Woo, and indeed, hoo.
Discussion
After two and a half years of silence I finally restarted the 390SE's engine tonight 
I'd noticed a water leak pooling on the valley gasket behind the water pump so I'd avoided running the engine while it's been sat (also the lack of an exhaust system might be construed as a tad anti-social
) so I jacked the car up and dropped the oil to make sure no water had found its way in there.
All was well so I refilled the oil, mixed up some new coolant and pulled the distributor out so I could spin the oil pump up with a cordless drill.
Then the dissy went back in, the battery was reconnected, the fuel pump relay linked for a few seconds to prime the fuel rail and the key turned.
It took a few goes to get the distributor position correct but once it was there she fired right up
Loads of oil pressure, plenty of charge voltage, nothing leaking, re-stuffed exhaust not blowing... but not sounding any quieter either
Ran the engine up to temperature for two cycles of the cooling fans, checked all the electrics and ran the steering rack from end to end to exercise the PAS pump. Didn't try to drive it as the rear hub nuts are still loose.
Now I stink to high heaven of exhaust fumes but a celebratory Hennessy is going down a treat
Here's a video I made of the occasion...
http://www.wedgeneering.co.uk/Videos/DSCF0815.avi
I'd noticed a water leak pooling on the valley gasket behind the water pump so I'd avoided running the engine while it's been sat (also the lack of an exhaust system might be construed as a tad anti-social
) so I jacked the car up and dropped the oil to make sure no water had found its way in there.All was well so I refilled the oil, mixed up some new coolant and pulled the distributor out so I could spin the oil pump up with a cordless drill.
Then the dissy went back in, the battery was reconnected, the fuel pump relay linked for a few seconds to prime the fuel rail and the key turned.
It took a few goes to get the distributor position correct but once it was there she fired right up
Loads of oil pressure, plenty of charge voltage, nothing leaking, re-stuffed exhaust not blowing... but not sounding any quieter either
Ran the engine up to temperature for two cycles of the cooling fans, checked all the electrics and ran the steering rack from end to end to exercise the PAS pump. Didn't try to drive it as the rear hub nuts are still loose.
Now I stink to high heaven of exhaust fumes but a celebratory Hennessy is going down a treat
Here's a video I made of the occasion...
http://www.wedgeneering.co.uk/Videos/DSCF0815.avi
Edited by Wedg1e on Monday 15th December 23:04
MrPicky said:
If you have a 390 then it probably has a remote fuel filter.
You can prime the oil pump by disconnecting the inlet pipe and simply pouring oil down the pipe until it is full then reconnecting and starting up.
This avoids all the fuss of moving the dissy and having to reset the timing.
I have also changed my filter mounting so the filter points downwards so there is no chance of it disgorging its contents all over the floor. This also stops it draining overnight, even the ones with the flap valve leak backwards sometimes.
If the filter is the normal way up then it may be as simple as removing the filter and squirting the oil in the orifices (ooh Matron) and ensuring the filter is primed as well as the pump.
All true, but where's the fun in doing things the easy way? You can prime the oil pump by disconnecting the inlet pipe and simply pouring oil down the pipe until it is full then reconnecting and starting up.
This avoids all the fuss of moving the dissy and having to reset the timing.
I have also changed my filter mounting so the filter points downwards so there is no chance of it disgorging its contents all over the floor. This also stops it draining overnight, even the ones with the flap valve leak backwards sometimes.
If the filter is the normal way up then it may be as simple as removing the filter and squirting the oil in the orifices (ooh Matron) and ensuring the filter is primed as well as the pump.
I don't really have an issue with taking the distributor out and putting it back in; apart from anything else it lets me check the advance/retard mech and vacuum capsule, the state of the shaft bushes etc.
Also, spinning the pump up with a drill lets you feel that it's actually working, rather than the nail-gnawing interminable wait for the oil pressure light to extinguish and the gauge to rise
I always visualise the crank journals grinding away at the shells...smash said:
Yes totally reliable and always start on the button 
Between the two Wedges (OK three, sod it let's include the Esprit as they're also supposedly unreliable), since 1995 I have only once been left stranded in such a way that I couldn't drive home.That once was in the Tasmin; I'd just filled-up with fuel, left the petrol station and drove about 100 yards when I hit a big pothole and the car spluttered to a halt.
It didn't take long to find that the fuel pump was too hot to touch, having seized, presumably due to sediment in the tank being jolted loose and getting drawn into the pump. Pump from a scrappy for a tenner and mormal service resumed.
The Esprit did something similar: with twin tanks like the TVR there's a common take-off at the bottom, however one of the tanks' outlets was blocked with a big dollop of silicon (god knows why it was in there) and as that was the tank with the fuel gauge sender in it, when the other tank ran dry the gauge told me I still had loads of fuel! Five litres in a jerrycan was enough to get the car back.
The 390SE has had rear brake seizure twice (precipitating the strip-down with which I've been boring you all
) but was driven home (carefully) on both occasions. The only other glitch was when the alternator brushes wore out leaving me at the girlfriend's place, 70 miles from home with a flat battery. I charged the battery overnight using a neighbour's charger and drove like a nutter to get back So whilst there's always something to repair, adjust, clean, refurbish or just twiddle, I never feel that I have to have a Tow Vehicle Ready
- in fact I've never had breakdown cover for the Wedges either.Jack Valiant said:
Nice one another V8 comes to life 
reminds me of the Gredge when she first started, little vid I did but forgot about:
http://youtu.be/7_1WIe8vyeQ
Impressive install, does it run the LT77 or the R380 'box? I'd imagine with that much grunt it could easily pull a lower diff ratio and still go like hell. reminds me of the Gredge when she first started, little vid I did but forgot about:http://youtu.be/7_1WIe8vyeQ
smash said:
That's great to hear but I was just kicking back at the 4.5 grand dig tbh.
All I'd say is there are 10's if not hundreds of threads on here that kind of show things are a little less rose tinted for a lot of people!
Quite so, and maybe there are two things at work there... firstly, people not doing their research to find out the issues and secondly, not having the skills, tools, finances or commitment to sort out the problems that do arise.All I'd say is there are 10's if not hundreds of threads on here that kind of show things are a little less rose tinted for a lot of people!
Some people get sucked in by the idea of a £4.5K sports car and then grumble when it's not the Ferrari/ Porsche/ Aston Martin they really wanted but for which they couldn't raise the cash.
I maintain that the reputation of TVRs being unreliable coincides with the spread of the internet amd young guys in the IT industry finding themselves with too much disposable income and not enough knowledge to fix the simplest things. Granted the simplest things often shouldn't happen but there isn't a make of car on the planet that is 100% reliable all the time: our office is near a Mercedes specialist and there's a virtual convoy of Mercs arriving on recovery trucks every day of the week. Personally I'd rather drive something obscure that I can fix myself than something as common as muck that needs a computer to diagnose.
And if someone was to offer me £4.5K for my car I might take it and run to the bank, laughing all the way.
adam quantrill said:
OI! I was one of them
There are exceptions to every sweeping generalisation However the early 90s DID coincide with youngsters going off to Uni complete with a car bought by daddy (some shonky old 205, let's say) that was fundamentally reliable so they never had to learn how to fix it by torchlight and feel whilst lying in a gutter while their girlfriend got fingered in the back seat by their best mate(s).
So when they got into IT at the ripe old age of 22 and started earning sh!tloads, the first thing they bought was a swanky sports car built in a shed and when anything rattled loose or a fuse blew they (a) didn't know what to do so (b) moaned like f
k to anyone who was within internet range.You really do wonder how TVR had stayed in business (granted,sometimes by the skin of their teeth) for the preceding decades if all their products were as bad as has been claimed - oh no, wait: their cars were bought by proper enthusiasts who had a clue and weren't sh!t-scared if a fuse blew
Hey Scott, you seem to have taken this thread as some sort of personal criticism of you... it didn't start that way and it certainly wasn't intended on my part. I never felt you had to apologise for not getting back to me, we're all adults and peoples' priorities change. I mostly offer to help people out to give them a boost to persevere with the car's problems. If they/you don't want to take it any further it doesn't matter to me, I don't make my living from this.
My car's just a hobby, I can shut the doors and walk away until I'm in the mood to sort it out. Some folk put their car further up life's list of priorities and I imagine that's when persistent niggles do turn into major dramas.
It was the 'IT brigade' I was digging at; the people who wanted a performance car for a budget price, who probably couldn't drive it anyway and who couldn't fix the simplest things, not the guys who buy a 10-owner, quarter-century old car and to hell with the consequences. In my experience the long-term Wedge owners are the guys who do like fettling, tinkering, rebuilding and refurbishing. Those who bought the cheapest car they could find (and I've done it myself) without realising it'd be a bottomless moneypit are the ones who don't tend to keep them - passing the issues onto the next owner and no doubt spending the rest of their days whinging about how sh!t TVRs are. You said it yourself: the bits that usually go wrong are Rover (/Lucas/Bosch) bits, not the bits that TVR actually did make themselves. The RV8 was never intended to be a sports car engine so it shouldn't be a surprise when it breaks if you abuse or neglect it.
I suspect what annoys some guys is when they pay a 'proper' price and STILL find problems, which I imagine is the camp you're in - and me too: I paid over £6K for my 390SE and still had to rebuild the engine that previous thrash-merchants had broken. As you said about your engine with a broken piston skirt, mine still pulled like a loco. I could have feigned ignorance, flogged it quick and moved on, but I stayed. I don't care what the car's worth: £4.5K or £4.50, it's irrelevant. It's one of my toys. When the time comes for us to part company I might sell it, I might give it away... or my executors might be ringing the scrapman.
As for the Esprit: if you think the TVR Wedges can be expensive trouble, win the Lotto before you buy a Lotus, if you don't like getting your hands dirty any more
Christmas
to you too 
My car's just a hobby, I can shut the doors and walk away until I'm in the mood to sort it out. Some folk put their car further up life's list of priorities and I imagine that's when persistent niggles do turn into major dramas.
It was the 'IT brigade' I was digging at; the people who wanted a performance car for a budget price, who probably couldn't drive it anyway and who couldn't fix the simplest things, not the guys who buy a 10-owner, quarter-century old car and to hell with the consequences. In my experience the long-term Wedge owners are the guys who do like fettling, tinkering, rebuilding and refurbishing. Those who bought the cheapest car they could find (and I've done it myself) without realising it'd be a bottomless moneypit are the ones who don't tend to keep them - passing the issues onto the next owner and no doubt spending the rest of their days whinging about how sh!t TVRs are. You said it yourself: the bits that usually go wrong are Rover (/Lucas/Bosch) bits, not the bits that TVR actually did make themselves. The RV8 was never intended to be a sports car engine so it shouldn't be a surprise when it breaks if you abuse or neglect it.
I suspect what annoys some guys is when they pay a 'proper' price and STILL find problems, which I imagine is the camp you're in - and me too: I paid over £6K for my 390SE and still had to rebuild the engine that previous thrash-merchants had broken. As you said about your engine with a broken piston skirt, mine still pulled like a loco. I could have feigned ignorance, flogged it quick and moved on, but I stayed. I don't care what the car's worth: £4.5K or £4.50, it's irrelevant. It's one of my toys. When the time comes for us to part company I might sell it, I might give it away... or my executors might be ringing the scrapman.
As for the Esprit: if you think the TVR Wedges can be expensive trouble, win the Lotto before you buy a Lotus, if you don't like getting your hands dirty any more
Christmas
to you too Edited by Wedg1e on Wednesday 24th December 15:19
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