Hello All :O)

rockdemon

rockdemon

Administrator
Staff member
Hi,

I've just bought a P6 mk1 3500 so thought this looked a great place to join for practical advice and discussion:)

PAE622F is mostly sound, with a slightly dodgy boot floor and a tap from the top of the engine ( job number 1 i think ) but she got back from huntingdon to loughborough under her own steam...

I'm going to take the carbs and rocker covers off this weekend to check her out properly - does anybody have any useful advice on this front? The last engine i dismantled was an opel 2.0 cih engine over ten years ago so this is going to be very different i think! Is it worth getting one of the rimmer bros cam kits with all the gaskets before i start or should i wait and see what the rest of the engine is like first? - guessing it all depends what that tap is - it is pretty pronounced!

I've been told that west end garage in loughborough near the hospital is good for welding on classics so i'll probably ask them to take care of the boot floor!

If you see me out and about in loughborough give me a wave or a beep :O)

Rich.
 
Thanks :O)

I think you're right. Just been outside taking a closer listen for the first time. Sounds like the noise is from one side so i think it's going to be a rocker, a valve or maybe just a pushrod/cam follower.

Is the v8 an interference engine, or are the valves and pistons fairly safe in terms of possible collision?

Rich.
 
rockdemon said:
Is the v8 an interference engine, or are the valves and pistons fairly safe in terms of possible collision?
Click to expand...

If the camchain or cam gear breaks or jumps, the valves will hit the pistons if it goes too far. Last one I stripped had zero compression on 5 out of 8 cylinders.
 
@harveyp6 - well that says dont drive it till i know whats wrong with it then.... thanks - last thing i want is it to be properly broken rather than mildly broken!

Thanks,

Rich.
 
Just a "tappet" noise is unlikely to be the camchain, more likely a point worn on the top of a pushrod which is cutting off the oil supply from the rocker arm, or a faulty lifter. Run it with the rocker covers off to locate which one is noisy, then pull the shaft assemblies off to inspect the pushrod(s). If you have a worn chain it shows up as the timing wandering all over the place when you check it with a strobe.
 
ah cool that's great advice. thanks :eek:) looking forward to it being right enough to drive properly :eek:) (went very easy on it on it's way home from huntingdon...)
 
@Phil Robson

Hi yes, got it from ebay a few days ago :eek:)

it's burnt grey according the previous owner but i havent checked the docs to make sure yet...

There are a few bits that need looking at, but making sure the engine runs right is definitely number 1, then the heater and speedo need sorting followed by the boot floor which does need replacing. Not sure whether it's worth cutting out a boot floor from a donor car or just getting someone to weld in new sheet metal The interior is good and all the switches etc work.

I'm not sure if i should have paid a little less but it's a really nice car and i hope to keep it for a good few years :O) He did say that the club he was in thought it was the oldest surviving v8 on the road.

Rich.
 
Welcome Rich!

I'm on the north side of Leicester, so if you're ever going to be this way and would like a P6 chinwag let me know. Or I could pop over to you sometime.

Not too sure how familiar you are with the Rover V8, but there's plenty of pics of mine on Photobucket...clicky link below! :)

Cheers,
 
Hi Stan, I've sent you an email through the site. If it doesnt arrive please let me know :O)

Rich.
 
it's going to be sunday before i get chance to look properly... looks like i've found a great place for advice though - thanks all :O)
 
Hi Rockdemon, my rock climbing days are now past, but were very enjoyable. Does that mean P6's and rock go together, or just that we're all pretty brave?

The most likely cause of the engine tick is inded a worn cam. But hold on a minute! First have a look inside a rocker cover, best choose the one with the tap. You get two bits of information like this. First if there is a tap you may well discover that at least one rocker has much less movement than the rest - that will confirm the worn cam. More importantly you'll get a view of how crudded up the engine is. If everything is caked black, don't bother doing the cam anytime soon - it'll need a full rebuild. Rover V8's are very sensitive to oil change interval (3,000 whatever the manual says to the contrary!). The S1 doesn't have an oil pressure gauge and you probaly won't want the revelation! A V8 is quite happy with 5psi! There are lots and lots of second hand V8's around, the best are probably the 4.0 ex Disco engines, as they have the crossbolted bottom end (looks after the main bearings better). Take your time to decide what to do, with a dead cam it won't go bang suddenly.

Far better get stuck in to the welding! Have a nice quiet surf of this site and you'll start to understand there are a few common themes emerging in P6 world. The good news is the S1 V8 is about as late as you can go without hitting seriously dodgy metal, it appears that BL changed the steel spec around 71/72 and cars later than this, especially 75/76 cars are much worse.

Finally, enjoy your car, they are terrific to drive and attract lots of attention.

Chris
 
Hi Chris,

Obviously we're all brave soldiers owning P6s... but it's rock as in rock music. I've had the same name on many sites for several years so it's just habit to use it again. It has to do with my modest colelction of 8 guitars :O) The year my P6 was made the 2 albums i can pick on would be the beatles white album and fleetwood mac ( with peter green ) so the rock could relate to the P6 i guess but i hadnt thought of it that way :O)

Yeah no oil pressure gauge did throw me a little. I guess it follows that these things normally happen for a reason. I think taking the rocker covers off is the best way forward. That tap seems to have a misfire associated with it. Not as smooth as it should be by a long shot but from my knowledge and what i've been told on this wonderful forum i should be able to figure this out with the rocker cover off. Supposedly the previous owner did the changes every 3000 miles but i only have their word to go on. Could also be something like a dodgy oil pump i suppose.

I went for a little drive last night and got held up for 5 minutes in traffic and the temp gauge went sky high. I'm wondering if this engine has circulation problems in general ( water as well as oil? ) as the heater doesnt put much heat out. And the kenlowe switch made a lot of noise but didnt seem to do much to the temperature. I'm going to have a look at the coolant level to make sure it's not lost any obviously but if that's fine it must have a water pump type problem... Getting on the move again dropped the temperature down again pretty quickly.

You may be right that an engine is the best way to go....

Many thanks for such a detailed answer :O)

I think spending a day on this on sunday is going to help a lot. It's difficult to know when i really havent studied the problem enough.... there's a lot of supposition going on in my brain - never good :O)

Rich.
 
Hi all,

just to let you know i've just done a bit of investigation - i took the rocker cover off as suggested and yes, it's pretty black and a bit cruddy in there. The tap comes from cylinders 4 and possibly 6, and cyclinder 4 has a non rotating push rod which i guess is it.

When dismantling the air filter housing etc i was pretty alarmed by the amount of oil going round in there so i think the engine is breathing pretty heavily. It's definitely ready for oil filter and a flush.

The good news is i found the source of the misfire - the previous owner had put the leads for cylinders 4 and 6 on wrongly by the looks of it. Obvious i noticed this when i went to reassemble it. It goes a lot better now and i think i can safely order a kit to do the camshaft, followers and push rods ready for the long easter weekend. I'm assuming now the firing is correct the oil is likely to behave better. Also the oil level was right near the top line, so together with the excess oil in the air filter housing i'm guessing it could have been overfilled in a futile attempt to hide the tapping noise. A couple of fire traps and pipes that actually fit might help too.

I'm a lot happier now i understand what's been going on:O)

Rich.
 
Those flame traps and pipework are often blocked on poorly serviced cars. Check 'em out by blowing through :wink:
 
well the pipes to the flame traps arent right at the moment at all - like wrong diameter pipe, the works:eek:) The solution here is obviously to get hold of something that's at least the right diameter even if it's not the original part!
 
I was watching a programme about Peter Green - he was a guitar legend . Was it too much LSD that made him go a bit wierd ? He does seem a lot better now
 
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