this site a little too late regarding all the shinanigans the missing oil passage. It was the one joining to more vertical passage going up to the head. Drilling, flushing and replacing the hole rocker assembly on that side should be OK after 500 miles of gentle use? There was supprisingly little wear, which I put down to the oil splashing up there. ?
2) The low compression. This is on the other side to where the oil problem was, and so I guessing is unrelated. How should I approach this? I'm assuming the bores are fine, considering the very very low milage. The fact that the cyclinder either side is also low make me think head gasket is blown between them. Is this likely on a barely run in 4.6 with composite gasket? Or is it the dreaded porous block? Coolant is clean, very little muck in the catch tank, oil uncontaminated.
Any suggestions before taking the head off and having a look? Would it be worth have the block pressure tested before hand? If its going to end up needing top hat liners, I need to get busy sooner rather than later...
cheers for reading this far,
Dave
