Sold DOPEHEAD CAST-OFF - Finally Rehomed - Page 3

[phil_lihp]

Well...I'd written quite a lengthy bit about this and by pressing the wrong key have lost it all...I'll redo it another time but for now, pictures say more than words so have some of those to keep you going.

 

The short story is:

 

DOPEHEAD CAST-OFF (otherwise known as a Rover 214SEi purchased from Mr_Bo11ox) purchased and collected last weekend

Mystery coolant loss and airlocks followed by rough running ensue

Complete turnip (possibly me, we can't be sure) checks coolant shortly after refuelling, then leaves coolant cap off

All coolant escapes on M6 sliproad and engine gets toasty hot

Nice man with van drags Rover to service station nearby

Another nice man with a knackered Peugeot Boxer beavertail takes Rover, turnip but not coolant cap back home

 

New coolant cap purchased and fitted, remind self to ensure it remains attached to vehicle at all times when driving

New inlet manifold gasket fitted to replace one that wasn't there at all

Coolant still leaking, rubber insert in manifold needs changing too

Dizzy cap and rotor arm scrubbed with sandpaper, new spark plugs installed, engine runs perfectly

Revolting interior that smells like an old wheelie bin divested of much old rubbish and hoovered thoroughly, then sprayed with cleaning chemicals

Interior now smells pleasant and seats no longer look infectious

Oil emptied, mostly into container

Oil filter reluctant to part company with car after such a long relationship, much hammering of screwdrivers and oil on everything, old filter removed successfully

New oil, new oil filter, happy car

Small jet of water observed gushing from inlet manifold, suspect rubber seal most definitely no good, rest of car rather wonderful and will scrub up nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[purplebargeken]

Ace things. 

[garethj]

A petrol station shot would have been good, but a recovery truck shot is a perfectly acceptable substitute.

[phil_lihp]

I know, rubbish.  I used a self-service petrol station which was pretty crowded so I didn't get one I'm afraid.  

[Shep Shepherd]

Takes me back to the days of L913 OWG, the blue 1994 214Si I owned from 2000-2003, until I traded up to The Volvo.

 

I'd quite like to own another R8 one day, preferably while they are still seen as cheap old bangers in the eyes of most people.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yo Phil! That gasket looks like one for a VVC or early alloy-manifold engine. The placca manifolds should just have a stringy green rubber seal thing I think!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I can see the rubber manifold seal in your pic and its defo buggered. Its black but any new ones you buy are green.

[phil_lihp]

Ah, better not to have that gasket then? Rimmer Bros website had it listed for this car but there wasn't one there before.

 

I should have ordered the rubber seal as well really, it did look knackered and water is gushing out of it now. At least it's not going into the cylinders any more, in fact the engine runs beautifully with new plugs and cleaned up ignition parts.

 

Cooling system leaks aside, this car feels great, everything is so unworn and tight that it feels like a new car, especially now the interior is less revolting. I'm looking forward to being able to use it properly as soon as the leaks are fixed.

[scaryoldcortina]

Yeah, you don't need that gasket, just the rubber seal.

[phil_lihp]

Ok, thanks. I'll keep it by for future use. I've ordered a rubber seal so hopefully in a few days it'll be leak-free.

[vulgalour]

Hope you didn't order one from Rimmers, the one I got from them (after much faff) was shit, wish I'd just got one from eBay or something.  Green replacement is much better.  Another water loss spot is the plastic thermostat housing which lives on the driver's side under the manifold and is just about impossible to get to with the manifold fitted.  Nice to know this quality ex-Bllx car is still in the fold.

[phil_lihp]

That's useful to know, thanks. I got the rubber seal from ebay for a fiver as Rimmer Bros wanted £17 by times postage was added, hopefully it's Ok. Can't be much worse than the one that's on there anyway.

[phil_lihp]

PROGRESS

 

I had a parcel delivered on Tuesday.

 

 

I used the last hour of daylight tonight to get it fitted.  Mr B, you were bang on the money, the old seal was hard, crispy and warped, not to mention split at one end.  The new one's much better, fitted perfectly and is also green.

 

 

Reassembled (getting good at this now) and was careful to tighten up all the bolts several times but without going mental on them as it's a plastic manifold (boo Rover, poor show).

 

Topped up the coolant again, fired it up and...

 

It still leaks.  Bugger.

 

I tightened up a jubilee clip on a small hose where it enters the thermostat housing which was dripping, the end of the pipe's got an uneven cut on it so appears to have been fiddled with before, this is now watertight as far as I can see but there's a steady, albeit small, dribble which I can't quite identify the source of.  I think Vulgalour might be right though and the thermostat housing might be the culprit.  

 

I'm not 100% sure that all is well in the coolant system anyway, I took it for a quick run (8 miles, a new record!) and the temperature gauge initially climbed  to 2/3 level and dropped back to half a couple of times, then settled at the halfway mark for the rest of the journey.  However, when I got home and gently released the coolant cap it was very highly pressurised, blowing out steam and water like a madly boiling kettle, although it settled down after a minute.  Maybe it's still got airlocks in it, I'll bleed it again properly from the valve but run out of time and daylight today.

 

I was slightly alarmed to discover a thin layer of mayo (very thin, mind) on the oil filler cap - now, it's done only short-ish journeys and this might even be leftovers from a previous HGF if it's ever had one (the service history is remarkably complete and there's no mention of it) so I'm not worrying at the moment but I'll keep an eye on it.

 

On the other hand, it's a nice thing to drive with decent road manners now all the tyres have the correct air in them, they varied from 7 PSI (one rear is very perished so will need changing ASAP) to 45 on another so it's now a bit more stable on the road, the spare was completely flat and appears to be the original so is now re-inflated but probably in need of changing.  The gear change is slick, the engine's smooth, spritely and getting better with use and the interior is pretty decent now it's clean.  If the cooling system can settle down I can start using it properly and ironing out any remaining issues.  

 

It's missing a few random things, the panel underneath the driver's side dash, the wooden panel under the boot carpet and the wheelbrace/jack toolkit.  I'll need to find a breaker nearby.  I know of a 1992 214 sat disappearing into the bushes at the back of a local garage that used to be a Rover dealer but they're hopeless, when I last asked for a part off it (one front wing) the chap insisted he would have to phone a parts supplier and find out how much a new one was, then price the one off the car accordingly.  Needless to say, I lost the will to carry on but might have another go at getting them to sell some parts off it if it's still there.

[phil_lihp]

Actually, random thought, anyone breaking an R8 on here?  I know Krujoe's slightly bent one was knocking about somewhere back along but I don't know if it's still around for filching bits off.

[phil_lihp]

Another trip, another few litres of coolant (well, water - until it's fixed it'll get nothing else!) spewed all over various road surfaces and a handy car park plus it came dangerously close to overheating again before I could pull off to one side.  It's not happy.

 

Neither am I actually, the manifold is leaking again - there was a steady stream coming out of the bottom of it by no. 1 cylinder.   I can only assume it's cracked, although having poked around with a camera phone I will be checking some of the hoses in that area to ensure they're properly sealed.  The thermostat housing is also still a suspect.  Problem is, I can see water dribbling down the back of the block further down but cannot see for certain where it's coming from.

 

I also bled a fair quantity of air out of the system again, I suspect this is part of the problem as it's drawing in air where it's leaking and the constant emptying of the header tank (it leaks even when the engine's not running until the level drops below the inlet manifold level) is not helping.

 

 

 

Not content with peeing itself at every opportunity, it's also now leaking oil.  Not surprising really, it's got fresh oil and has been used properly for the first time in years so I'd expect a few dry seals and whatnot.  A new cam cover gasket should sort this.

 

 

I decided to think on what to do next and turned my attention to its shabby chic looks.  Mr B had polished up the front end a treat a few months back but the whole car was in dire need of a good scrub and polish.  I took it to the local jetwash and blasted a large quantity of moss and green mould off it (hence the short trip which resulted in many stops and much hotness) and then scrubbed it with various polishes and some linseed oil.  It needs more work but it's a big improvement.

 

 

 

 

 

Onwards!

[Shep Shepherd]

My 214Si leaked oil in exactly the same place. I was surprised to find that the cam cover on a K-Series hasn't got a gasket in the traditional sense, rather this elaborate sheet metal thing:

 

 

Easy enough to fit, but beware the razor-sharp edges!

 

 

 

[phil_lihp]

That is odd, I wonder why? Oh well, no rush as I need to pull the cooling system to bits first!

[Shep Shepherd]

I think the design of it must play a part in preventing the camshafts from throwing oil about; it greatly surprised me when I took it out of the box after collecting it from my then local Rover dealer (Time Tees Cars of Upminster), that's for sure.

 

Stopped the leak, however, although that might have also been down to using copious amounts of Loctite in conjunction with it.

[purplebargeken]

These look bloody lovely in metallic green. Good luck with it.

 

These are lovely things.

[Lord Sterling]

Sweet looking car Phil. Originally Birmingham registered. Love the mats too (obviously) It's rare to see an R8 with mats in but I know Bollz bought them for the car in his thread.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Any developments with this Phil? Its certainly looking a lot nicer than it did! I flippin hope it starts behaving itself soon.

[phil_lihp]

Sadly not, I haven't had any time to play with cars this week - boo to dark evenings.  Boo.

 

I need to pull the inlet manifold and thermostat housing off entirely, check for cracks and ensure all the pipes are clamped on and secure, there's a leak still at the back of the block but as you can (maybe) see in the photos above, it's very hard to see where it's coming from.  When it came close to overheating last weekend there was quite a lot of water wazzing out of somewhere around the thermostat housing area so I'm guessing the pressure was forcing it out of the leak source.  Airlocks are a constant issue which I think caused the overheating issue but that's to be expected with the cooling system constantly draining and being refilled to the level of the thermostat, this is not helping matters at all.  My concern is that although it's never gone off the gauge it may already be too late to avoid the inevitable but there's not much sign of it having HGF at the moment so I'm remaining optimistic.

 

This weekend's looking both busy and very wet so I doubt I'll get any time on it so for now it's a driveway ornament.  I need to get it sorted soon as I have no patience with a car that can't be used and will rapidly fall out with it if it doesn't start holding its water!  Watch this space.

[phil_lihp]

Oh dear.  It's a bit broken.

 

I had another look at it tonight, in the course of trying to top it up and bleed it it got through over 15 litres of water which exited violently via the header tank and bleed valve.  It's managing to get a LOT of air into the cooling system.  I had it nicely settled at one point for a couple of minutes and thought it had finally cleared, only for it to suddenly vomit 2-3 litres of water out of the header tank again.  After that it was a never-ending job of topping up the header tank, bleeding it via the valve and letting out vast quantities of air, only for it to then suddenly cough several litres of water and lots of air out of the header tank again.  The bleed valve was at one point just constantly hissing, it took almost a minute for all the air to come out but the moment it was topped up and settled down it started blowing all the water out of the tank again. 

 

I then noticed that the puddles it was making on the driveway, which should be pure, clean water at this point, have an oily sheen on them.  Also, there are little white globules appearing in the header tank which weren't there before.  Nothing on the oil filler cap yet but I'm pretty sure it's blown the head gasket, it's come very close to overheating a few times whilst driving due to these constant airlocks and this is quite possibly the end result.  

 

As if to say it had had enough, after about 20 minutes of topping up, bleeding and belching of water and air I released the bleed valve screw for the 20th time, let out a quick hiss of air and it suddenly blew out a jet of water from the valve under significant pressure and spewed the rest out of the header tank in a furious eruption which had me standing back and turning off the engine.  It's pretty much emptied itself doing this and I've had enough.

 

Action shot:

 

 

Throughout my session with it tonight the temperature gauge remained steady at halfway but the engine was clearly getting quite warm at times.  The fan does not seem to be cutting in and there's still a persistent drip from the inlet manifold area.  I had the heater on full throughout and it was getting toasty warm so that at least is working.

 

This is the final straw for me, I just don't have the time for this and the car's no good just sat on my driveway getting in the way so it's up for sale.  Â£100 takes it away if anyone wants to have a go but I do not recommend trying to drive it any distance as it will overheat.  Failing that, it will sadly have to go on eBay, it's a real shame but I have lost patience with it and it's of no real use to me.  It has a long MOT, 2 new front tyres, a new timing belt and has been freshly serviced, plus it has scrubbed up pretty well, Mr B put a lot of work into it but I have no time or patience for a project like this so it has to go very soon.

 

If it's any consolation, I intend to put whatever I can get from it towards de-rusting the Puma so it's not all bad!

[HMC]

2 sugars with mine please! Shame it's fought you a bit, have you got a puma thread going? Mines rusty too if that makes you feel any better!

[phil_lihp]

At this rate I'll just use it as a kettle, I reckon I'd get a good few cups a day out of it!

 

Why yes indeed there is, although I've just piggybacked off MO's collection thread: http://autoshite.com/topic/25580-collectioning-later/

 

It's not actually that bad at all, it's just scabby arches as they all get, shouldn't be too bad to sort hopefully.

[gadgetgricey]

so it's up for sale.  Â£100 takes it away if anyone wants to have a go but I do not recommend trying to drive it any distance as it will overheat.

Where abouts are you again??

[phil_lihp]

Ah yes, that would help.  I'm in Barnstaple, North Devon.

[gadgetgricey]

No where near Birmingham then (arse)

[Noel Tidybeard]

i am heading to Cullompton from Birminghamshire on 16th if this is a help

[beko1987]

i am heading to Cullompton from Birminghamshire on 16th if this is a help

With an A-frame or 98l of water?