Incontinent Berlina Wagon

Think i know the issue but I'll run it past you guys. The poor V8 has sprung a leak and it ends up dribbling along the mounting bracket of the a/c unit. I'm hoping and doubting that it's the welsh plug behind the a/c compressor (fingers crossed), and I'm hoping and doubting that it's a cracked inlet manifold, but most likely a stuffed gasket that sits between the block and the inlet manifold as I can see weeping (no not me!) from this spot on the front drivers side of the engine ?????

After watching you at the last couple of car shows I reckon you have polished a hole in the engine

Hope you get it sorted out soon mate. Because I dont think they make incontinence pants for cars lol


good luck

Cheers
Pazz

Dam that Bon Ami !

Well got the valley cover and geeze it's pretty spooky looking into that huge void between the "V". I hope I haven't over stepped my mark, but hey its experience. 2 of the inlet manifold bolts around where the leak is are black as sh*t and look as if they have been leaking for a while and only now broke through to the surface as the gasket looks a bit sad there as well. Oh well time to start scaping and hope that nothing goes into those oil galleries !
Need a bit of advice regarding the injectors. Should I get them cleaned or replaced and what else should I do now that I have the manifold out ? I was thinking of getting the banana's sand blasted so that they can be polished up or painted ultra glossy ? Any suggestions as to where I should go (no jokes there) to get those bits done will be appreciated.

Cheers
Ron

hey ron.

i have a bit of experience here mate, as i had the manifold off my vs 5 litre once and ive had the manifold off my vt 5 litre twice. i just scraped the manifold gaskets and where the rubber seals fit front and rear. I then used sum emery tape and just went over where the gaskets and seals sit. I then used the "ultra blue" gasket sealent which is sensor safe and let the gaskets and seals dry for a few hours or as long as possible.

After you've cleaned the manifold the same way, just lift the manifold onto the engine being careful not to knock the seals (especially the rear one) off the engine, and then put the bolts in with loctite on them and torque down to the correct speq and correct sequence.

Last time i had my manifold off to fit my charger, i just had my injectors cleaned and tested and o-rings replaced and they were all good. I got Gill at 'road and track' to do my injectors for me and he is currently dyno tuning it as well and he's really good. Best of luck with it mate.

If ya need any help just give me a buzz or a pm or wateva.

cheers

Thanks for the advice In-debt. Fortunately the dunny door can sit off the road for a week or 2, so I need to think about if it's worth while doing anything else while its dismantled e.g. pull the heads down and go over the valves and get the head skimmed, dunno ?????. This is all new to me re V8 wise as all of my experience is from a 1/2 V8's i.e. 1600 cc. ohc engines.

hey ron.

While its apart it may well be worth goin a bit further especially if it can stay off the road for a while.

let us know how ya go mate.

cheers

Some pics,



From this to

this (do you like the operating theatre approach ?). Must admit I'm getting paranoid abot getting crap in the oil pickup in the sump


All 14 bolts from manifold that looked as if some were brand new and others that look like.... Can't help but notice that the condition of the bolts are almost symmetrical from the left bank (top) to the bottom bank.

Well 9 hours later and it's almost complete. Need a bit of paint for the base of the manifold where the bananas are, and a tad more polishing ! Just love that polishing ! This was a b*stard of a job because of how rough the casting is and the annoying nooks and crannies where the bananas come out of the manifold.

How do ya do an online wolfwhistle??...that came up sexy as...well done



cheers
Pazz

Thanks man. The painting will be the fun bit, I guess lots of masking tape and news paper and good old acetone to clean up any spills/runs. I'm getting keen to put the wagon back togther again. The old Honda is sick as well as it needs new alternator brushes which I bought yesterday (from Honda) but I got no time to put them in. Good thing a tap on a piece of 3/4" dowel against the alternator turns the battery light off lol

Cause I got sick of scrolling up and down to see the difference lol






cheers
Pazz

You clever bugger... and i work in IT ???? Time for redundancy !

OK here it is.......

As always excellent work, looks much better which I never thought would be possible in your bay....now if ya just let me go nuts on ya wiring





cheers
Pazz

Thanks Pazz, wiring hey ? Maybe the next project or as my wife suggested, polish the extractors. Time for rest as this weeknd I've had to

1. Replace brushes in Honda which was a5 minute job, but was a nightmare in just getting the bloody thing out !
2. Apart from polishing the bananas, the inlet manifold had to be all put back together
3. The power supply on our pc died on Saturday, so fortunately a mate of mine had one and so that was last nights task.

Me complain ? Never

Cheers
Ron

hell that came up real nice Ron job very well done,what did ya use to polish them with.

Thanks. I started with 80 grit flap wheels on a drill to get the rough surface down to something that I could manage by hand with wet rub. This took around an hour 1 and 1/2 or so. Then over the next 10 hours I worked from 120 to 2,000 wet rub + a mill bastard flat and round files (see pic below) . To maintain hydration many Coopers had to be consumed! The last thing was to mask up the bananas and paint the remaining base gloss black.

Cool one slab and some tools looks easy as lol,thanks for the info did ya put some lacker on after so it doesnt go dull after awhile makes easyer cleaning to,just asking cause my father in law is a metal spinner,he would say put some lacker on for metal keep it looking like for ages..


chears
Rob

No I didn't. The rocker, fuel rail and throttle body covers are just the raw surface as polished. I give them a quick going over maybe 3 or 4 times a year with reflections or autosol and have done this for the last 3 or so years. I tried a heat proof clear and it went bad on me as it softened when it got hot which then allowed dust and grit to stick on the surface. After a month the covers looked crap so I took them off and stripped the clear off with acetone and repolished everything over again.