Anders
New Member
Hey all,
New to the forum, even though I’ve been reading quite a bit lately from the shadows!
Now finally a proper member, I hope you could help me shine some light on a 1975 Rover P6B undergoing a what seems to be the beginning of a rather full-blown restoration.
The car has been standing for 10 years in my dad’s cold garage with a gearbox conversion that stranded because of his illness. It’s done about 200 000 km, had a cam change to a street ”stage 1” (very drivable, but with a noticeable surge at 3500rpm, don’t remember the model number) Crane cam along with a Holley 390 and Offenhauser dual port inlet manifold, and hydraulic SD1 valve lifters. These modifications were all done at around 120 000 km, circa 20 years ago. Oil changes have been made with Castrol 20-50 every year or every 7000-8000km, and it’s been treated well mechanically, run carefully before thoroughly warm etc.
During the 10 years stranded in the garage, it’s been started up every 3 months, run properly warm, had oil changes done something like every other year, but.. here’s my big concern, only been topped up with antifreeze when needed, rather than flushing the system completely and replacing. Half a year ago, just after taking the car over after my dad passed, it had been standing slightly longer without start-up, and me and a friend had real difficulties starting it up even with starter help spray, admittedly in swedish mid winter. We did find annoyingly much humidity in the distributor for one so maybe no real reason for worry there tbh. It was given fresh clean fuel bypassing the petrol filter though.
Anyway, my questions to you are:
1. How do I go about with potential corrosion damage from the aging antifreeze? How far can it have gone corrosion wise, could it be so bad the the block simply is scrap? I have no experience in this kind of troubleshooting. If I get proper and consistent comp (which is on the list to do) on and between all cylinders, manage to build up proper pressure through the cooling channels when flushing it, should I still worry for cracks, or are people’s concerns on these V8:s rather about channels getting blocked by loose corroded flakes causing uneven cooling? There’s no white smoke or anything, it’s more if someone has experience in what actually could happen, like what are the margins here.. My thought, since it's been standing for all these years, was to lift the heads, exchange head gaskets, check the state of the combustion chambers and also valve play, but not go full engine restoration..
The engine ran beautifully when it was put up for gearbox conversion, with super steady oil pressure, and properly keen on revving. It will come out in any case in order to clean the engine and the bay, so the question is really how far to go on this..
2. I’m leaning towards an electronic ignition system since it seems rather hassle free, and in order to cancel out as many factors as possible determining the state of the engine, have read great stuff about Aldon’s, Powerspark are temptingly cheap, Lumenition is the one to go for at RimmerBros.. just curious on your opinions here!
Thankful for any response on this, sorry for lengthy msg!!
Thanks!
/anders
New to the forum, even though I’ve been reading quite a bit lately from the shadows!
Now finally a proper member, I hope you could help me shine some light on a 1975 Rover P6B undergoing a what seems to be the beginning of a rather full-blown restoration.The car has been standing for 10 years in my dad’s cold garage with a gearbox conversion that stranded because of his illness. It’s done about 200 000 km, had a cam change to a street ”stage 1” (very drivable, but with a noticeable surge at 3500rpm, don’t remember the model number) Crane cam along with a Holley 390 and Offenhauser dual port inlet manifold, and hydraulic SD1 valve lifters. These modifications were all done at around 120 000 km, circa 20 years ago. Oil changes have been made with Castrol 20-50 every year or every 7000-8000km, and it’s been treated well mechanically, run carefully before thoroughly warm etc.
During the 10 years stranded in the garage, it’s been started up every 3 months, run properly warm, had oil changes done something like every other year, but.. here’s my big concern, only been topped up with antifreeze when needed, rather than flushing the system completely and replacing. Half a year ago, just after taking the car over after my dad passed, it had been standing slightly longer without start-up, and me and a friend had real difficulties starting it up even with starter help spray, admittedly in swedish mid winter. We did find annoyingly much humidity in the distributor for one so maybe no real reason for worry there tbh. It was given fresh clean fuel bypassing the petrol filter though.
Anyway, my questions to you are:
1. How do I go about with potential corrosion damage from the aging antifreeze? How far can it have gone corrosion wise, could it be so bad the the block simply is scrap? I have no experience in this kind of troubleshooting. If I get proper and consistent comp (which is on the list to do) on and between all cylinders, manage to build up proper pressure through the cooling channels when flushing it, should I still worry for cracks, or are people’s concerns on these V8:s rather about channels getting blocked by loose corroded flakes causing uneven cooling? There’s no white smoke or anything, it’s more if someone has experience in what actually could happen, like what are the margins here.. My thought, since it's been standing for all these years, was to lift the heads, exchange head gaskets, check the state of the combustion chambers and also valve play, but not go full engine restoration..
The engine ran beautifully when it was put up for gearbox conversion, with super steady oil pressure, and properly keen on revving. It will come out in any case in order to clean the engine and the bay, so the question is really how far to go on this..
2. I’m leaning towards an electronic ignition system since it seems rather hassle free, and in order to cancel out as many factors as possible determining the state of the engine, have read great stuff about Aldon’s, Powerspark are temptingly cheap, Lumenition is the one to go for at RimmerBros.. just curious on your opinions here!
Thankful for any response on this, sorry for lengthy msg!!
Thanks!
/anders
