New sparks, same problems

Treating 'George' to a new set of NGK's finest has solved the not starting issue, and allowed a nice v8 burble  for a few minutes at least.

Then as it gets warm it just goes flat and doesn't want to rev. I guess the next step is to take the carbs off and   try not to break them.

Boxing Day, diff oils before lunch

Took all the plugs out and gave them a clean, some were nice and brown but a few were black and wet.

Put them all back in and tidied up the plug leads. however now not starting, so took the battery out and put it on charge.

While that was doing I took the opportunity to avoid assisting the cook and did the diff oils.

Started on the rear, not too bad in the end, old oil was not too bad at all, just fairly brown.

Then on to the front, the fill plug is a square fitting, which came loose with a 17mm socket and a little bit of persuasion, the drain plug is the slot type and not having a correct tool, a drag link bit a spanner end sufficed.

The copper washer was pretty knackered, but for some reason the shops being closed meant I had to re-use the old one. 

The oil in the front was a dark grey colour, but there wasn't any visible swarf.

Just filled the front and it was time for lunch, a rather nice piece of beef and all the trimmings.

Lunch over and battery back in, still no go. Turns over fine but isn't firing. Time to recheck all the leads, but that is for tomorrow.

One other little task was to change the 7 core earth cable that has been connected to the front lights away from the battery negative pole to the chassis side of the isolator switch. Hopefully this will make the switch work as intended.

Some more food / drink and a game of  Trivial Pursuit has intervened, and once again the rain has returned.

Maybe more tomorrow.

One step forward

Well, a little parcel arrived the other day with a shiny new fuel pump and front propshaft.

Having a few spare minutes this weekend allowed me to plumb in the pump to replace the old knackered one.
The old one had been bodged at some point and was missing it's inbuilt filter (so now I have two) and just wasn't able to push through enough fuel. I have also temporarily run an earth cable back to the cutout switch just to remove the weak link of a rusty self tapper into the bulkhead.

End result is an engine that runs better but is still fluffing as the revs rise.

A few minutes tidying up the HT leads has helped somewhat, with a bit more of a v8 burble.

Plugs 2, 4 and 6 were removed (will do the rest tomorrow, 8 will be a pig) 4 and 6 were a nice light brown, but 2 was black and wet.

A jaunt in the country

A much anticipated day arrived on Saturday , it was the day of the annual Disco3Club trip to Salisbury Plains.
Bright and cold we all met up for the club rituals of cake, parts swapping for onward travel and coveting the extras fitted to other cars.

South of Hungerford

A gentle start

Lunch

It is definitely that way!

Just a bit muddy in places

You have heard of crop circles...

All in all a good day out, no one in our group suffered any problems, the five boys with the group had plenty of  time to get muddy and wet while breaking the ice that was everywhere.

Leak found!

After some head scratching, the suggestion that the leak was coming from the oil pressure gauge turned out to be correct.

Opened up the dash and there amongst a rats nest of cables was the tube leading to the gauge, with not one but three different holes in it. All look like they had been touched with a soldering iron.

I guess the misfire the other day with the pops and bangs it had shocked the pipe enough to finally crack.

The next task is trying to fit the barbed insert back into the shortened pipe, boiling water isn't quite hot enough and the heat gun is too hot.

I shall have a go at making a clamp block to use to hold the pipe secure while I apply some percussion to the   insert.

Finding the oil leak

One of the more urgent problems is that there is engine oil leaking at the back of the engine onto the bulkhead. Some is draining down in front of the fuel pump, the rest flows down through into the top left of the drivers foot-well.

There is a pipe running from between the carbs that goes off behind the heater, which I now think is part of the heater system. I will try and trace it all out next weekend.

Another photo showing the general layout

And one showing a higher angle

The smelly bits - Part 1

First fun job completed, have just changed the gearbox and transfer box oils.

Stripped out the access panels in the cockpit to try to ascertain where the footwell oil was coming from, but cannot see anything obvious.

While it was all apart it is a fairly simple job to drain and refill the transmissions. A little worrying was the amount of gear oil that came out, certainly not as much as it should have been.

Time will tell whether any long term problems have been caused.

The engine

This is supposedly a mid 80's Rover SD1 3500, I shall find the serial number and confirm it soon.

It is not running clean atm, so I will start reading up on Hif6 SUs and how to fix.
One task that looks fairly simple is fitting a fuel filter after the pump, there may be one nearer the tank but another won't hurt.

A couple of photos to start with.

These are two of the photos from the advert.

 As you can see, it is in fairly rough condition, but so far seems to be fairly robust underneath. 

I wouldn't want a pristine one due to the life it is going to lead. As delivered it has no front propshaftl, there are a few boxes of spares, some manuals and a spare set of wheels.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the Big Litter Tray, home of 4cAtS.

A recent convert to Land Rover products has led me to this. I am since early 2011 the owner of a 2006 Discovery 3 and now a 1956 Series 1 88" which has been converted from the original 2.0l petrol engine to a mid 80's 3.5l Rover SD1 lump.

This 88" has been bought with the intention of using it for green laning, general off-roading and to compete in RTVs.

As a part of owning such a car there is a lot to learn about maintenance and usage, which with the help of my Sons and the tolerance of my Wife, I shall try to do, document and share.

Cheers,
4cAts