Terminal Wedge ....
Discussion
Was poodling along the A31 heading off to the Hampshire TVR meeting ... estemated speed 70mph, slowed for a roundabout, changed from 5th to 3rd to take the roundabout, metallic grinding, followed by loss of power.
Car coasted to a halt, No oil pressure, Alternator light on, and wouldnt restart.
AA Came and confirmed my suspicions .. something serious wrong.
As it transpires, My Crankshaft has snapped, somewhere close to the front of the engine.
Looks like an expensive rebuild is on the cards.
Car coasted to a halt, No oil pressure, Alternator light on, and wouldnt restart.
AA Came and confirmed my suspicions .. something serious wrong.
As it transpires, My Crankshaft has snapped, somewhere close to the front of the engine.
Looks like an expensive rebuild is on the cards.
I am resisting the urge to devalue the car by putting something wicked like a 4.6 or 5.2 in it.
As much as I would seriously like to do it, I will probably keep it a standard 4 litre. Ok, I might go for cross bolting, and bitteted Crank, fully blueprinted & balanced, Stage3 heads etc.
My biggest anoyance is the fact it was a nice warm evening, and I wasnt thrashing it. Still, looking on the bright side, it could have happened last month whilst at Le Mans
As much as I would seriously like to do it, I will probably keep it a standard 4 litre. Ok, I might go for cross bolting, and bitteted Crank, fully blueprinted & balanced, Stage3 heads etc.
My biggest anoyance is the fact it was a nice warm evening, and I wasnt thrashing it. Still, looking on the bright side, it could have happened last month whilst at Le Mans
Jason,
Sorry to here your woes. I like your thoughts on keeping it original - I hope all goes well.
Danny - In my days working in Land Rover Powertrain I heard of/came across some very interesting failure modes but generally the engines are sound. Jasons could be due to a crank imperfection but most likely a TV/Flywheel/Clutch or similar imbalance causing torsional stresses
- either way it's a bugger especially as it's a lurvely car 
.
GB
Sorry to here your woes. I like your thoughts on keeping it original - I hope all goes well.
Danny - In my days working in Land Rover Powertrain I heard of/came across some very interesting failure modes but generally the engines are sound. Jasons could be due to a crank imperfection but most likely a TV/Flywheel/Clutch or similar imbalance causing torsional stresses
- either way it's a bugger especially as it's a lurvely car . GB
Cheers Guys... With any luck, She will be back on the road before the end of the summer.My biggest problem last night was breaking down too far from a pub. I think if there had been a pub within walking distance, I would have just got plastered.
Wonder what the legal stance would be drunk incharge of a car that doesnt work .. surely thta cannot be seen as a danger to other road users ????
On a plus point, last night I was trying out me new GPS reciever for my iPAQ ... was able to give the AA people an exact location (the AA Guy was impressed I gave him actual co-ordinates), and surf the web via my Bluetooth phone & the iPAQ until help arrived. :0
Wonder what the legal stance would be drunk incharge of a car that doesnt work .. surely thta cannot be seen as a danger to other road users ????
On a plus point, last night I was trying out me new GPS reciever for my iPAQ ... was able to give the AA people an exact location (the AA Guy was impressed I gave him actual co-ordinates), and surf the web via my Bluetooth phone & the iPAQ until help arrived. :0
Jason,
Did have sympathy but now your just being flash!
Blue tooth giga wotsit - 
Put ULG in me diesel tin top last night (yep I know - Di**head) called the RAC - I could give them an exact location as I was at home as the car packed in 1 mile away and I got a lift back. Since I was at home they wouldn't come out!!
I guess it'd been easier to call them, give them the grid ref and play on the web for an age awaiting them rather than sitting at home with a cuppa. Guess I'll use the AA or Direct Line next year.
Jason,
Try Moore Racing he has an ex-V8S engine with 14CUX ECU and both have had a few tweaks - sat on the shelf ready to go. He'd probably do you a good deal on the engine if he fits it. Call Richard on 01908368960 or 07939569027 - tell him Garry said to call.
Cheers GB
Did have sympathy but now your just being flash!
Blue tooth giga wotsit - Put ULG in me diesel tin top last night (yep I know - Di**head) called the RAC - I could give them an exact location as I was at home as the car packed in 1 mile away and I got a lift back. Since I was at home they wouldn't come out!!
I guess it'd been easier to call them, give them the grid ref and play on the web for an age awaiting them rather than sitting at home with a cuppa. Guess I'll use the AA or Direct Line next year. Jason,
Try Moore Racing he has an ex-V8S engine with 14CUX ECU and both have had a few tweaks - sat on the shelf ready to go. He'd probably do you a good deal on the engine if he fits it. Call Richard on 01908368960 or 07939569027 - tell him Garry said to call.
Cheers GB
Sorry to hear about your problems.
I have heard of broken cranks in RV8s before but it is unlikely that your crank prob was related to this one. In the late 70s I was running a range Rover that had poor oil pressure. A friend told me he had heard of some late 70s range Rover engines suffering broken cranks due to the centre main bearing cap comming loose and in some cases dropping off, presumably a factory tightening issue. As it was relatively easy to drop the sump on early RRs I decided to investigate. Low and behold centre main bearing cap in sump. I replaced it, with a little locktite and oil pressure was restored to a light extinguishing level and engine survived for rest of my ownership. I was lucky.
On the gps front the AA must have come on a bit over the last couple of years. As I had a clutch go two years ago and just hapend to have my Garmin GPS with me. I tried to give the operator my OS grid coordinates but she just replied what are those. I guess with Satnav in cars being much more common now the operators are becomming aware of grid postioning.
Anyway best of luck geting her fixed.
I have heard of broken cranks in RV8s before but it is unlikely that your crank prob was related to this one. In the late 70s I was running a range Rover that had poor oil pressure. A friend told me he had heard of some late 70s range Rover engines suffering broken cranks due to the centre main bearing cap comming loose and in some cases dropping off, presumably a factory tightening issue. As it was relatively easy to drop the sump on early RRs I decided to investigate. Low and behold centre main bearing cap in sump. I replaced it, with a little locktite and oil pressure was restored to a light extinguishing level and engine survived for rest of my ownership. I was lucky.
On the gps front the AA must have come on a bit over the last couple of years. As I had a clutch go two years ago and just hapend to have my Garmin GPS with me. I tried to give the operator my OS grid coordinates but she just replied what are those. I guess with Satnav in cars being much more common now the operators are becomming aware of grid postioning.
Anyway best of luck geting her fixed.
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