Pickup restoration part three

[Matt Tomkins]

give richard plant a call at minorparts of oxford -- i think he sold me one for about £10 when i roggered mine up a 'white' road on a navigation run

[MarkyB]

As you are only losing oil when the engine is being used hard I very much doubt there is a hole in the sump, more likely a seal maybe linked to excess crankcase pressure.

I've seen sumps with very large dents and scratches that remain oil tight.

[davidmiles]

thanks for the advice fellas,more plot twists and turns than Lord of the Rings, and twice as hard to understand. Well you're right about the sump, nothing wrong with it. After parking her up on thursday after some hard use, she sat resting until I needed to get to work this morning, quick oil check,level was fine, Motor down the drive to a repeat performance of the oil trail, thinner this time, and right next to the sand trail I'd left to soak up the last lot. Glance underneath to see evidence of oil spilling from the top of the oil filter can, where it joins the housing.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

couple of turns on that bolt that holds the oil filter all together and then.. nothing, no oil on the newspaper. Problem solved? what on earth made it suddenly loose, spill oil at a rate that would have emptied the engine in the short trip to work, yet, held up all the way from Dorset on Thursday? Gremlins at work here, undoing that bolt on the oil filter over the weekend. I may well invest in a spin on set, now I'm not looking at a new sump anymore.[frame][/frame]

[brucek]

Keep you busy these Morris's don't they David?

It would be worth taking the filter housing off when the engine is cold and checking two things:

Firstly that you have the filter and the various springs, plates and grommets assembled the right way round and in the correct order. It is very easy to put these parts back in the wrong order which can cause leaks when being used.

Secondly, and this may be the more likely problem if oil is coming from the joint between the filter bowl and the housing, check very carefully to see that there is not an old rubber 'o' ring wedged into the head of the housing where the bowl mates to the housing. It is not ata ll uncommon for these to be left in place when changing the oil and causing the filter bolw not to sit correctly. You may need a thin screwdriver to 'broggle' (good Lincolnshire verb that!! ) around in the housing to ensure no remnants of an old 'o' ring are the cause of the leak. Good luck

[davidmiles]

Broggle, I'm adopting that term down south, see If I can get it accepted as Sussex terminology. Ive received parts from ESM that will rejuvenate the Purcolator oil filter system Ive got. Plus a new spring and insert for the oil pressure release valve.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

looking at the oil spill pattern on my garage floor I realise that the oil filter leak is only part of my problem. There seems to be some oil running down from the back of the engine, quite a worry, as rear engine operations tend to be engine out of car.
Difficult to be sure as oil flows out over other parts to emerge elsewhere. the newspaper in the drip tray was under the sump, the stain nearest the camera is under the clutch and gearbox.
[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

reading the Haynes manual and looking at gaskets on the ESM website lead me here, the tappet chest covers, there's oil discharge around the rear most cover.. could need a new gasket there.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

but what on earth has happened here, the rear manifold nut is missing! it appears that the stud has sheared off.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

trawling back through to page 50 of the 100 pages of part two I found these two images, the first one shows the tappet chest cover off, discovering the cam follower needed re-seating, the old chest cover gaskets could be letting oil out, two of the Neoprene type on order from ESM.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

the second one I found shows the re-ground cylinder head back from the engineers with new nuts and washers fitted to the manifold studs. The rear one is just as new and shiney as the others. It must have sheared off some time since then and now, Gulp![frame][/frame]

[drivewasher]

The exhaust stud looks like it's missing not sheared off. Did you use 2 nuts locked together on the studs to "bottom" them into the head, if not that's why they come loose.
I have this argument all the time with fitters that just put studs n nuts back in like a bolt when the stud unscrews with the nut. It's a recipe for a lost stud later!

"Stud lock" liquid is available but not really a necessaty stud lock is stronger than "nut lock" so as to allow the nuts to come free BEFORE the stud does when dissmantleing.

[drivewasher]

There looks to be an oil leak from the rocker cover running behind the exhaust manifold at he rear onto the tappet chest cover.

[jagnut66]

I couldn't get the oil pressure release valve itself out on my old 1098, seemed to be stuck in there, by that I mean it moved with the spring (which I did renew - and which seemed to solve the problem) but the metal piece itself refused to come out, seemed to have some sort of lip on it, so it came to the edge but wouldn't pull out of the hole.
Bet your one just slid out!
Best wishes,
Mike.

[davidmiles]

thanks for those tips Gentlemen, I'll bear them in mind, DW you have quite a point there with the leak from the top cover, I may have to add that to my list this weekend. Parts arrival from ESM today include a new replacement oil filler cap, different type to my old one. And not a snug a fit either.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

also the Tappet chest neoprene gaskets, the manifold gasket and a new stud. I'm ready to do battle this weekend. It's an all engine saturday, unless the Jane wants to go shopping for carpets, in which case it'll be an all engine Sunday.[frame][/frame]

[MarkyB]

From the look of the rocker cover gasket someone has kept winding the bolts up until the bottomed out and couldn't be turned any more, same with the tappet covers.
All this tends to do is squish the life out of the gaskets so that they leak after the first time they are removed as there is no more give in them.
Neoprene may be more forgiving in this respect but cork gaskets will seal perfectly well without maximum force being applied, then they can be reused many times.

[davidmiles]

so a new Gasket needed there, thanks Marky, well spotted. Last night I had an avoidable disaster, the car wouldn't start, there was loads of battery power but the starter wasn't even whirring, I got Jane to Tow me home only to discover in the Haynes that all I needed was a spanner on the square end of the starter motor, two turns and it started. The splines had become meshed, all it needed was a slight turn to untangle them and I'd have saved myself and Jane a lot of stress, live and learn.[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

Todays tasks, starting with the missing manifold stud, one went right in, and following advice from the worldly wise, I'm winding it right in by locking two nuts together[frame][/frame]

[davidmiles]

oil filter bowl bolt coming out...[frame][/frame]