Not one-track!

Everything lately has been about the engine. I have still been attending the vehicle itself. Of late i removed all the interior carpets, the grab handles and the sun visors (because the interior was getting a bit smelly). Now it's mostly bare metal. I removed the sagging headlining, which showered me in spiders and flies. I fixed the rear right wheel, which sat very very flat until now. I also noticed that the 245s on the range rover, while they look ok/small on the car, absolutely dwarf even some large tyres on an r14! I must admit to going back to the engine a few times. I tapped out the core plugs, this is easy, just tap one side of the plug with a hammer and bolt, and when the other side rises, pull it out with a pliers. It's out with the old and in with the new, but not right away. I need to clean the engine "core" ie, the channels through which the coolant runs, which are filthy with residue.

Little by little:

I'm being held back by a few problems now. The bolt which retains the crank pulley to the crankshaft is quite seized, I can't decide what to do about it. I restrained the crankshaft and pulley assembly and it DID NOT move, but neither did the bolt. I stopped out of fear of damaging the engine-bellhousing junction where the engine stand is connected. Also the starter bolts (which have an allen key head) are held in tight and i can't remove one of them. The assembly is held by two bolts, one of which came off with some effort, but the other one is just "spiralled", the allen equivalent of "rounding". The allen wrench just slides out under turning. The head of the bolt is too smooth and round to grip with a pliers or vise grip. It might even take the hacksaw to solve this but I haven't given up yet.

Again the waiting game:

I've got the heads off and the sump now and i've to make a bracket to take the crank pulley off before i go any further. So that's one job I'll be getting on with during my next mad bout of working on her. However i now need to slow my pace as my plans have changed somewhat, and i can't afford all that i want to do.

The plan (all going well):
-Rebuild it, everything will be replaced but the block, timing cover and sump
-I have plans for stage 3 heads
-An upgraded camshaft
-As close to TVR spec as possible
-Some upgrades in terms of off-road ability.

Where does it all come from????

First off i need to amend my last post and say that the "biting" around the valley of the engine is "probably just rough casting" as i've been told by v8 people, and shown in photos of new (yes NEW) v8s.

So Liam, it's not your fault or the previous owners fault!

Which is great, absolutely great...

...but


where the hell did the three tones of scrap metal in the sump come from??

There is at least two cups full of swarf and chipped metal, it's honestly piston-sized quantities, and if the metal didn't come from the "biting", so Where DID it come from? With the bottom end exposed now I can see almost everything is in good shape. The only one real problem is the 50 kilos of burnt oil (caused by her overheating problems!) and that's only a problem because I smell of 4x4 every time i take the bus. Yes, I said bus, I'm saving up for parts!


That's all for now.