At Last
 

I just took the 75 for some fuel, it has a few small issues I need to tick off but I like the way it feels with the new clutch and engine rebuild. It's smooth but I detected some roughness in the drivetrain, I suspect the front wheel bearings are worn. The engine has almost new everything and it shows with the way it pulls through the gears. The new modified return nozzle is no longer connected to the inlet manifold, and that's taken away any future possibility of water getting past the gasket. I'll go through it again tomorrow and double check things now it's had a run out.
It's been hard after the eye surgery but it's job done. To recap it's had a new LUK Clutch and slave, it's had new cylinder liners and pistons, new oil pump and crank seal, the head has been totally serviced and new camshaft oil seals/cambelt. Every single part that was taken off has been cleaned thoroughly and of course, new oil and filter. It's effectively a new engine again.

Interesting, Mike. So what have you done, are you referring to the air-bleed circuit for the head? http://roverforum.prophpbb.com/image...k_bg/unknw.gif

This car is going to be worth some money when you sell it Mike.

When will that be? :)

This.
 

This is what I've done...It works well.

I see. So have you removed the bearing valve to do that? The cul-de-sac on the other end of the head tends to be the main problem area, given the long history of trouble with coolant leaking into N.4 cylinder via it I'm surprised that someone hasn't yet made a core plug for it. :getmecoat:

Yes.
 

It's already been done on this head, I'll take off the manifold and take a picture of the plug, 5/8 UNF tap and a plug after rounding up the hole with a round file. It's the nearest size I could get, I used a new temp' sender and cut it up as I have dozens of them to use as a tester. The nozzle was from an old fuel pump, and soldered into the remains of the temp' sender before I screwed it into the head.

Here's the plug.
 

I have a small water leak from the thermostat O ring in the block, so I've whipped off the inlet manifold today to get at it easier. As you can see in the picture there's a threaded plug in the hole, it's secured with Araldite on the threads. I've also made the nozzle on the other side a bit longer to make it easier to get the clip on the hose. I think it's two worthwhile mods to a known problem, it also rules out the gasket as a cause of coolant loss should it happen.

Good effort Mike, nice to see someone tackle some long-standing issues with these engines. Some people do dispense with the jiggle valve in the head and leave it at that but I'm with Des Hammill in thinking that a flow restrictor is best fitted somewhere in the circuit to compensate.

Lord save us from some of the repetitive, innacurate drivel that des hammil wrote in that book - worth reading though, if only to provoke some debate...

Thought I was on the tech forum again for a minute there. :shrug: