Water Proofing a V8 rangie?

Does the distributer actually need to breath? What I did:

Get rid of points, and swap to a bosch distributer.
Put everything except the distributer into a plastic lunch box.
Liberal silastic on everything else.
At the end I started bracing or removing the fan for deep crossings.
Finally, put a PVC snorkel on, because even a V8 petrol doesn't like sucking water & steam (though it didn't lock on a little water like a diesel would).

I had water over the bonnet quite a few times. Got my feet wet, but the car went on. Quite exciting for me and the passengers.

Then I went to Denmark.

Then when I got back, I bought a Tdi.

/Damien

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Originally Posted by Mudhog1974classic

Hi Everyone,

My rangie only has to get it's feet wet before it starts to splutter and fart.:mad: Its time to sort it out. What are people doing as far as water proofing the electrics. You have to find what is getting affected by the water first and make sure it is up to standard spec or better before going the mod route

I've read the articles in the mags with air flow to the distributor cap, does this work? Has anyone got any pic's of their set up they want to share.

Great for comp trucks that are sunk in mud/water up to their wipers and they still want them to run but if yours is crapping itself at the first sign of water then there is something wrong that needs to be fixed before you modify anything or else it will all be for nothing

Any info would be appreciated

Brett

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Originally Posted by Mudhog1974classic

I'm running a 3.9 Disco block with the old cover off the 3.5 fitted to it with SU carbs. I have fitted the electronic ignition from the 1996 Disco. All leads are new 8mm Are they cheap crappy leads or are they expensive good quality ones, the cheapies are fine for road use but they deteriorate very quickly when they are used in extreme conditions and covered in mud as well as the caps dont seal as well as the exy ones.. The plugs get changed every 6 months What about the plug gaps, too big and they will draw more current meaning if they get wet they will cross fire .The coil is new as well. I have a snorkel fitted with a sealed air box set up.I am still running the large steel fan.The truck also has LPG, petrol dual fuel system fitted.

Brett

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Originally Posted by Mudhog1974classic

Has anyone tried a pipe from the heater and pumping hot air into the dizzy cap? Do you think this could work? I have an old dizzy body here and have seen the drain holes in the bottom. If I blow hot air in the cap, the air pressure should keep the steam and water out. What do you Guy's think?Mate sorry but thats just rediculas, a heater blower is fine for a large flow of air but you wont get it to force air through a small tube as there is very little pressure.

You also have to find out why it is playing up and fix that first before you should even consider modifying it

Brett

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Originally Posted by Mudhog1974classic

In the July 2007 mag, they use two pieces of plastic pipe and connect one to the brake servo via a T and the other to the snorkel to create a through flow of air. The Dizzy is connected between the two pipes. The dizzy cap has all spare holes sealed.

What do you think?wont work and will give you a vacuum leak due to you are then sucking in air rather than dead heading the vacuum in the brake servo so it moves the diaphram, I wouldnt recomend it.

Brett

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Originally Posted by damienb

Does the distributer actually need to breath? What I did:

Get rid of points, and swap to a bosch distributer.
Put everything except the distributer into a plastic lunch box.
Liberal silastic on everything else.
At the end I started bracing or removing the fan for deep crossings.
Finally, put a PVC snorkel on, because even a V8 petrol doesn't like sucking water & steam (though it didn't lock on a little water like a diesel would).

I had water over the bonnet quite a few times. Got my feet wet, but the car went on. Quite exciting for me and the passengers.

Then I went to Denmark.

Then when I got back, I bought a Tdi.

/Damien

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Ive seen people mounting relays and coils in plastic boxes before and I have also done it on a couple of cars/machines but if everything is up to scratch and you do a couple of preventative sprays then there really should be no need and Dizzys do have drain holes that are normally there for if the Dizzy shaft seal fails it leaks the oil out the base rather than filling the dizzy.

If the vehical is properly maintained then there is no need to have them and they could be filled which may help and no there is no need for the dizzy to have ventilation, esspecially when it has electronic.

By the way Damien, from 1 Damien to another, I like your choice of Vehical :D

Geez McRover .... your seeing a bit red on this subject :p

Yep .. i agree ... Get your electrics up to spec
Block up those vent holes in the dizzy if your going "under water"
and apply liberal amounts of grease spray's over whats exposed

Hoses from heaters .... too complicated ... go for the "keep it simple method"

The only "cover plate" i would make up is a plastic one // installed in front of the Dizzy // to stop the fan doing a direct spray of water to dizzy (but you shouldn't need to if all is up to spec)


:)

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Originally Posted by mike 90 RR

Geez McRover .... your seeing a bit red on this subject :p

Yep .. i agree ... Get your electrics up to spec
Block up those vent holes in the dizzy if your going "under water"
and apply liberal amounts of grease spray's over whats exposed

Hoses from heaters .... too complicated ... go for the "keep it simple method"

The only "cover plate" i would make up is a plastic one // installed in front of the Dizzy // to stop the fan doing a direct spray of water to dizzy (but you shouldn't need to if all is up to spec)


:)

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I could have used blue but red stands out much better :D

In addition to sprays and good leads / caps I would suggest tying the fan to stop it rotating for the crossing, and a tarp over the radiator grille so the bow wave stops the engine compartment from filling up with water at least while you are moving.

My first Rangie, an 84 model, used to splutter and misfire during and after river crossings, I mounted a small shield in front of the distributor in the form of a piece of 2mm sheet metal that was mounted to the top of the water pump, held by 2 of the upper WP bolts. Definitely helped, also took about 20 minutes to do and cost $0. I was expecting it to eventually fracture due to engine vibration but it was still in place 10 years later.

Hi POD,

I will make up a shield and fit it as you have. I also got some CRC LANOCOTE(natural lanolin protection spray)
aswell as a small pot of the 3220 Lanocote Amber (thicker like hair wax)
I will clean all the electrical parts and then set about water proofing everything.

Thanks to everyone for the tips.:D

Brett

I have had two older rangies that both had this problem. Did all sorts of things to fix it, put everything in a box, glove over dizzy cap, shield in front of dizzy and silicon under the cap. The silicon worked the best at keeping it running out of these solutions.

But by far the best result I had was changing the dizzy over to an aftermarket one. This gave me a much better seal and it consistently kept going when near water.

I do not believe it is advisable to seal a points dizzy as the arc created by the points generates a gas. This gas if retained will lead to points wearing out faster.

BTW my current 95 disco has none of these problems. I just drive it, splash throught the water and keep going - that's it. So perhaps a dizzy of a late model disco / rr would work for you.