Project Korean Cortina - MOT day

[warch]

54 minutes ago, PhilA said:

The tappets need about 5-10psi minimum to stop being noisy.

If you drove for a distance then they'll start to pump down and the engine will begin to run like a sack of spanners, accentuating the rattles and bangs.

Pressure gauge is only at the pump, don't forget.  Once you fall below their pump down pressure the tappets will be noisy, particularly if you've revved the engine up a bit.

I'd imagine you suffer loss of power too as the valves wouldn't be opening fully either. 

[PhilA]

13 minutes ago, warch said:

I'd imagine you suffer loss of power too as the valves wouldn't be opening fully either. 

A completely kippered RV8 will stall if it loses oil pressure at low RPM- with a worn camshaft the valves close up completely.

If it keeps running you know it's at least halfway good.

[mat_the_cat]

I had a look at the damage today. Yep, that'll not be oil-tight!

It was previously brazed on, but this had held and torn the steel of the sump. I ground away a bit of the braze metal, and welded the tear. Then welded the boss along the lower edge. 

I've ground back the weld a bit and it seems solid i.e. no porosity, but I'm just wondering how best to test it. Don't really want to chuck oil in it unless I'm confident it's sealed. Unless I just grab some of the cheapest I can find, which I guess will act as a flush. At least it's due an oil change anyway!

[Fumbler]

28 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

I had a look at the damage today. Yep, that'll not be oil-tight!

It was previously brazed on, but this had held and torn the steel of the sump. I ground away a bit of the braze metal, and welded the tear. Then welded the boss along the lower edge. 

I've ground back the weld a bit and it seems solid i.e. no porosity, but I'm just wondering how best to test it. Don't really want to chuck oil in it unless I'm confident it's sealed. Unless I just grab some of the cheapest I can find, which I guess will act as a flush. At least it's due an oil change anyway!

You could use diesel or kerosene. Being much thinner it'll show you leaks pretty quickly.

[PhilA]

Looks like that's been repeatedly taking a beating.

Perhaps a sacrificial skid plate to put underneath it?

[mat_the_cat]

49 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

You could use diesel or kerosene. Being much thinner it'll show you leaks pretty quickly.

I was wondering about diesel, even at current prices it's cheaper than oil! Then just a quick glug of oil to rinse out the diesel.

43 minutes ago, PhilA said:

Looks like that's been repeatedly taking a beating.

Perhaps a sacrificial skid plate to put underneath it?

It's most times that I take a passenger - the track to our house is quite rough and although I have just enough clearance solo, with a passenger I tend to just scuff the sump in places. This was a little more than a scuff, but still surprised it caused damage. It had a hell of a whack on a bumpy singletrack lane the previous evening which I really thought had holed it, but with hindsight think had just weakened it enough for a relatively minor scrape to have finished it off.

That's 3 sumps holed, and one radiator in 17 years - sometimes I wish we lived on a normal tarmaced road!

[loserone]

Do you want a skid plate? I have one lying around from my M59 partner which could surely be adapted.

[Rocket88]

Just a thought… could you dry sump it?

[mat_the_cat]

That would help a great deal with sump clearance, but would be a headache to mount the oil pump with the AC compressor taking up that space.

[eddyramrod]

Stop me if you've already had this thought, but it sounds like you need to get your hands on some gravel or hardcore of some sort and try to fill in some of the holes along the track!

[Asimo]

 Supplementary air bags for a "rough / smooth" selectable ride height?

(Or convert to Citroen Hydropneumatic front struts!)

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, Asimo said:

(Or convert to Citroen Hydropneumatic front struts!)

glad im not the only person who thought of this!

can you imagine fitting this with the suspension from a Xantia Activa?

just to add even more to the sleeper status, normal ride hight just going round town, then when you need to go fast, activate the Activa part just fuck off down the twisties  

(or really mess with someone at a track day LOL) although at this point id start to wonder if the body shell could take the forces involved?

 

also to make good of a bad situation, surely this would be a great time to drop in a 4.6 Rover V8 surely?  or is that getting a bit too powerful for everything?

(im  just thinking back to when you got the Holly carb and IIRC said it was a bit big for the 3.5, so why not get a bigger engine for the carb?  ) 

[mat_the_cat]

3 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

Stop me if you've already had this thought, but it sounds like you need to get your hands on some gravel or hardcore of some sort and try to fill in some of the holes along the track!

That would be the obviously thing to do, yes! And we regularly do that, but the repairs only last a few months. Problem is the track has been built with no provision for drainage, so turns into a stream for days after any rain. This washes away the fines which bind together the surfacing material, so wherever puddles form they rapidly get deeper as material is splashed to the sides and washed away. Wouldn't be so bad if we were the only users, but the landowners tend to only worry when the logging trucks start to struggle! It's currently in relatively good condition, just that the sump is a bit on the low side.

[mat_the_cat]

I've been putting off this moment for a while, as I really don't want to find out bad news. But I said to myself that I was going to video it, and post up the result regardless of the outcome. So here it is:

 

[Sunny Jim]

It lives! Hurrah!

[PhilA]

Sounds ok, oil pressure came up nicely, heard everything load down and quieten up.

Go drive!

[mat_the_cat]

It was a massive relief TBH! I was feeling slightly sick at the thought of all the time (and money) to rebuild the engine again. I've put a new filter on, and all seems to be running smoothly and quietly now although have yet to take it out for a proper drive. Hopefully that will be tomorrow's pleasure!

[stuboy]

thankfully all ok.

[Rocket88]

Ref clearance…. Could you fit air adjustable shocks on the front?

[danthecapriman]

Now you can un-clench!😆

Sounds great, glad it seems undamaged.

[mat_the_cat]

7 hours ago, Rocket88 said:

Ref clearance…. Could you fit air adjustable shocks on the front?

In theory...but.

Most of the time I'm able to avoid hitting anything, just occasionally I get careless I guess.
I believe they're more designed to maintain a constant ride height, rather than raise it.

It's possible the current springs have sagged a touch - I replaced them a year or so before taking it off the road (in 2002) so didn't replace as part of the rebuild. Also, they are standard springs so I could replace with the V6 version. Whilst the engine felt a similar weight to the original when manhandling it around, surely it must weigh more than an iron block/ally head 1.6. Plus I've since added an AC compressor and condenser up front, which won't help.

[Back_For_More]

You obviously need lowrider yo stance bitch airbags etc.... 

Couldn't you have airbags and keep em at mid height for normal use and just hike em up for track attack? 

Newer versions are a fairly decent ride apparently 

[mat_the_cat]

I could, but it's not like I'm bashing it every single trip. I think my best bet is to drive with one wheel on the grass verge, and the other on the central ridge - it's bumpy, but at least it maximises the clearance under the sump. If I was using it daily through the winter it would soon turn to mud, but given I only use the car a couple of times a week, and not in the winter, I think it should be OK.

I took it on a 30 mile trip this evening, so everything fully up to temperature. I think it sounded a bit tappy after a cold start, but I maybe just being hyper-sensitive to any noises. Either way, after a few seconds I couldn't hear anything amiss. And a big plus point  - not a single drop of oil on the floor an hour after driving it! It had a gearbox leak for a fair while until this year, and I wonder whether there was a slight weep from the sump boss even before the incident, as there was usually a few spots of engine oil dropped. So the idea of a clean garage floor is somewhat of a novelty for me!

[warch]

Rutted lanes are a bit of a sod to maintain, you can keep repairing them, but as you say the repairs last about ten minutes, especially on a gradient. If you have a digger you can also remove the central hump, but this is often fairly compact, especially in north Wales, where soils are often mm deep. I usually drive with one wheel on the verge as you suggest. 

[Rocket88]

What size wheels and tyres are you using…… ?

[mat_the_cat]

185/70R13. But don't really want to move away from original wheels.

[loserone]

11 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

185/70R13.

How many V8 engined cars run on tyres around this size? 

[warch]

3 minutes ago, loserone said:

How many V8 engined cars run on tyres around this size? 

Rover P6 3500 had 185s the V8 SD1 had roadroller like 195s. 

[mat_the_cat]

4 hours ago, loserone said:

How many V8 engined cars run on tyres around this size? 

How many Hyundai Stellars are fitted with V8s?

 

 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

How many Hyundai Stellars are fitted with V8s?

 

 

Nowhere near enough!