Project P38 EAS With Shenanigans

[burraston2006]

Not brave / competent enough to do mine!! Just did the HT leads on mine. Need to be 7ft tall to reach the back of the engine and have hands the size of a small child to get to them. I thought it would take 10 minutes but took an hour! Definitely added an extra 50bhp doing them?

[stuboy]

still love this mota 

[N Dentressangle]

The ZF 4HP22 in my Classic had that kind of shit in the sump and that kind of colour oil, and threw a 7 not so long later. Just sayin...

Might be worth keeping an eye out for a good s/h box whilst there are still loads of cheap 4HP24 boxes from broken P38's around?

[Cooper1]

3 hours ago, N Dentressangle said:

The ZF 4HP22 in my Classic had that kind of shit in the sump and that kind of colour oil, and threw a 7 not so long later. Just sayin...

Might be worth keeping an eye out for a good s/h box whilst there are still loads of cheap 4HP24 boxes from broken P38's around?

Yep i'm going to agree with you there!! 

Just to depress myself I decided to pull the gearbox filter apart to check inside for any untoward metal bits. 

The filter came apart with the help of some pliers!





And now the treat within! 








Me and the Cat were not happy with what we found, however with the life she had before my ownership it is hardly surprising!



Anyway to cheer myself up,I took some pictures of the car! 






Mowing the Grass outside the house, grass which hasn't been touched in years has provided an extra parking slot 

Should stop peeps moaning about the big blue 4x4 taking up most of the driveway! 

 

 

[Cooper1]

7 hours ago, MJK 24 said:

Great thread, great car!

Probably unusual these days for one of these having some much TLC and preventative maintenance thrown at it.  I’m sure most are experiencing a managed retreat which is sad really.

Keep up the good work ?

Thanks.. 

They're expensive to run "SOMETIMES" however if maintained they aren't too far off an executive saloon of the same era.. 

 

MPG isn't bad at 21mpg especially when you consider it is a pushrod v8 propelling a 2ton 4x4!  

She'll be around for a good while yet, I realise in future i'll never get the opportunity to own another V8 of any form, this old Bus is a good basis to build

handy too! ?

[Cooper1]

4 hours ago, stuboy said:

still love this mota 

Thanks! ?

 

She's a labour of love!

[Cooper1]

6 hours ago, burraston2006 said:

Not brave / competent enough to do mine!! Just did the HT leads on mine. Need to be 7ft tall to reach the back of the engine and have hands the size of a small child to get to them. I thought it would take 10 minutes but took an hour! Definitely added an extra 50bhp doing them?

Luckily mine were done when the LPG kit was added, unfortunately with all the pipes and wires from the LPG draped down the back of the engine it makes removing coils or even plug leads a nightmare! ?

[Cooper1]

More parts turned up today for the old bus  An Aux belt tensioner another one! And some drop links  First port of call is to pull of all the plastic bits  Removing the fan is quite easy, 36mm spanner and a mallet! Just dropped it down a tad..   Backing off the tensioner requires the use a breaker bar, just to allow the belt to slip off.  Once the belt was off it showed an issue with one of my guide pulleys, it was making some nice grind noises! New one fitted, nice and smooth now!  New tensioner and guide pulleys fitted! Engine sounds superb, no horrible grindly noises!  Next up a 5min job! NEW DROP LINKS! Old units were quite crispy!  2 18mm nuts later.....

[Cooper1]

Being that i'm picking my new Janspeed Zorst up on Monday I decided to remove the old unit early for 2 reasons.

1 - It will make fitting the new one quicker on the day it arrives, due to the fact i won't have to wrestle with the old one!  

2 - I can do some chassis protection, the exhaust covers a good section of the rear chassis which is susceptible to corrosion. 

The Old one has been on the car for 19yrs and as you can expect the nuts are a tad rusty! 

The bolts came out here!



Thanks to these old fellers!  7



These were a tad uncooperative 




Not sure this was doing anything!



The rear mufflers were being a pain, however with my good leg pushing on one muffler and my hand on the other, a good push saw the exhaust snap in half 





Might throw it on ebay!   



"slightly used"!

Weirdly she is quite quiet with no mufflers 



I'll put a video together when the new Exhaust is on...

Chassis work tomorra! 

[Cooper1]

Being that the old exhaust is now in a skip and not actually attached, makes rustbusting otherwise inaccessible areas really quite simple 

The main areas are where the rear mufflers sit, it is quite common for mud to sit here.

In my case 18yrs worth of sand and mud, being that she was a seaside car! 






Cracking out the drill and wire brush, a few good passes saw all the mud and silt come off, revealing sound metal. 




next was a chemical attack, mechanical means can only get you so far!
Don't get this stuff on your hands for god sake.  



A good splash and a ice cold Pepsi later!




Another go with the wire brush saw that drain hole get slightly bigger, worry not it isn't rotten! LOL
It will be cut out some love with a file made it less sharp and a coat of Zinc primer and Underseal was added 




Much better!! 

Being that I had a fair tub of this underseal and some free time I threw a coat on the chassis and associated metal bits! 

Even gave the axle a spruce up!

Befores.





Afters







And for the banana on the cake I ordered up this air freshener.. 



And my god.... 

It smells lovely, however it is maybe 100x stronger than one of them fangled trees form a petrol station lol 

Looking forward to my new exhaust next week! 

[Cooper1]

Having owned this bus for 3yrs give or take, i've always slapped on some fangled dressing onto the upper half of the doors. 

Reason being I thought they were porous plastic... 

Today I used the Jack of all Trades "Autoglym SRP" and gave everything in sight a good rubbing!  

The befores and 50/50 shows the difference.



50/50



Complete



t'other side!



After!





Door trims too!





A complete side shot!




The issue with LR plastics is they're naturally a "matt" complexion, i'm astounded some kind of shine came through 

The Pic's are few and far between, mainly due to 30c and direct sunlight! 

I'll get more later!

For now it is one job off the list

[Cooper1]

Finally for today I had a play with my scanner and got these 2 pics to show reasonably well 

 

#1 My Dads 1974 Tuscon Blue RRC 

 

#2 My Granddads SS1 he passed down to yours truely this pic was taken 19yrs ago

 

 

[Cooper1]

Got my Janspeed today! ? 

Got it fitted too, what a ballache, anyone who complains about fitting an exhaust to a RRC can do a P38 one!!! 

No assembly pics as I was too busy swearing and sweating at it!! 

Befores of the old 'Zorst. 

Rear most view

 

Now the new'un!!

 

well happy.. 

 

sounds fruity too!! 

 

 

 

The finished article!! 

 

 

[Cooper1]

 I've spent today fettling the exhaust and getting it to hang straight..

All securing bolts and clamps are now stainless steel too!  

 

sounds very smart..
Not abnoxious like some who just had the mufflers cut off, it has a nice burble under acceleration, but it isn't intrusive.
When cruising it is very quiet, idling it has a nice v8 throb.

Giving it some welly, or putting it under loads yields a lovely noise! 

Some time was also spent polishing it!  

Before



After





I've taken her out for a hoon, and I can tell you it is much louder! 

Sounds like a Rover V8 should! 

I could be heard from miles off, apparently!

I will get a video tomorrow!

Hopefully!! 





Smartens up the rear end quiet well i think! 

 

[Cooper1]

Right..

Exhaust noise!

This is a taster for the moment, as i darn't risk waking the neighbours that was just a blip to 2300rpm 

https://youtu.be/BXUTWY6sJYg

Compared to before  

https://youtu.be/4VJrvbD-TPY
https://youtu.be/qnWoKZIWYnk

Can ya hear the difference! 

Originally thanks to being incredibly over muffled it sounded like a slightly angry 4 cylinder or at a stretch a sickly V6 even though it had an All aluminium V8 under the bonnet you'd never of known unless over 4k 

Also spurred on by the fact the original was past it's best I scoured the internet, and was tempted and a keyboard click away from fitting a new "original" over muffled exhaust, when i remembered the Janspeed Gem a mate had sitting around! 

With all the mufflers inplace the Janspeed system has a deep Bass which I love.

Some people opt to remove all silencers, and in this case while it sounds quite good the note is very tinny, the unending rattle/drone will get on anyone's nerves after a while 

The Janspeed doesn't drone at all, but it growls when asked!! 

Another issue was with the stock exhaust you had to get above 4000rpm before anything could really be heard, now at the best of times I don't want to thrash the old girl, and before I replaced the Cam and Tappets it wouldn't rev above 3.5k willingly anyway! 

After a cam replacement documented earlier in this thread it really woke this thing up and it does go well.

The upside to the Janspeed however is you don't need to hoon it to hear the V8

It rumbles with the slightest poke of the skinny pedal  

Above 4k which i visit quite rarely lol it produces a glorious noise, it sings the legendary Rover V8 song 

Enough waffling!!!! 

H

[Cooper1]

New track rod turned up today for the old bus, like everything for this P38 it came from Rimmer Bros, their OEM is MOOG which is nice..

I've not had much luck with cheaper suspension parts on this car! 

New one..



Love the look of new parts in the Mornin'! 

Wheels off!




The old rod was cut off due to rust! those nuts weren't going anywhere lol 




To avoid the tracking going to the dogs, try and get the rod to the same length as the old one, assuming your tracking was ok to begin with! 

In my case it was 54 inches exactly, 



New one was thrown on and the nuts tightened! 



As you do I took her out for a good drive to see if there was any improvement, or a new problem! 

I'm happy to say it tracks straight and true, 

However with every good there must be a bad 

On my way home a pheasant decided to cross the road, however because they haven't got a brain it went into mid flight right infront on my car! 
The result was it hitting the corner of the bonnet and propelling at great velocity into my mirror, which in turn caused the glass to fly out! 

Not only that the bird came in my open window and missing my head by CM landed in the boot 

What a fiasco 

So i pulled over and got the bird out, was tempted to keep it for sunday but eh 

My mirror glass was found in a grass verge and put back in, only downside being it cracked! 



However not all bad!

I did get this pic after filling up! 

Just to prove it does move! 



H

[Cooper1]

Fitted a new battery to it which went well.

She now holds a charge! 

However I now have 2 new faults.

More EAS gremlins which made her plummet to the bumpstops, which meant I had to drive 30mi home with no suspension 

Valveblock rebuild time 

However I did get the the seaside for a break from 6 day work weeks 

First Pic is her sharing the spaces with a Freelander 1 and 2 + a Tasty X5 



Next up are some random ones!








No people around lol





A silly moo in her l322 also shunted me up the **** when she was parallel parking, which has kinked my bumper all to hell

So have that to contend with aswell! 

 

Next up is regarding the wheel centre caps.. 

Mine had started to go a weird yellow.. 

They let her down considering she has silver wheels! 



A nice new silver set to the rescue! 





And yes the wheels are slightly dirty from an escapade the day before 

I'm also tempted to remove the parking sensor from the rear! 

[Cooper1]

Some tidying up of my nice stainless exhaust is in order due to it being a little mank...

The befores show the tarnishing and dirt. lol







A quick scrub up with some old MER polish I had lying around has heeded some good results wink






And finally my favourite shots 







I can say without a shadow of doubt, that the singe exit pipes are my favourite for the P38, the Quad pipes look to garish to me and the stock mufflers look to tame!
The Janspeed system looks quite good in my opinion!



And finally the reason I've polished the pipes themselves!!

They are visible from underneath if you look in the right place, and they do look good when shiny!


 

 

 

Next task was some EAS maintenance!  

 

A few things to catch up on with the old girl 

A seal kit arrived for my EAS valveblock which meant it had to come out!

4 bolts and 2 screws!



The old valveblock itself!



The area around where the box sat was filthy as to be expected, a quick wipe over and it looks better!



-------------------------------------------------

Valveblock rebuild itself was quite fiddly!

first off the desiccant in the air drier which can/will turn to dust and fill the Valveblock with white powder, which in the grand scheme of things will cause it to fall ass over ***!
New beads is cheap! 



Being I have short term memory loss it was imperative I was to label the valve solenoid caps and valvebody to ensure they go back in the right place!



The drive pack was next, this was held on with 4 allen fasteners.



The solenoid caps then come off, making sure they were placed in accordance to where they came off! 



The solenoids themselves were next, at this point a tinge of "I know why it's st" came over me when I was wiping away the black and white dust!
Alcohol wipe worked wonders! 



Brass collets out next - underneath them were 2 rubber O rings, rather easy to pull out and refit new!




one this was done the I accidentally dropped half of them, so 30mins of my life i'll never get back was spent crawling around looking for them!  

I did get them!

Diaphragm next!

A well known issue and one mine was suffering with was the old bus didn't like rising from access mode, this is down to a leak from the storage side of the EAS system. a common point is the diaphragm!

Off with the block and the issue was apparent!




Not very impressed!





Quite clearly destroyed, and flat on one side, plus the rubber was crumbling in my hand, not ideal! 

cap back on!

NRV's next!

Off with its cover!



Cute aren't they! 



Without them the EAS wouldn't work! New seals on the end and on the block....



The cap back on! 



Hmm thats alot of bits! 



The solenoids next with new O rings!



The solenoid caps back on with new seals! 







And finally after a rub over, and the drive pack re-attached we have a rebuilt valveblock!   



Time to refit it! 

The cleaned box put back in!



Aaaand then it was taken back out as i remembered the valveblock has to be bolted into the box first DOH!! 



Back in again!

The pipes just push in!



Phew!

[Cooper1]

Had some time to finish off my EAS conundrum

New/Refurb compressor fitted.. 

The EAS all works as it should now which i'm happy with!

Took it to work and she behaved herself 

Couldn't help shoot a pic 



At home Access mode is all working as it should, well happy!

[Cooper1]

Amazing. 

On average over the past few months it has broken something on average of every 2 days.. 

I've gone almost a week without something falling off! 😱 👌

 

Been Hooning it around recently just for a bit of fun, through wales scared some GTi's and M cars when they see a near 2/7ton 4x4 bearing down and passing them! 

Average MPG makes for grim reading, around low 13s IIRC! 

Being as it costs around £120 to fill the tank i'm gonna start behaving! lol

 

[Jamie]

amazing commitment there mate, id have thrown the towel in looooooooong time ago! lovely colour too

[Cooper1]

15 minutes ago, jamiechod said:

amazing commitment there mate, id have thrown the towel in looooooooong time ago! lovely colour too

Thanks! 

Rampant blind commitment is the name of the game lol with the P38!  

She is Monte Carlo Blue which is a BM colour IIRC, a legacy of when BMW owned LR!

 

Great old motor to drive!

[Cooper1]

Over the past few weeks I've been having havoc thrown at me by the old P38  

The EAS has been playing up on the random basis, 

I went through the stages of checking wiring which turned up nothing! 

The next logical step was the driver pack, which is responsible for talking to the EAS ECU and actuating the solenoids on the valveblock..

So I removed it.



The potting compound has/had turned to a chalky like material...

Not ideal..

SO a new 'un was fitted.

You can just about see it here!! 



After a test drive it seemed to be fixed........ 

And then I drove through a puddle "beep beep fault"  

So checking the codes it seemed to be unhappy with the RH height sensor soooo.... 



It lives here!

2 bolts!





Upon taking it apart I connected up my Multimeter and checked the resistance



being it's a potentiometer used as a potential divider. The actual resistance is pretty irrelevant, however it's the difference between one reading at one end of the scale and the other.
the resistance of the track is around 2 kOhms, so that is what I should of measured between the end two contacts. Between one of the end ones and the middle, at one end of the travel, I should of been seeing a low figure (200 Ohms), progressively rising as the sensor is moved through the travel up to close to 2 kOhms.

Ideally you should see 0 Ohms or very low at one end of the travel and almost the same as the full resistance of the track at the other end

Mine is 2.45 kOhms at one end and 1.18kOhms however if the arms is moved the resistance fluctuates between 1.18 and 0.68 kOhms 

So fairly conclusive! 

JUNK! 

Terrible pic but the new one was an easy fit

 

All in all I hope that is the last of my EAS issues for a while!

My new compressor is working well, I've actually remembered to take a pic  



Out and about the car seems quite happy 



Excuse the dirt! 

[Cooper1]

Had some fun with the p38 a nice squeak appeared from what appeared to be the rear UJ.. 

A good squirt of Grease saw the unit quieten down again...   

Good news comes in the form of the old bus hasn't broken in over 2 weeks YAY! 👌 

Sad I know!! lol 

I've had her going up and around the country dragging trailers for my Job and she's performed faultlessly, So i'm happy! 

Her MOT is due in march and being that I was under her greasing the UJ's I "Fixed" my Balljoint gayter  

You wouldn't even know!!!

Nowt real progress pics to upload at the moment, however here are some pic's of her annoying the neighbours

 

Best parking award 2020? 

 

Life would be so boring without a P38 lol 🤪

 

 

 

 

 

[Broadsword]

So much excellent work and sheer commitment to the P38 cause, well done!

EDIT: Also, how did you manage to open the can for the EAS drier?

[Cooper1]

17 hours ago, Broadsword said:

So much excellent work and sheer commitment to the P38 cause, well done!

EDIT: Also, how did you manage to open the can for the EAS drier?

Thanks!

The Cap just twists off, being a Gorilla does help!

An oil filter removal tool can be used too, the soft strap type   

Be careful though, as there is a spring under the cap!!

 

 

[Rod/b]

I love that you’re putting all this effort into this old thing.  Everything I read in this thread should really be putting me off the one that keeps winking at me. But it hasn’t yet. I must be unwell.

[Cooper1]

3 minutes ago, Rod/b said:

I love that you’re putting all this effort into this old thing.  Everything I read in this thread should really be putting me off the one that keeps winking at me. But it hasn’t yet. I must be unwell.

Like scabies once they're under your skin they never come out! 😉

[Cooper1]

Snake oils eh! 

Checking the oil on the old bus showed it was just above Minimum, which is 800mil in 4000mi which isn't too bad for an old V8.. 

Looking on the line you have many choices of oil additive, one seems to sit head and shoulders above the rest,, 

This stuff..  

according to the blurb on the back, it quietens noisy "lifters" and can help plug leaks. 

On Coldstart she does/did have a slight follower rattle so I gave it a shot.. 

Oil level/colour before. 

During 

One thing to note is the consistency is akin to runny grease! very tacky too!  

Good news is after a few hundred miles with this stuff in the crankcase, the noisy top end when cold has all but gone, and it sounds quieter when hot too.. 

So that was £15 well spent, 3 quid cheaper than a litre of Castrol 10w60 too! 

Since I started a new Job i've also been given more free time, a 70hr week down to a 40hr one is quite a shock!   

So on the way home I snagged in a stop to one of my favourite picnic stops.. 

She doesn't really fit the garage queen stereotype surrounding the rangie, to be fair the L322 and L405 share the square root of jack with the P38 or Classic. 

If we use the DNA stats, the P38 is the last RR with true roots with the RRC

Anyway! 

Also gave the drivers window an adjustment, the glass had started to pitch slightly and bind... 

Quite an easy fix, just involves removing the door card and giving a bolt an adjustmant.. 

The bolt circled allows the window mechanism to pitch one way or other, I guess it adjusts the wear out of the plastic runners! 

That was an easy job!  

 

Also replaced some Fir tree clips 

 

OCD makes me mad, not a fan of grey against the chicken soup beige..

Next up is a grey interior, it needs it!!

 

 

[N Dentressangle]

On 11/23/2020 at 7:01 PM, Cooper1 said:

She doesn't really fit the garage queen stereotype surrounding the rangie, to be fair the L322 and L405 share the square root of jack with the P38 or Classic. 

If we use the DNA stats, the P38 is the last RR with true roots with the RRC

 

Agreed.

I have a soft spot for the P38, although I don't have the time / ingenuity to keep one on the road like you do so I'll stick to my Classic for the mo 😉