P6B S Project Car

NO! Untested electric pump fitted, only way home from CBD was a freeway, didnt want to chance needing a flatbed home again! Cleaning up the pump plumbing today, will do some short runs close to home to make sure its reliable.
 
Got the sump off today - the 2 partly hidden bolts are a pain - by the time I had one nearly out the socket bar (1/4 drive) was on the cross member and I couldnt get it out. Had to trip the ratchet catch from loosen to tighten without being able to see it, tighten the bolt up until I could get the ratchet bar out, then winkle the bolt out by hand. Interior of the sump not bad, oil pickup filter gauze clear of debris. Removed and cleaned the splash shield(windage tray?) - bolts were pretty tight, using 1/4 drive bar. Gasket is pretty much squashed flat with lots of sealant on it. For only a few 100 kms the oil is sadly black, so my change must have picked up quite a bit of gunk.
Am I right in thinking the splash shields disappeared when the sumps got some horizontal baffles fitted?
 
All back together. Pieces of some very thin gasket material were stuck to the rear main cap, quite difficult to remove. Gasket stuck to the sump needed to be cut and scraped off, very tedious. Some fragments of a silicon sealer on the bottom of the front cover were a PITA to remove. Beat out a dint in the front of the sump, partly for the look of it. New gasket came with a fibre washer...that didnt fit the plug. Annealed the original copper washer, hope that works. Also tedious cleaning the bottom of the block, partly access problems. Used the end of a 1/16" strip of alloy, on the basis its about the same hardness as the block and shouldnt do any damage, which a steel scraper could. Some sludge in the sump, but not heaps, so it cleaned up readily except for all the gasket scraping.
Applied sealant to flange, fitted gasket, located it in 5 places with small cable ties, applied more sealant (Loctite no3 non-hardening), offered it up engine. Got 1 bolt started while holding pan with other hand, added a couple more bolts a few turns, cutting cable ties out as I went. Biggest issue was getting the LHS semi hidden bolt started, took quite a few tries before I could get it to bite. Other side was easier. I set 1/4 drive torque wrench to 8 ft/lb, but didnt get there on any bolts - felt plenty tight enough before it tripped. Will keep an eye on these - applied a bit of thread locker to all bolts.
The oil I use (Penrite HPR30) comes in 5 L bottles, and despite the book saying it takes 4.5L, I put it all in, and it was still below the Full mark? Oil pressure came up fine on startup, thank goodness! Will change the filter after a few kms.
Hope to do a few kms over the weekend, if nothing else to prove the electric pump will cope.
 
Because of the tendency of sumps to suffer from jacking damage, or grounding I always measure the strainer / pickup to pan clearance and make sure it is min 1/4". Sometimes the 'dope' upwards of the portion under the pickup is subtle and not easily seen.
 
The damage on this one was all in the front, easy to see. But yes I should have measured the pick up's depth.
 
After starting it to check oil pressure was OK I noticed it was running rough, uneven. Was too stuffed to persevere just then so I left it over night. I did notice the choke felt odd when pushing it home, so I checked the cable end - come adrift from the seat clipped on the carb, again. Gave it some superglue and left it to set. Still running rough, and pulling plug leads one by one didnt produce an obvious problem cylinder. Checked inside dist cap - all OK, but noticed the clip for a felt to oil the cam was empty. Time to pull plugs and clean them - got all except 8 done ok - for some reason I still havent fathomed I couldnt get a socket on it....so I left it. All 7 were fairly badly sooted up, so I cleaned and replaced, and finally she was running as she should, smooth, responsive. Big relief. Was fearing the cold start seals might be leaking, but all seems better now. New plugs coming soon I think.
 
Found an old piece of felt, soaked it and fitted to clip in dizzy....
Finally out for a test drive - some 20+ kms on local roads. Everything seemed to work fine, but the rad expansion tank needs topping up - radiator was out during the panel beating, and I guess they really dont know about, or were able to, burp the last bits of air out. No unusual readings on the temp gauge. Planned tidying of small issues will now resume.
 
Did 20kms yesterday , no problems. Tank 1/2 full. Today 25kms, pause for lunch, 200m, dies - no fuel in filter, Huco pump chattering. Pull inlet pipe off, try to blow back , not sure. Lower inlet hose below car, dribble of fuel. Reconnect to pump, power, still empty filter. Pull Outlet hose off pump, power - fuel! Reconnect hoses, restart. Do another 5kms, same again, or similar. Pump is mounted under coil, and have seen pics of other Huco in same place, no mention of problems. Since getting home have blown air through the supply hose and heard it blowing vigorous bubbles in the tank.
Sort of plan is to locate pump lower, and away from exhaust, and try stationery running to see if anything happens. Is there likely to be a problem with the pipes from the rear? Crud in the tank blocking the outlet? When I can see the reserve tap I will check that its fully at one extreme or the other.
 
There was a batch of faulty Huco fuel pumps that gave me problems for months in my Austin. For no apparent reason the pump would cut-out randomly when the car was moving. Even new ones out of the box did the same. The problem was solved when i finaly refitted the old SU pump with points.
 
jp928 said:
Did 20kms yesterday , no problems. Tank 1/2 full. Today 25kms, pause for lunch, 200m, dies - no fuel in filter, Huco pump chattering. Pull inlet pipe off, try to blow back , not sure. Lower inlet hose below car, dribble of fuel. Reconnect to pump, power, still empty filter. Pull Outlet hose off pump, power - fuel! Reconnect hoses, restart. Do another 5kms, same again, or similar. Pump is mounted under coil, and have seen pics of other Huco in same place, no mention of problems. Since getting home have blown air through the supply hose and heard it blowing vigorous bubbles in the tank.
Sort of plan is to locate pump lower, and away from exhaust, and try stationery running to see if anything happens. Is there likely to be a problem with the pipes from the rear? Crud in the tank blocking the outlet? When I can see the reserve tap I will check that its fully at one extreme or the other.
Click to expand...

Try running with the fuel cap undone.
 
Quote "Try running with the fuel cap undone. " - while it looks unlikely that the cap seals the neck that well, I will certainly do this...and check the breather pipes are clear.
If I have to open the bottom of the tank to check for debris, is the sealing rubber available? 530755 - could one of these be cobbled out of sheet rubber ? How thick? Do I have to order 1 from UK? Wadhams list them.
 
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Rubber wont work with modern fuel, you need EPDM.
The seal is available, but I don't know what it is made of.

Edit
Nitrile may be better, you should be able to get hold of some Nitrile sheet. I thought EPDM, as we use it at work for brake fluid reservoir lines, but Nitrile has a better gasoline resistance.
IIRC the washer is around 1.5mm thick, you have a bit of tolerance on the locking washer ramps.
 
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There are nitrile washers visible here on the web, so all I need now is ID and OD!
thanks
 
Back again. Relocated pump down to above the horn. Replumbed the outlet into a drum. Put out ~12-14L in short ordeer no problem. No audible noise when opening the tank cap. plan is now to get it out and run it up to temp, both level and as nose up as I can - moderately steep slope just outside my place, see if it behaves OK. Reserve inactive.
Looking at the tank breather - strange ? The tank has 2 breather outlets, once facing left, the other right. The left pipe goes over the large filler hose, cant see where it goes. Then there is a pipe the same size, type that comes from under the filler hose and goes all the way to the right end of the tank and disappears. Another pipe comes from that same area in front and goes to a hole in the bodywork under the D pillar. The right facing breather outlet has a pipe that goes right and into the same hole as the previous pipe , under the D pillar. None of this matches what I see in either the WSM or the parts book...??
 
Found a join in a breather pipe, opened it, inserted another tube in both sides - able to blow through - not easily, but possible, so I think the tank doesnt have a breathing problem.
 
Thanks Cobraboy! Replaced the plugs just now. Got to be a better way to get 8 out, real PITA. I guess it would better with the inlet elbow removed, and the expansion bottle, but for one plug? The baffle/heat shield over the brake master doesnt help either. I dont recall it being this hard when I pulled them to do the compression test, but maybe I had the above items removed. Will try a tube spanner next time.
 
Moved the pump up to level with top of radiator to see if it could drain the tank from that height - starting from just under half full. With a drum on the floor, got >15L out, but this is a not agood test, as its basically siphoning - car is ~ 3degrees nose down in the garage. Put second drum on top to stop it siphoning - When it stopped pumping fuel and started to race on air I pulled the reserve on, and it picked up and produced, in total, enough to indicate tank empty. End of pump was noticeably warm, but not near hot. So I dont think there is a supply problem, and the pump location below the coil shouldnt be a problem, unless it got hot from exhaust radiation. Next test will be nose up, engine running with pump low, further from exhaust.
 
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