Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

  I've reached the point where there's more & more young 'uns & less & less old 'uns. Enjoy it while you can mate. It doesn't last long.

No more Pop progress this weekend.
The gaskets arrived in the post this morning, but I didn't finish work till nearly 4 this afternoon. Chris was heading home & Loon was busy painting a car, (which involves mixing paint & cleaning spray guns etc in one side of the workshop & actually painting in the other). So not a good time to start filling the place with oily engine parts. I'd also had a long, hot, stressful day at work & really wasn't in the mood for a major rebuild.
The Pop's been temporarily moved to a barn behind the shop, to make room for paying customers' cars. Don't really want to try stripping the motor where it is, plus the barn's rented by a girl to keep her horses & hay etc in, so again, not the best place to do an engine build.
Loon & Chris are off to Santa Pod raceway for the weekend tomorrow morning, so I could drive the Pop around to the front of the 'shop & strip it, but if there's a problem I can't leave it there in the middle of the yard & won't be able to push it back to the barn on my own.
On Saturday the maintenance guys are shutting off the power to the workshop for the day.
On Sunday I'm supposed to be going to the 'Pod for the day, but they've forcast rain, so I might not. Rain would also stop me working on the Pop cos it has to be done outside.
Part of the reason for rushing to get the truck done was to drive it to the track so my brother could use it as a tow car to take his dragster to the start line to race. He texted me last night to say he won't be racing though, cos his car's shattered it's rear trans' support bearing.
I need an MOT & tax before I can drive the Pop & it's now pretty unlikely I could sort that by Saturday.

So all in all, pretty pointless rushing about to get it fixed this weekend.
I'm on holiday for the next 3 weeks, (I'd planned to visit family in Canada, but just can't afford it), so it makes sense to start afresh on Monday & MOT it at my leisure, without the pressure of deadlines.
I think I could do with a break from the thing for a couple of days.

[Manky Monkey]

Spent an hour driving around all the local auto factors this afternoon, looking for a set of spark plugs for the Pop. Not one of 'em had 8 in stock. Ended up buying 6 NGK & 2 Bosch.
I've been thinking about the noise I heard when I last drove it. I assumed it was the hydraulic lifter rattling again, but it wasn't a rattle -more of a popping. pinging kinda noise, (I remember thinking it sounded like something ricocheting around the engine bay, like it was going to punch through the bonnet), but I was more concerned about the trail of steam I was leaving behind me at the time.
I reckon it was probably unburnt fuel detonating in the header pipes, (we've had that before), because of the 7 sooty spark plugs & 1 wet one. As I said, it left the yard on less than a full compliment of cylinders, but after half a mile or so, the noise stopped & it seemed to be running on all 8. I'll go with just changing the head gasket & see how it runs.

[Olds]

I'm on holiday for the next 3 weeks, (I'd planned to visit family in Canada, but just can't afford it), so it makes sense to start afresh on Monday & MOT it at my leisure, without the pressure of deadlines.
I think I could do with a break from the thing for a couple of days.

Sounds like a good Idea.

[Mendalot]

Sounds like a good Idea.
[/quote]


Yes, yes, I agree with Olds, but we is now having withdrawal symptoms after 5 days     

[Manky Monkey]

You want more drama?
O.K- had a couple of other things to do yesterday, so started stripping the top of the engine at lunchtime today.
At least it's easy to work on in the Pop.
It was a baking hot afternoon & I've actually burnt my arm by leaning on the cab roof!

[Manky Monkey]

.

[Manky Monkey]

Didn't take more than an hour to drain the radiator, unhook all the hoses & cables, lift off the carb & manifold & unbolt the rockers & cylinder head. At least I've got a handy container to put all the bits in.

[Manky Monkey]

Hmm -that don't look good.

Rear cylinder.

Front cylinder.

Worries about leaking gaskets were forgotten when the state of the piston crowns was revealed. Absolutely no idea what's been going on here, but the bottom edges of the front & rear pistons have been badly mashed. A piece of broken ring got past the piston maybe? -but in 2 bores? You can see some heavy scoring in the rear bore. I know steam can damage pistons & I've never seen the results, but wouldn't expect it to look like this. Maybe it does? (any water in the bore would collect in the bottom).

[dobber]

the rear bed fuel tank looks well.

[Manky Monkey]

Thank you. At least something's looking O.K!

Cylinder head, not so pretty. The corresponding edges of the combustion chambers have the same pummelled appearance as the pistons. No damage to valves, spark plugs etc.

[Manky Monkey]

No obvious head gasket damage by the way, though there was soot between numbers 3 & 4 & number 2 had more carbon build-up on the valves than the others.

[Manky Monkey]

I cracked open a cold can of Coke & sat & looked at it for a long, long time.

So- option 1
clean it all up as best I can, bung on a new head gasket & hope it runs O.K. Time consuming, putting it all back together, just to find it's still the same & tempting though it is to pretend everything's fine, something's caused that damage & it'll probably happen again.

Option 2
drop the sump, unbolt the conrods & remove the pistons. Hone the bores if I'm lucky, re-bore them if I'm not. New rings, probably new pistons, replace the head with one of my spare ones -& still not know what caused it.

Option 3
go fishing for another engine. I've got another for spares, but it's been stood outside for at least a year & ain't any prettier than this one. I really need a freshly rebuilt one, preferably put together by someone who knows what they're doing.

[Manky Monkey]

Which is where this ad on the Gumtree website comes in. Found by Chris & posted on my Facebook page, it's for a rebuilt 3.5 with 3.9 camshaft & followers, new big ends, new rings, new timing chain etc. I've emailed him & he's 20 miles away & will accept 440 quid, which is probably a lot cheaper than rebuilding mine.
There's also a local guy with a 200bhp tuned motor for the same price, but with a very lumpy cam, which would need replacing with a milder one for normal road use. New cam & followers would cost perhaps 150 quid.

http://m.gumtree.com/p/car-replacement-parts/rebuilt-rover-v8-3.5-engine/1073207800

Waiting for another reply from Gumtree Guy, then will hopefully go & take a look at it.

[terry t]

you say the spare engine has been sitting for a long time Andy, but the one in the pop was sitting about for a long time before we fired it up on that cold and dark evening way back when.
dig the old one out stick it in and test it, or connect a starter motor to it and check the compression, or do a cylinder leak test
 
I don't think this one is worth putting back together need a rebuild or like you said

[kapri]

Looks like something heavy ( spring washer etc) dropped though inlet manifold into those pots? Heavy because it has stayed at the bottom of both bores and been compressed between head and piston in the same area on both. Have a CLOSE look at your inlet manifold and top of Holley under air filter , make sure nothing is missing or still stuck in there .

Was talking with a mate ,this Saturday gone,  about when he did a stock rebuild on his a few years back, no crank reground etc and hii cost £700 with a stock cam.

Don't forget what i said about leaving the torque convertor in the box when changing the engine, you don't want to be adding a gearbox rebuild to the bill!.

To put a positive spin on it, you've saved money over rebuilding yours ( over winter) and you'll have all that extra time free in the winter to do something else with