Project P38 EAS With Shenanigans

[Cooper1]

She is getting close to being my "daily", some shakedown runs have revealed two things. 

 

1) The steering dampener is worn out, every pothole can be felt through the wheel. 

2) Lower balljoints need doing.. 

 

Not too bad, handles really well.. 

Here she is as of now.. 

 

?

[Cooper1]

15 minutes ago, Carlosfandango said:

Good man, you’re very kind. 

That is a very rusty RRC and a long term project but yeah I flippin love it. Believe me, I have lots of rusty heaps. Keep up the good work man, great progress on all your projects. 

 

CFD 

Cheers CFD!

Love an old RRC 

[Cooper1]

"Idiot alert" 

 

AGAIN!! 

 

In my haste these past few weeks, i've had all 4 wheels off, and upon re fitment I put the front wheels on the wrong side! ? 

Spot the mistake!

 

 

Easily rectified by swapping left to right!  

The direction of rotation was the wrong way round, live and learn LOL 

 

Next up was to get some petrol! 

An average of town driving and some A road Hoofage!!  

Using my pen and paper, i have deduced the trip is "really" rather than "quite" accurate  

 

Also as you do, i bought some junk from the station!

 

Smells of Raspberries, really strong too!  

 

 

Smart!

"cough"

 

 

[Cooper1]

On 3/13/2020 at 7:44 PM, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

That MPG is far too high. 

I agree lol 

If i hoofed it the figure would be near 14 lol  

[Cooper1]

"project P38" 

 

Today was the day for the removal of the shin basher AKA the swan neck towbar.. 

The old bus doesn't do any towing, atleast not yet.  

Oh and they have a habit of disappearing in the night, this is her 2nd towbar as the first one was stolen in a B&Q carpark!

 

removal is relatively easy and involves the removal of 2 27mm nuts.. 

 

Before. 

During. 

Handily the P38 has a stowage place for the towbar.  

 

After! 

 

Next up was the resolution of the water ingress, above the windscreen there is a rubber seal/trim, in my case it was sitting proud thanks 

to the roof rail being fitted incorrectly, so i removed the rail and gave the seal a smack, the addition of the rail correctly has "fingers crossed" resolved the issue.. 

After continuous rail it is still dry inside.  

 

I hope its fine!! 

 

Next up is to fix the sunroof, so i have one for the summer! 

 

C1

 

 

[Cooper1]

Next up is some "bodging" erm i mean "painting"..  

This job required some masking, and to my surprise i had a set of cards lying round  

It is hard to see but the wheel was dull in areas, thanks to the powdercoat that was used during its refub a few years ago being not so well applied.. 

I lashed a coat of silver on and let it dry, 

 

The same was done on the opposite rear wheel. 

What you see on the wheel isn't dirt it is reaction and peeling paint/coat. 

The after shows a good improvement. 

All that was used for this touch up was a can of silver VHT and a heatgun, it is rather important to make sure the wheel is warm when paint is applied, it is also improtant to heat and spray to avoid runs  

 

Simoniz silver is a direct match for LR "silver sparkle" which is handy to know!

 

It is required to also make sure the wheel is clean before doing this, I also rubbed the finish down with a scouring pad before painting.. 

 

This is a temporary finish, i hope to paint them properly in the future. 

 

c1

 

[stuboy]

stil a beautifull barge !!

[Cooper1]

1 hour ago, stuboy said:

stil a beautifull barge !!

Thanks  

She's getting there

[Cooper1]

Over the past few days she has had a few shakedown runs, she is getting better with each outing. 

Just to test fuel eatage, i threw in £22 at 1.22ppl and it lasted around 98mi which for a hatchback or diesel estate would be dreadful but for one of these up and around 2.5t with a V8 it isn't bad at all.. 

The noise is worth it!

She had started to wander at over 50mph, the culprit turned out to be the tyre pressures were all over the shop, once corrected she handles a dream..  

It is amazing to drive one of these around, you get the feeling you're driving a unique 4x4 I haven't seen another one in Hereford for months, 

Pictures as usual,  

Odd to see her with "road dirt" on her flanks,  

I've since given her a wipe over

 

All in all I'm happy.. 

 

 

[Cooper1]

Checked her carpet today, 'tis dry after all this rain!!!  

 

Result  

[Cooper1]

Taken her out for the last time for a while today thanks to this Virus thingy.. 

LPG was fixed and was due to a poor ground to the ECU got that going and she was/is running LPG

Major Hoonage on LPG can ensue and 9mpg is manageable at 50ppl it is definitely lacking a bit of power in LPG over petrol.. 

However petrol is reserved for Economy runs ironically!!

We are down to 1,04 ppl in Leominster put £50 in it.. 

I'm getting this on petrol at the moment.  

Which is pretty good for a 2.2 ton 4.6 V8 with the aerodynamics of a small house..  

I was joined by a "modern" RRS at the services today. 

 

The "evolution" is amazing.. 

Owner liked my P38 too!!

At home my last project has been finished for a customer, hydraulic rams were leaking fluid, i believe it was overloaded and popped the seals.. 

Here it is before departing, next to the P38 of course!!

 

I wish you all the very best of health!

stay safe all.. 

 

c1. 

 

 

 

 

[Cooper1]

Little update regarding the accelerator pedal.. 

This thing is really quite heavy and notchy, it is a right pain in the ass when town driving or cruising. 

Instead of a smooth action it is more of a "ratchet" and its jerky and annoying..  

 

Being that all i had to hand was WD40 i decided to spunk some of that on the pivot and throttle body, where the cable starts and finishes, no fly by wire here!!  

The pivot is hard to picture, as my phone is cheap shit!!  

cover it liberally!

Under the bonnet there is also these places to look at... 

After giving them a clean and spray, the pedal is much lighter, and smoother! 

I'm happy with that!!

The longterm average MPG is also very good, even better than before!!  

 

And finally some pics from a few days ago!  

When this Covid issue is over, she'll be getting a service.. 

 

C1

[Carlosfandango]

Looking good dude. Yup, I’ve done that WD40 on the throttle on my ‘01 daily auto and it made a great difference. It’s nice when the easy jobs make a physical difference. 

 

I dragged this one out of my Dad’s driveway at the weekend - he’s been ‘looking after’ it for me for nearly a year! Looked like a sad bag of shit in his drive so I thought I’d worn out my welcome. 

Got it to the workshop and plan doing a few upgrades over the next few weeks while in ‘lockdown’

 

 

(Don’t worry, that grille is going in the bin pronto) 

CFD

[Cooper1]

34 minutes ago, Carlosfandango said:

Looking good dude. Yup, I’ve done that WD40 on the throttle on my ‘01 daily auto and it made a great difference. It’s nice when the easy jobs make a physical difference. 

 

I dragged this one out of my Dad’s driveway at the weekend - he’s been ‘looking after’ it for me for nearly a year! Looked like a sad bag of shit in his drive so I thought I’d worn out my welcome. 

Got it to the workshop and plan doing a few upgrades over the next few weeks while in ‘lockdown’

 

 

(Don’t worry, that grille is going in the bin pronto) 

CFD

Java Black!

A very good looking motor that, apart from that grille!!! lol  

 

The simple jobs that make a difference are the most satisfying imo

What you gonna be doing to her? I too am in lock down, i've bought myself some HP sauce and plenty of bread rolls to tide me over!! 

 

I hope to finish the interior off in the next few weeks

 

[Carlosfandango]

It’s actually green, sorry the picture is shit. 

 

 

 

CFD

[Carlosfandango]

I’m making one of these. 

 

CFD

[Cooper1]

1 minute ago, Carlosfandango said:

It’s actually green, sorry the picture is shit. 

 

 

Ahhh!!! 

 

Epsom green LOL  

 

Nice looking motor that! 

[Cooper1]

1 minute ago, Carlosfandango said:

I’m making one of these. 

 

CFD

THAT looks like fun!!!

Can't wait to see the progress  

[Cooper1]

Day 2 of Covid lockdown was used well doing things i seldom have the time to do.. 

A full detail on the old bus is due.. 

On the surface she looks pretty good, however in places she was showing signs of surface tarnishing.. ?

Now she's a daily it usually gets a wipe over when i have time. 

Now though i have loads of time, as my work involves people LOL and i can't fix tractors with a computer! 

 

One sure fire way of making a car shiny is to polish it, something i have done with some success on this car, however there is a step that should be done prior to waxing.. 

This is her normally.

She was washed off like normal, the next steps are a bit odd  

"claybarring" is a process that involves rubbing a sticky'ish clay over the paintwork to pull of contaminates. out the paint pors.. 

Weird as it sounds, paint is like skin, the issue is over time contaminates embed themselves in the paint and cause it to dull, it also makes the paint feel rough... 

This Clay is black after passing it over a "clean" door.  

Bonnet  

 

front wings. 

This is the finish after claying it, no polishing yet..  

The Bumpers and trims were treated to some Autofinesse satin  

 

 

 

A coat of meguires was used to help the clay glide over the paint... 

It now feels like glass, the paintwork is flawless now, i used to see what i thought were imperfections, turns out it was surface contaminates..  

 

Love it... 

 

C1

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cooper1]

"I shall call it "mini me"  

Found it in my pile of Diecast cars, i've had it ever since my P38 obsession started

 

It now lives on the dash of the real thing!!  

 

[Cooper1]

The Old mini.. 

Since buying this thing it has been used, and a bit abused.. 

Seldom ever cleaned and used in all weathers, since buying it, nothing has been replaced or repaired.. 

These OLD R50s are a tough little car... 

I decided today to treat it to a clean.. 

 

And to show how sacked out it is... ? 

needs a service!!  

A very good model, dare i say it better than its predecessor   

And here it is with the old Bus,, 

 

 

[Cooper1]

Managed to get an excellent deal on some oil for the Vogue.. 

 

ECP had a 50% off deal on all their oils, so i ordered some Castrol Edge 10w60 and a new filter, just to be on the safe side.. 

It was delivered next day!!  

 

Being an engine that has been around since the dawn of time, there are several opinions on what oil is right. 

some say 10w40 others say 20w50 well i say 10w60  

 

The stuff in question! 

sump plug is easy to get to when the EAS is in extended mode, it is a 15mm bolt.. 

Easy to remove as i've had it off "fnarr" quite a few times  

The old oil only had 500mi on it, but unlike the 5w40 i drained out after changing from the original 10w40 it was clean and not black!!  

Their was also a Wynns lifter treatment in the oil i didn't really like.

 

Oil filter on these is simple to remove, the old one was a Bosch unit, i'll be dissecting later! ? 

One removed the mounting area was cleaned off and the new filter primed.. 

 

And fitted..   

Time to fill 'er up!! 

 

She sounds pucker on the new stuff.. 

 

Very happy

 

 

[Cooper1]

Next up is the cross examination of the old filter compared to the "even older" one.. 

My oil filter allegiance is to Mann, well "was" now it has shifted..  

I took the Mann filter to pieces and compared the internal components to the Bosch one.

Both have around the same mileage on them.. 

The mann filter uses a "leaf" type relief spring and the casing is rather flimsy.. 

I had to call on my blue spanner to open the old bosch.. 

Note there are also more oil passageways in the cap on the bosch.. 

 

Bosch uses a coil spring and the casing is much heavier, the filter material is also far more rigid and has a far stiffer material.. 

COMPARED TO THE MANN. 

  

 

The difference while small is significant, when you consider the Mann is £13 and the bosch is £8.. 

So for more moolah you get a lower quality filter!!!!  

Odd.. 

 

Weird nerdy shit!! 

 

C

 

 

 

 

[burraston2006]

Treated mine to a Hoover, wash then wax yesterday. The ungrateful bastard rewarded me with full suspension bingo lights and dropped itself to the bump stops. Yo stance!

 

 

[Cooper1]

Being bored with Lockdown and having nothing to do...

I decided to buy myself some shock absorbers for the P38, the front ones first!! 

As i need to save for the rears!! 

One issue i had with the old ones was the ride was very bouncy and uncomfortable..

The steering wheel also would shake when you hit potholes which was disconcerting 

The issue with the P38 is there are divided opinions on what ones to use. some say Boge others say Bilsteins while a separate few say KYB...

In my case i went for Terrafirma which are stiffer and slightly offroad biased, however they will give a more stable ride which is what i'm after 

The old ones were ruined...

Removing them is easy when you see the access, however it did put up a fight 

16mm nut to remove.. 

 

The nut was spun off, however the shock was rotating with the nut,
so i had to grip the body with some pliers!
 

The top bolt is an 18mm and a right pig to remove on the passengers side and drivers side..

I had to remove the Air intake gubbins to get a spanner on it 
on the opposite side the bolt is restricted by the coolant pipe, so getting a spanner on it is hard 

Once removed, the shocker fell out.

Easy eh?!  

The new pair!

Refitting is easy as pie, I could squish the old ones with no effort!! 

Fitting the new ones was the opposite of removal..

Only issue i had was trying to compress the new shocker by hand to get it into place!!

Tested my biceps!! 

In the end i fired her up and lifted the EAS 

which made fitting them a tad easier, after some faffing around they were fitted!! 
 

seems a shame to hide them away, they look quite snazzy!!

No stickers though!!  

I took her up and down my bumpy drive and the improvement is profound..

The steering wheel used to shake and rattle when you were driving down a bad road, it is now solid..

Body roll is reduced dramatically and it no longer bounces, which has made the ride very comfortable, no motion sickness!!  

 

 

 

 

[Broadsword]

Great progress as usual. That gets me thinking whether my P38s shock absorbers need doing. I don’t get the shaking of the wheel like you do though, it just likes to lean (mine is on springs though). Could you do me a favour? For reference I’m interested to know how much resistance your viscous engine fan has? I’m wondering if mine is partially seized as the engine roars a lot of the time and from stone cold the fan isn’t very easy to rotate.

[Cooper1]

Mine tends to howl from cold too.. 

There is abit of resistance, i can't spin it freely for more than 1/4 of a full rotation 

It shouldn't be easy to rotate when cold, it should start to roar when hot and at a standstill, usually a hot summers day in traffic will cause it to engage, they sound like tanks too when they lock.. 

 

When driving at speed the engines cooling is entirely dependant on Ram air, the VC tends to only engage when hot... 

 

They can lock on permanently, which can be power robbing "especially on a DSE" and cause fuel economy to sufffer.. 

IIRC you can't get just the VC unit, you have to buy the entire fan, and the 36mm LASER VC spanner!

 

An odd test to check the ability of the Fan is to roll up a newspaper and see if it will shred it.. 

If it can't the unit is goosed.. 

[Broadsword]

Thanks! One thing I know is that when the engine is started from cold the fan will try to shred a rolled up magazine.

[Cooper1]

5 minutes ago, Broadsword said:

Thanks! One thing I know is that when the engine is started from cold the fan will try to shred a rolled up magazine.

Thats a good start  

[burraston2006]

The magic Rangie has repaired itself. The suspension would not go back up from the bump stops so I left it for a week. Fired it up last night and it rewarded me with the suspension working properly. It was going up and down like an excited puppy! I may reward it with a run to the petrol station and fill it up! Need to fix the hole in the exhaust first. Had beans yesterday so I'll dig the empty tin out of the recycling and see if that will do the job!