TVR Griffith 1992 (Rover V8 engined)

S

SRA43V8

New Member
Hi,

I’m hoping I can perhaps benefit from the experience on this forum of any Rover V8 owners. The engine is the TVR produced Rover V8 4.3 which I believe starts life as a Rover 3.9 block.

Having had to leave the car unused for almost a year, and starting her up, I quickly established there was no oil in the system and quickly found that the oil appears to have drained back to the sump.

Conventional wisdom is to either pack the oil pump (two gear type) with vasoline, and to then turn on the starter until oil pressure is achieved or to remove the distributor and spin the pump with a drill. I’m not keen on the drill approach as I understand it’s not always successful. I know the vasoline approach is the common approach but I’m not sure I want to turn the engine even on starter only given there’s no oil at all in the system.

I understand that the later Rover V8’s had ports to pump oil into the system using a pressure filler at 2.5 bar. I can’t see that this older V8 has any ports but a few minutes on the web and I see that using the oil pressure switch hole may be a viable alternative.

Has anyone pressure filled a Rover V8 via the pressure switch (or any other access point) ?

Alternatively is there any other method to get oil to the lifters, cam & crank without turning the engine ?

Any help or pointers greatly received and appreciated.

Thanks !!
 
In my opinion, the drill method is the best, and easiest. If that doesn't work, then packed the oil pump with Vaseline and use the drill again.
 
I have used the pump filled with Vaseline method twice on my 3500S with no ill effects. Oil draining from the pump when the car is laid up for a long time is a known problem with this engine when some after=market oil filters are used. The correct filter has a non-return valve to stop oil draining back to the sump. Do not ask me how to identify the correct oil filter, but I have never had this problem after buying my oil filters from a Rover specialist
 
I'd be going the long screw driver/drill down the distributor method first . Certainly the easiest. Another is cranking the motor over with the spark plugs removed.
 
I like the idea of back filling via the pressure sensor port, very non invasive and you don't need to disassemble any thing or muck about with the distributor timing.
I imagine you could do it with a simple stirrup pump with the appropriate tube and threaded plug on the end to seal it

Excellent idea.

Graeme
 
Thank you all for your responses and assistance.

I think then I'll pack the pump and then try the drill. I've not removed a distributor before and I'm a bit unclear why this should upset the timing though. As I understand it, when I lift out the distributor, the rotor arm is going to move due to the angled gear. When I put that back in, will the rotor arm not move back to it's original position ?
 
Last edited:
When you remove the dist make a note of where the rotor arm was pointing before and after removal, then look in the hole and see the orientation of the pump shaft and remember it. Then do the drill bit. Afterwards turn the pump shaft back to its prior orientation, then the rotor arm to its removed position and then insert the dist back in whereupon it should engage with gear and the pump shaft and be back to where it started. It sounds involved but is straightforward with just a tweak of the ign timing with the light.

Colin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top