Engine problems

[steve320ise]

Iv bought a 4.5 with a overheating issue, when Ive got it home symptoms are water in oil strong smell of petrol in water and pumping water out of 1&3 cylinders, very poor leak down on these with air entering cooling system compression test not great on rest but all almost identical, Fluids of all types all over garage floor, water, oil, power steering fluid emulsified oil, gearbox oil, diff oil, milage is 35k, and recent history in a nut shell is two sets of head gaskets fitted in last couple of months and evidence of KSeal in expansion tank, so fingers crossed engine out in the morning and heads off sat morning, I have spoke to 3 dealers , and due to not knowing what is the problem is prices start at the head gaskets but could spiral if other nasties are found I have decided to investigate this myself as money is an issue and dont want a car and engine in bits stuck behind the eight ball, so here starts a post I will put some photos on when I work out how to do it, Many thanks to all PHs who have given me advice and info on the car and to APM , Track v Road , RND Engineering, Who have been fantastic

[steve320ise]

Thanks , Im in Doncaster too, the advice has been about what issues could be in there what to look for in the way of these engines, at this stage the car looks quite nice with only the pas door and rear wing where the paint looks a little thin, chassis is very good , I dont want to go overboard on this at the moment, and lets see how we get on as to where the engine will be put back together, Its always nice to get some documentation on engine work as it add to the car but I do plan to keep it so not sure, cheers

[steve320ise]

Friday wash out had to runabout sorting the prom night out so its a few beers later, help is always taken on but often leads to beer

[steve320ise]

That must mean we have a six pack . Wow

[steve320ise]

Im up for a meeting too, would be nice to get together in or around Doncaster, thanks for all the input, Well made a start and its now ready to take the engine out in the morning, not too bad a job had a mate with me it does make life easier, decided to leave gearbox and manifolds on, it does look like it will have to be tilted back/ down then up but lets see, the engine loom is well marked up and non missing, marked up pipes etc, drained water aircon was enpty removed oil filter assembly as it looks in the way, clutch pipe, water pipes,its beer time now lets see what Sunday brings

[steve320ise]

Well its out, it took around 5 hours in total, would have done a few things different, I would have liked to drain the oil out but the sump plug just spins and wont come out, found one or two other things to make you shudder the petrol cooler clips need to come off but these had seen the sump before, but all can be fixed. I have got the off side manifold off and both cooling rails, Manifolds had not been off but came off ok water rails had worn cap heads so some were a bugger, I want to get the heads off tomorrow so I can get them away to be checked and refurbed as what is needed, then have a look it the rest I do suspect a liner issue if only as they have been disturbed, the head has nuts holding it on there is no way the heads can be twisted to break the seal because of the studs, so Im not sure if when the heads are done by TVR people the liners are removed cleaned resealed as a matter of course or left if they dont look to have moved, I put more photos on but dont know where they went

[steve320ise]

I did put more photos on but can only see the one, ah well.Got the heasd off no real problems a bit fiddly and a few different spaner sizes you cant get sockets on quite a few of the head bolts so torqueing up may be interesting no prizes for guessing how the fluids have mixed, but have to try and find out if the gasket was the cause or the result, the heads have gone away so may be some news tomorrow but they looked ok , no sign of any machining work and in places they have been cleaned with some sandpaper (rough)grade it must have said this in the manual, the bores look ok and a very quick check on the liners seem to be ok, but there is a lot of K seal in there and it will have got in the rings so these could do with cleaning out , I thing that to be sure about this engine I should take out the liners get them honed and check the pistons, rings , big end bearings etc, but I will try and speak to one of the engine builders and run it past them, The front end chains etc looks very good I will price up the bearings just to see how much, the pump asembly, I had a link to a company who refurbishes the so I will give them a call , I will keep a record of the costs and parts used and aprox time taken and will list it at the end

[steve320ise]

Hi sorry for the delay in updating, I have cleaned and stripped the engine,measured all the components and found , the main block is very good no ovality in the liner bores, the liners are just out of tolerance on size, the compression faces are dirty and slight old rust markings, the joints to the block were still intact,liners heights were all identical but flush with the deck ?. Pistons all very good, gaps on the rings were a little big which is expected with the oversize bores, big end bearings ok and journals on crank very good, not had the mains out yet as wanted to leave in, The head went away to be stripped and checked, the results:- pressure tested all ok will need a skim just to get the correct surface finish all valves and guides well in tolerance, cams in great nick, valve clearances all far too big and wrong assembly of some of the shim assemblies, and stem seals a little hard, so all valve seats and valves recut and decoked new stem seals, and oil ways cleaned out , head skimmed, and shimmed up, these will come back as new, Had a problem with no5 con rod it picked up the threads on the bolts so I need 1 con rod,I will replace all liners and get heights back up? new piston rings new bottom end bearings new front end bearings and seals new crankshaft seals, the rotating assembly inc clutch sent to be balanced, the only conclusion as to why the head gasket on A bank kept blowing was poor strip down, lack of cleanliness,poor assembly with no attention to detail, IMHO, there will be a little more work to get to the correct liner heights but I need the new liners to make that decision, I will put some photos on when I can work out how to put more than one on, cheers Steve

[steve320ise]

Thanks for the continued support, hope get yours sortsd on friday Dave

[steve320ise]

Hi Andrew , yep Armthorpe certainly counts its about 2 mins from me, thanks for the offer on the parts but I have got sorted now I only needed 1 con rod and Andy from APM has got one for me, Iv been phoning round today (in my lunch break), and come to a decision on the line issue, in conjunction with suppliers, engine machinists, and builders, As I need new liners Iam going to have a set made, the engine block will have the bores machined to a very tight tolerance all the same then these measurements can then be given to the liner manufacturer to be made with much better tolerances so both wall and height sizes will be not have to be obtained from measuring the components, this will make the assembly much easier and help stop the problems associated with it will do engineering, this may be slightly on the overkill but it takes a lot of potential problems away, this is only a brief summary of todays work. Thanks for the update on putting photos on I will have a bash tomorrow

[steve320ise]

Its Donny to us or Cerb central as its known lol,

[steve320ise]

Just a few photos, thanks for telling me how to get more than one on, its easy lol, not got any further have been chasing parts and trying to make some sense of what people really want to do and mean with regard the liners, having took accurate measurements and had one or two more chats, it would seem like my block is pretty good all the faces for the liners are the same, I got more advice from a man who has got the t shirt on engines worked in a well established machine shop so I know where Im going with this, just need to get the new liners on the move, 4 to 6 weeks del on these, I have decided to send the tripple pump away to be refurbished, I have stripped it but by sending it away it will be tested before it gets fitted and its very important to the engine so away it goes end of August, Im hoping to start the rebuild mid sept this gets hols and other commitments out of the way, looking forward to the meet end of the month

[steve320ise]

Thanks, I have been in touch with them and Duncan wants the sizes from me? will be speaking to him later, cheers

[steve320ise]

Hi to all, gosh its been ages since last on here with the engine build, due to holidays, major surgery on the young un and a death in the family Im sort of back on it now , so a quick update, firstly its been a right pain getting all the parts together some of my fault but a lot not, I have just about all of them here, the engine has been cleaned inside and out and all the parts that Im reusing have been cleaned and cleaned then some more, The heads are all done and ready to fit the new liners fitted after being checked several times and the heights tweeked, all moving parts balanced, pumps overhauled, clutch refurbed and balanced, I have all the new needle bearings and seals, crankshaft checked for cracks and made sure its straight then reground, new knuts, and awaiting RP slave cylinder repair, I have gone for Total seal piston rings, I will post some photos later and hope to make a start next week, Steve

[steve320ise]

Made a start on putting the parts back, all seemed to go well, so thats not a good sign, I have got all the rotating parts in now it took ages to make a start kept cleaning every thing then wiping with lint free wipes then bugger it fitted them, ready for the heads to go on now. .
Yes I do know the o ring is missing I just wanted to put the gasket on, Cheers