V8 sump

If it was originally sealed with sealant, then that is really how it should go back. It's not normal silicon but a special engine assembly version, a slightly different chemical make up. I've known people use the normal stuff with no probs, but either way you need to leave it long enough to set fully or it will leak again and the surfaces need to be as oil free as possible on assembly. You can fit a gasket, but make sure the sump pan flange isn't distorted and don't use any sealant other than blue hylomar and run the bolts up hand tight with an extension bar, leave for an hour then torque. This prevents the sealant acting like a lube and the gasket squashing out between the bolts. Badger.

This was one of the most difficult bits of my VM rebuild a while ago... I got the stuff in the workshop manual having tried normal off the shelf silicon sealant with no joy and also Halfords own sealant. The proper stuff did the trick but It's dammed expensive. I'd welcome recomendadtions as to cost effective alternatives as I've got to remove the timing cover soon to do the front seal... oh joy. I made sure that everything was clinically clean but may have been too eager to fire up the engine with the Halfords stuff so I'll never know if it really is any use.

Lee D

On or around Sat, 15 May 2004 19:00:27 +0100, "Badger" enlightened us thusly:

someone said you shouldn't put anything on the cork sump gaskets, assemble 'em clean and dry. I rather thought they all had cork, BICBW.

Nah, Austin, the later 3.9's and a lot of early 4.0 / 4.6 had no gasket. Hylomar is ok as long as you let it tack off first or else it just lubes the gasket and lets it squirm about as you torque it up. The only bits that normally need hylomar anyway are the joint lines of the front cover and rear main cap. Congrats on the new purchase, when are you fitting the 110's autobox to it........ (Ducks to avoid the hammers et all flying in his direction!) Badger.

On or around Sun, 16 May 2004 15:14:15 +0100, "Badger" enlightened us thusly:

hehe, don't think I'd not thought of it...

but I think not. If I do decide to "auto" it, I'll hunt a disco installation, with the LT230 type Transfer box.

for the moment, the gas conversion is the main priority. can't afford 18 mpg on petrol for long...

youre lucky doing 18mpg. our 3.9 has never done more than 13 and thats on a run

thusly:

Summat up with that I reckon. When it's been running well mine has always managed 18-19 on petrol, mixing high speed motorway and city driving.

On or around Sun, 16 May 2004 16:49:51 GMT, "Richard" enlightened us thusly:

be interesting to see how she does on the school runs, which are about 70 miles per day of mostly slow lanes, about 20-30 mph, with not that much main road in between.

I took it up to RPi last year and they had a good go at it but couldnt find anything wrong with it. Richard

That doesn't seem much - I get 21 on a run (using the aircon - prolly a bit better with it off) and 17 to 18 round town (RR 3.9) - and I reckon it could do with a new cam,which sould improve mpg a bit.

Adjust the mixture at the MAF? Just a small allen screw.

Have you tried taking it anywhere else? I'd have thought 13mpg on petrol was definately not right.

want to take it to mark adams but cant afford it yet

On or around Wed, 19 May 2004 20:49:40 +0100, "Simon Atkinson" enlightened us thusly:

can you do that on a hotwire? That's how the K-jet works, right enough. I'm not gonna touch it 'til I get it on the crypton, anyway.

Heh - Never will be able to at 13mpg ;-)

Yes - much the same - the adjuster is in a little sleeve on the 'back' on the MAF. Although I set mine to 0.7% CO on my home meter, and the MOT tester checked it as being 0.71%!

My exhaust still looks a bit sooty though :-( Bu the plugs look nice and clean and a nice light colour. Worth looking at the plugs.

On or around Thu, 20 May 2004 07:15:02 +0100, "Simon Atkinson" enlightened us thusly:

aye, I was thinking that. But generally, don't like to see a sooty exhaust, usually means it's using too much of the expensive go-juice.

This one is slightly odd to drive compared to other (flapper-type) fuel injected things I've had - if you open the throttle a bit from where it is it accelerates fairly strongly. flooring the throttle however doesn't seem to create any extra acceleration. Don't know enough to know if this is normal behaviour for a hotwire. looking at it another way - flooring the throttle doesn't produce any better acceleration than part-throttle - this sounds intuitively wrong, but it might be normal for the system.

it certainly accelerates more on slight throttle increase than the ford flapper one does, given that there's a couple of thou on the rev counter to start with.

it pulls smoothly from about 1200 in 5th.

On or around Thu, 20 May 2004 07:44:06 +0100, Austin Shackles enlightened us thusly:

oh well. changed the gearbox oils, both looked reasonably clean. Garage bod reckoned the swivel leak could be down to dodgy swivel bearings (might be right, will have to check 'em).

axles have oil, in 'em, back one is nice and clean, front one looks a bit grey, may be contaminated with one-shot though.

take it back this afternoon and I can stick it on the crypton to check the emissions. Meantime, I'll get air and oil filters and some new engine oil.