Sump/ gearbox drain plug

well spent the whole day trying again!
stilsons dont work.
Filed down a couple of sides to hammer on a smaller socket with a long bar, but still slips off when turning :evil:
May try and get a friend to weld a socket/new nut to it..
Failing that, would it be ok to suck the oil out? Unfortunately i dont think its been changed for some time, so not my number one choice!
 
Might be easier to pick up another sump pan . As most engines leak a bit , they shouldn't be rusty

You could suck the oil out but are you going to get any sludge out of the bottom ? You simply can't tell
 
You should be able to get your sump plug out with some effort and creative thinking, but I'd be wary of applying heat unless you remove as many parts of the breathing system as possible to allow the fumes to escape.

If you get stuck I have a sump and a plug, which I'm sure I could make available for a reasonable sum.
 
Thanks Harvey, i'll let you know how i get on tomorrow.

Laying on a wet tarp, legs getting rained on wasn't exactly motivating today :LOL:
 
I would think applying heat would be pointless if the sump is full of oil .It would conduct the heat away from the plug
 
if your spanner/wrench/stilsons are slipping off you could try a bottle jack (or trolley jack) up against the stilly's to keep it in place while you pull on them, just apply a bit of pressure on the jack enough to keep the stilly's in place but not too much to push in the sump. I don't think heat would help as you would be expanding the plug and also might weaken the braze holding the threaded plug boss to the sump, but maybe a little heat might help then rapidly quench the plug with a wet rag and try, good luck, failing that you would be only left with trying to weld a nut on or take the sump off.

I've just refitted my sump after squaring the flange lip up, using a straight edge and going around the flange bending up or down the flange lip so it is pretty much square and then using a good oil resistant silicone gasket sealant instead of the standard gasket (as suggested by SydneyRover as he says it is now done by Land Rover as a retro mod)

Regards,
 
Finally! :D
I filed the nut within an inch of its life.
actually it's definitely dead :twisted:

Trouble was, it had fused to the washer and the washer had fused to the pan. Once i'd filed the sides right down, including the washer, it came off by hand!

HOwever i do have a new problem..
I'd removed the filter before i realised how important it was to not do this first.
Subsequently,most of that first day when i was trying to get the sump plug off, the filter was off too.
(I quickly replaced it once i realised)

So today i drained the oil, fitted new plug and washer, filled with new oil, prefilled the new filter and fitted it.
Since nothing much came out when i swapped the filters, i'm guessing the pump drained too much?!

When i turn ignition on, oil pressure only goes up to about 10. Normally around 30 i think.
The oil warning light didn't come on, but i guess the bulb could have gone.
It started easily, better than usual actually, and i let it idle for about 30 seconds.
Pressure didn't move.

Has the pump lost its prime?, should i be filling it with the vasoline?
Any advice is much appreciated!
 
I'd check the oil warning light bulb. Get the light working then see if it goes out when you start the engine. If it does then the pump has picked up the oil and is pumping it around as it should. If they don't pick the oil up (lose the "prime" as you say) the tappets soon start rattling. If the pressure is lower than before the change then you may have used a lower viscosity oil. Did you use 20/50?
 
Oh dear!

If you've got 10psi then the pump is definitely primed and running! Next finger of suspicion would be to what oil you used. The V8 needs a 20/50 and not just any old 20/50 but one with a nice lot of ZDDP in it. There's a few previous topics on engine oil - this is an extract I wrote on one of them:

Zinc and phosphorous is precisely the issue. Asside from any considerations of viscosity, modern oils assume an engine buit to very differnet tolerances to the Rover engines of our period and without the anti wear additives which were an assumed part of the oil spec when our engines were designed. These additives were deleted as they destroy catalytic convertors and the engine manufacturers compensated by adding special surfacing to wear parts in modern engines. Ours don't have those and we risk dramatically accelerated wear rates by using such oils.

I put a post on lubricating oil in the Lounge recently which is also worth reading. The key ingerdiant is zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) and Castrol make an oil specially for people with engines like ours - Castrol XL20W-50. There are lots of others available of course - look for the ZDDP in the spec.


I wonder if you used a 10/30/That would certainly drop your oil pressure well down1

Chris
 
No i used halfords classic 20/50 chris.
Checked dipstick, level is fine.
When i say it reaches 10psi, it barely reaches 10 psi.
Engine sounded fine, but i didn't want to run the risk of keeping it running any longer.
 
Hello corazon,

Does your engine still retain the original Smiths oil pressure transmitter or has that tbeen replaced at some point by a unit made by BMI? In the case of the former, these can give issues after many many years, while in the case of the latter failure or improper reading can occur in a matter of weeks or less.

The oil warning light (you can check the bulb...turn engine off,...turn ignition key to position 2) will come on when the engine is running should oil pressure as it leaves the pump falls to 8 to 10psi or less.

The spurious oil pressure reading that you have I would suggest is most likely down to the oil pressure transmitter, especially as you say the reading was something like 30psi prior to changing the oil.

As an aside,....oil pressure will also drop away if the strainer across the oil pickup is partially blocked, or if the oil feed holes within the top of the block and into the cylinder heads are obstructed with sludge as a result of infrequent oil changes.

Ron.
 
Ron,
I'll check the bulb and sender when i get some more daylight.
There's a cheap NOS smiths on ebay at the moment if need be.

Just one more thought,
I did momentarily take the relief valve off earlier. I put it back as tight as i thought it was before, with the spring in situe.
Perhaps this is contributing though?

PS has anyone used one of these?
http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-RB7457
 
Corazon,

As you have taken the oil pressure relief valve cover and spring out and refitted,...did you ensure that the piston was seated fully prior to refitting? If not, then this could well be another possibility. When you increase engine revs, does the oil pressure also rise?

Ron.
 
Ok...no change in oil pressure with increased revs suggests either the oil pressure transmitter is at fault or the oil pressure relief valve. The latter is a piston,....you can see a detailed article that I wrote covering the P6B oil pump and filters within this section of the forum.

It would be advisable to remove the cap and spring again and check to ensure that the piston is fully seated within the bore. If you replace the pressure transmitter, the replacement must be of exactly the same type as the original if you are interested in the NOS Smiths on ebay. The transmitter is matched to the gauge hence a different sender won't read correctly.

Ron.
 
Thanks for your valuable advice Ron,
I shall investigate the valve first tomorrow, fingers crossed its just that.
I'll have a look for that article too
 
Only had chance for a very quick look today,
But found a broken connection at the warning light sender.
The sender's actually missing most of the male connector.

I may try soldering it back to the wire for the time being.
Can anybody think of a reason why this wouldn't be advisable?
 
corazon wrote,...
But found a broken connection at the warning light sender.
The sender's actually missing most of the male connector.

I may try soldering it back to the wire for the time being.
Can anybody think of a reason why this wouldn't be advisable?
Click to expand...

Provided the oil warning light comes on when you move the ignition key to position 2 and the light goes out once the engine starts, it should not be a problem. The oil warning light senders are still available should you choose to purchase a new one.

Ron.
 
Phew, pressure is now back!
In fact it's better than it previously was.

I bought a new warning light switch to check the pressure was indeed too low. It was.
Refitted the relief valve a couple of times just to make sure. No change.

So i decided to try filling the pump with vaseline through the relief valve hole.
Using a grease gun syringe pump wasn't really working with the vaseline in the cold, plus it kept reminding me of austin powers :D

So i just packed as much as i could in by hand, started her up and after 10 seconds oil light went out, pressure went up to 40 psi or thereabouts.

Thanks for everyone's help
I'm off for a drive! :mrgreen:
 
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