Hello Chaps,
Please note the move to yet another isp.
I recently had the interesting experience of seeing my car’s engine OUT of
the car for a change. As we finally have the extension to the garage going
in, my wife finally ordered me to cure the leaks ?. I told her that the only
way to REALLY cure the leaks was to take the engine out so that the sump
gasket could be replaced, and we could get a good look at all the likely
suspects. To my amazement, she agreed! So I am now in the happy state that
all this remedial work will be done and I get to clean up the engine bay
too.
I thought that I had a clean engine and engine bay…WRONG! It was only clean
where you could see it. Elsewhere, grease and muck lurks, but happily no
rust at all, not even in the front members. Sure enough, most of the leaks
were caused by a sump gasket that had fractured in a couple of places. Paul,
my fabulous mechanic, also suspected the oil cooler pipes which were seeping
oil at the connectors. This, he tells me, is a common spot but a swine to
fix with the engine in situ. The other trouble spot s were the water pump
gasket and oil filter housing gasket. All of theses items will be replaced,
along with various other rubber hoses as a precautionary measure. The auto
box seemed sound enough but the servo plate gasket will be replaced.
We’re also removing the thermostat housing, just to see if it brakes! If it
does, the offending bolt can be easily drilled out. If it doesn’t, the
housing can be repainted and replaced, using copious amounts of anti seize
on that bolt.
Overall, the engine looks good, no core (freeze) plugs weeping or anything
like that. Over the years, though, other mechanics have omitted to replace
things like clips and brackets. We will try to replace them or make them up
where we can.
The engine bay is pretty grubby, but hopefully will respond to some
cleaning. It is amazing the amount of grit and stones trapped in previously
inaccessible places! Incidentally, we found an old piece of cloth tape
coving one of four “slots” in the pseudo “chassis rails” in the engine bay.
From the look of the others, this was how they were covered at the factory.
Why no rubber bungs, I wonder? The rails are also full of grit!
I’ll let you know how things go after it all goes back together.
Cheers,
Rick===================================================
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