Sump Repair

what's it made of? get a patch tacked on top of it would be the best bet but whole would do such a thing?

Good Question?... whatever it is there is bugger all of it.

they dont waste anything, you might be cynical and say they were aiming at the spares market.....

I reckon it must be v.poor quality mild steel....

Think a welding torch would melt it..... its that thin....

What car model? Fiat?

Without drainng the sump, and if the metal around the hole is reasonably sound, I'd suggest a small self tapping screw, with a washer and either a small 'O' ring or a piece of gasket material underneath. Only tightened enough to stop the leak. Anything more, and the screw will probably pull out of the sump. Mike.

The logical guess... (I had one once, and it certainly rusted)

but actually its a toyota.. 1994 corolla bodywork is solid, but sump and engine block are badly rusted..

You'll need to drain the oil and get the surrounding area scrupulously clean if you want any adhesive to stick to it. I'd clean the surrounding area back to where there is decent metal which might be an inch or more away, roughen it up a bit with coarse emery and glue a patch of thin metal over it with araldite or chemical metal. A piece cut out of a pc case or old car panel would do. Then coat it with hammerite. The alternative is fibreglass but even a small kit would cost more than the araldite method.

Once sumps rust enough to get a pinhole in one place you can be pretty sure they'll be paper thin in lots of other areas too though. I had an old Pinto sump beadblasted once to get the rust and paint off it and it came back looking like a collander. CVH sumps are also buggers for rusting through at the front where they get gritblasted by road debris. Ford then take the piss by charging £80 for a new one which I doubt costs them more than a couple of quid to make.

It's to pay off research costs, innit. :-)

Peter

-- "Diamonds are what I really need - think I'll rob a store, escape the law, and live in Italy. Lately, my luck has been so bad, you know the roulette wheel, it's a crooked deal, I'm losing all I had."

Can if be soldered with an old bean can as patch metal and a rod of plumbers solder?

In the real olden days when oil came in proper tin cans my father would use that - I reckon the sump of his old Rover 2000 was mostly Castrol GTX can when he sold it.

It's what they can get away with to a captive market - usually between 7 and 10 times manufacturing cost for slow moving parts. It can be as high as 30 times cost for some items. For example fairly mundane engine valves for basic Vauxhalls can be £30 a pop and cost under £1 to make when you are doing that in the tens of thousands at a time. I wouldn't be surprised if the exotic manufacturers price at up to 100 times cost.

I remember someone many years ago, maybe in a magazine article, laboriously pricing up what a Ford Escort or similar would cost to build if you bought all the parts separately from a dealer. Must have been a hell of a task pricing up every nut and bolt from the parts catalogue. It came to something like 5 times the cost of the car not including any labour to actually assemble it.

There was a famous case when a factory worker was prosecuted for stealing a big Healey in IIRC the '50s. Bit by bit. He was charged with stealing goods to the value of 24 grand.

The Judge commented on this, as the complete car would have been nearer

1000 quid.

All IIRC which is unlikely. ;-)

A guy I knew used to buy, rebuild and sell older Lamborghini's. I used to make sets of PB valve guides for him. By hand in a lathe. My prices weren't exactly cheap, for what was really just a straightforward bread and butter turning job.In fact rather expensive, as I didn't really want the job, but he always came back for more. He never did tell me the price of genuine Lamborghini ones. I wonder why. :-) Later we modified them to take BMW stem seals. He was even more pleased then, as his rebuilt engines were remarked upon because of their low oil consumption. I don't think he ever let on the secret. Mike.

instant steel putty and a coat of hammerite seems to be holding so far....

Go down to your local plumbing merchants and buy a tube of Fernox LS-X

50ml external leak sealer. I used this on my Corsa td and it never leaked for the 3 years I owned it afterwards. Clean around it with steel wool first and keep an eye on your oil light on long trips!!

Jon