Thread: Where's she blow from?

Super breathy engine tend to buckle up the inlet manifold gasket which pulls it out of the end clamps and leak oil copiously at these points. Failing that I'd expect the rocker cover gaskets to shed black tears under pressure. They're often loose with perished gaskets.

on the rover engine it will blow out the front main seal first...

the crankcase pressure comes from combustion chamber pressure bypassing the piston/cylinder seal.

the first seal it comes to is the sump seal, thats usually pretty well sorted, with sealant, flange and lots of bolts with plenty of sealing surfaec and clamping pressure, its also static.

the next one is vally seal as mentioned. usually it will start leaking in the corners near the rocercovers from the metal lock down plates and its static and doesnt have anything really directing oil in its general direction.

at about the same rate that the gasses are hitting the vally cover they're hitting the crank seals...

the first dynamic seal and both have oil being slung in their general direction from the rear main bearing at the back and the timing chain lube system up the front.

The front one usually goes first as it will pick up damage from the outside world

Bee utey and Blknight

Thanks for your thoughts and opionions which I value highly.

I've looked and rocker cover gaskets are OK ....I changed them to rubber ones and cant see any oil leaking from them.
Looking underneath its dribbling from the side up behind the main pulley at front of engine (my technical prowess coming to the fore) so it could be from either and I will investigate further tomorrow.

Now on a different tact ......If you hadn't the $$ to rebuild your existing engine would you as short term fix (to keep vehicle on road) purchase a S/Hand engine from a wrecked RRC and swap it out.

In WA we don't have yearly vehicle inspections for registration so swapping the engine over doesn't present a problem to keeping car registered.

This would allow me to purchase parts and rebuild original engine over a period of time as fund become available and self paced learn as I go

Would you do it ....

They don't come up often in Perth but there's a 3.5 V8 rover engine on Gumtree thats out of the car already.
Person says that it was a good engine and they can crank it over to do a compression test.

a) What should the compression be on a 3.5 V8?
b) What else would you look out for in a S/Hand engine to tell if its a lemon or not
c) Besides changing oil, filter, plugs what else would you do before dropping it in the engine bay ...

Or should I pull her off the road (she hasn't been on much with a misfire)
and rebuild the existing engine in situ ....without pulling it out and forego the pleasure of driving her.

Cheers

Baggy

Could just be a failed oil pressure switch, very common. This is near the oil filter. I believe the oil pressure relief valve can leak badly too.

Do a compression test before you contemplate further action. Head and sump off, replacing a ring etc is quicker than fitting a whole engine.

Replacement engines should be inspected for cooling system corrosion, spark plug fouling, gunge inside the rocker covers, then turned over by a socket and bar for at least two full turns and listen for variations in compression hiss as you turn it. If the engine has a starter motor fitted use that with jumper leads.

In your case I would

clean and band aid the engine you have to get it past the inspection as close to the inspection date as possible.

I would then buy the seconed engine and give it a birthday gasket/seal set, a minor rebuild if it (crank linish, bearings, rings and bottle brush hone bores with new rings +valve stem seals and then install that.

I would then clean up, strip, spec and prep, for rebuild but only build it as far as the static gaskets would let me go. (no front main, no rear main, no dizzy) I'd then pack and mothball that engine and all its parts. That bit I'd do with my son over the space of a year or two as a project. at the same time I'd be slowly searching around for a replacement box and tase to go with it.

Hi All,

After a few weeks away today was the first time I could get under the Rangy to see where the oil is actually leaking from.

All indications point to the the main oil seal so I've picked up a timing cover gasket and new main oil seal.

I've removed radiator, fan and all going well until I tried to remove "starter dog" from crankshaft pulley without success.

Can anyone tell me the size of the socket required to remove the starter dog and am I correct in assuming I'll have to purchase a deep socket in order to remove it?

This then begs the question how do I stop the engine from rotating in order to remove starter dog?

All advice sppreciated.

Cheers

Baggy