Aston V8 Vantage 4.3

[ajap1979]

An achingly beautiful car that is being very tastefully enhanced. Chapeau!

[IainWhy]

olv said:

Slightly embarrassed to admit it (because it's so cheap) but I fitted this one https://www.partsinmotion.co.uk/car-parts/cooling-... after some of the Facebook owners group had tried it with success. For your more extreme use case I'd probably splash out a little more

I dont tyink there is anything wrong with the nrf ones man, but yea i tuink i would like the nissens. Cant help but think the gearbox cooler function could be used to some good effect

[Krhuangbin]

Hi Olv - car looking fantastic

Sorry for being thick, but are those SCC hubcentrics pure "slip ons," i.e sit OK on the hub and with the original studs/nuts? No cuts studs etc?

[olv]

Krhuangbin said:

Hi Olv - car looking fantastic

Sorry for being thick, but are those SCC hubcentrics pure "slip ons," i.e sit OK on the hub and with the original studs/nuts? No cuts studs etc?

Yes they slip on, but no you cannot use the original wheel nuts as there is 10-12mm unthreaded section at the opening. So you need to use replacement nuts that are fully threaded to the open to keep enough thread engagement. The most popular kit is the H&R 11mm kit and that comes with fully threaded nuts as part of it, but it's £400 for two (lol). 11-12mm is the very max you can go without replacing the wheel studs for longer ones, or going for bolt on spacers like I have on the rear, and 20mm is the minimum for that.

[Krhuangbin]

olv said:

Krhuangbin said:

Hi Olv - car looking fantastic

Sorry for being thick, but are those SCC hubcentrics pure "slip ons," i.e sit OK on the hub and with the original studs/nuts? No cuts studs etc?

Yes they slip on, but no you cannot use the original wheel nuts as there is 10-12mm unthreaded section at the opening. So you need to use replacement nuts that are fully threaded to the open to keep enough thread engagement. The most popular kit is the H&R 11mm kit and that comes with fully threaded nuts as part of it, but it's £400 for two (lol). 11-12mm is the very max you can go without replacing the wheel studs for longer ones, or going for bolt on spacers like I have on the rear, and 20mm is the minimum for that.

Nice one, cheers

[Court_S]

You car looks fab and you’ve taken some lovely pictures of it.

[olv]

Court_S said:

You car looks fab and you’ve taken some lovely pictures of it.

Thank you

The car started on the button after sitting for 5 days so no horror stories from the new battery yet. It was MOT day and happy to say it passed. Nothing serious but I need to sort front tyres for it.



I'm a week away from having owned it a year which has passed very quickly but it's useful having this thread to reflect on all that's been done so glad I started that.

[Krhuangbin]

olv said:

Really no idea what is triggering the filter.

BR removed the primary cat on each side, I did not opt for their full sports cat, they're a bit raucously loud with the valves open. It was 2k all in for the remap, decat, exhaust switch and EGR removal which feels good value based on how it drives and compared to what VAP charge for a remap.

Hi Olv

Hope you're enjoying the motor!

Just a quick one, in addition to the 2k for the exhaust work/remap etc, what did the exhaust valve issue cost at BR if you don't mind me asking? Yours was an exhaust shim wasn't it? I was under the impression it's a bit of work, i.e cam covers off, clearances measured, offending cam out and new shims in (and a hugely expensive engine out job if its an inlet cam..!!)

Cheers

[olv]

Krhuangbin said:

Hi Olv

Hope you're enjoying the motor!

Just a quick one, in addition to the 2k for the exhaust work/remap etc, what did the exhaust valve issue cost at BR if you don't mind me asking? Yours was an exhaust shim wasn't it? I was under the impression it's a bit of work, i.e cam covers off, clearances measured, offending cam out and new shims in (and a hugely expensive engine out job if its an inlet cam..!!)

Cheers

Yes, it was an exhaust valve shim. ~£1800, it’s a chunk of labour to do it thoroughly and accurately and I was mostly just very happy to have it sorted and sounding sweet (I’d bought it knowing it needed attention). The sting in my case was paying a different specialist to measure the valves first and them doing it in accurately and not picking up on the valve that was wildly out and suggesting the engine needed to come out diagnose further.

[Krhuangbin]

olv said:

Krhuangbin said:

Hi Olv

Hope you're enjoying the motor!

Just a quick one, in addition to the 2k for the exhaust work/remap etc, what did the exhaust valve issue cost at BR if you don't mind me asking? Yours was an exhaust shim wasn't it? I was under the impression it's a bit of work, i.e cam covers off, clearances measured, offending cam out and new shims in (and a hugely expensive engine out job if its an inlet cam..!!)

Cheers

Yes, it was an exhaust valve shim. ~£1800, it’s a chunk of labour to do it thoroughly and accurately and I was mostly just very happy to have it sorted and sounding sweet (I’d bought it knowing it needed attention). The sting in my case was paying a different specialist to measure the valves first and them doing it in accurately and not picking up on the valve that was wildly out and suggesting the engine needed to come out diagnose further.

Ouch Thanks for the above though - good to know!

[IainWhy]

Checking the valve clearances is not a difficult task, its standard practice to check and adjust them on all bmw Mpower engines pre about 2009. People always used to flap over it but you can do it with a set of feelers in an hour. Also just because the dephaser pulley has to come off for the inlet i dont see why the engine has to come out.

[olv]

With the inlet side, as I understand it, you have to take front timing cover off so you face the same issue you do when dealing with a leaking gasket. You either drop the front subframe to get access which is common but awkward or take the engine out. I'm never going to tackle either myself but you do hear of people having paid a lot of labour to replace the timing cover gasket by dropping the subframe and then having to have it done again a few years later as it's harder to guarantee a good clean seal. For whatever reason inlet valve shims going out of spec seems less common than exhaust valves.

Measuring will be the same but isn't the big difference with the BMW M engines in that you can adjust the clearances with the valve train in situ? Whereas the shims are under the bucket https://www.lextreme.com/pics/cam/cam-2.jpg on the Vantage.

Either way, I'm hoping to avoid any more big bills for a while with mine!

[Krhuangbin]

IainWhy said:

Checking the valve clearances is not a difficult task, its standard practice to check and adjust them on all bmw Mpower engines pre about 2009. People always used to flap over it but you can do it with a set of feelers in an hour. Also just because the dephaser pulley has to come off for the inlet i dont see why the engine has to come out.

On that basis do you reckon just shy of £2k to remove cam cover, measure all 16 clearances on the offending (ticking) bank, and reshim the (hopefully exhaust, so engine in situ) bucket to within tolerance and reassemble, is reasonable? BR seem to reckon its a days labour! Plus of course new shim, gasket etc...

Also to add as per Olv, yes I think the VVT unit on the end of the inlet cam stops it coming out without the front cover coming off, so engine out.

Edited by Krhuangbin on Thursday 6th July 14:38

[IainWhy]

In short i think its very very punchy, i also dont think you need the engine out to do the timing cover correctly. I strongly suspect that the leaking issue is that the timing case is out of true, it needs to be surfaced on a mill to bring it back into true and refitted. There is a huge amount of room for activities in front of the engine once the drysump is out.

The shim adjustment is just a shim under setup, its less serviceable than the bmw stock setup but you move to shim under on an M engine as soon as you change to a more aggressive cam profile or increased rpm which means vanos off for each adjustment

I need to do mine (timing case and front crank seal) at some point and it will be me doing it so i guess i will find out if i am correct or not. I am pretty confident I will be fine, but we will see.

I will post up how it all turns out

[Krhuangbin]

IainWhy said:

In short i think its very very punchy, i also dont think you need the engine out to do the timing cover correctly. I strongly suspect that the leaking issue is that the timing case is out of true, it needs to be surfaced on a mill to bring it back into true and refitted. There is a huge amount of room for activities in front of the engine once the drysump is out.

The shim adjustment is just a shim under setup, its less serviceable than the bmw stock setup but you move to shim under on an M engine as soon as you change to a more aggressive cam profile or increased rpm which means vanos off for each adjustment

I need to do mine (timing case and front crank seal) at some point and it will be me doing it so i guess i will find out if i am correct or not. I am pretty confident I will be fine, but we will see.

I will post up how it all turns out

Nice one

Perhaps the 1.8k job for Olv involved a proper thorough check of all (i.e both sides) clearances rather than just the offending noisy side obviously ticking away.

At least you have peace of mind and an engine sweet as a nut Olv

[olv]

Worth remembering, both with loud valves and leaking timing covers, is that in mild cases neither are terminal, you can monitor them and address them in time.

And I'm under no illusion of BR being the cheapest route, but from my experience with them they do at least have a very high level of knowledge specific to these cars and do what they say they will. So from that perspective I'm a happy customer.

As always Iain, will watch on in slight awe when you have yours in pieces

[Krhuangbin]

Indeed mine weeps and always has ever so slightly from the cover but not something that needs addressing, bi-annual clean is enough..... the worsening ticking like a Thailand Rolex on the other hand will do.

Wish I was and knowledgable and brave as Iain haha

[IainWhy]

olv said:

Worth remembering, both with loud valves and leaking timing covers, is that in mild cases neither are terminal, you can monitor them and address them in time.

And I'm under no illusion of BR being the cheapest route, but from my experience with them they do at least have a very high level of knowledge specific to these cars and do what they say they will. So from that perspective I'm a happy customer.

As always Iain, will watch on in slight awe when you have yours in pieces

To be honest its irrelevant what I think of BR, the fact you have a nicely working car that you enjoy is what's actually important, I find it too easy to get caught up in the how of the issue at times.

I had the radiator and all the belt drive off yesterday and was thinking " i could just crack on and sort this now" but its not the right time or order of events. and its got trackdays booked in europe with a to do list as long as my arm

Side note, when you changed the rad did you find that the lower support cups had separated from the rail?

Krhuangbin said:

Indeed mine weeps and always has ever so slightly from the cover but not something that needs addressing, bi-annual clean is enough..... the worsening ticking like a Thailand Rolex on the other hand will do.

Wish I was and knowledgable and brave as Iain haha

Its likely mostly stupidity, i would say though that you should be able to measure the valves no issues, just draw the shims out on a sheet, measure the clearance between the base circle of the cam lobe Vs the lifter bucket and rotate the engine on the crank pully nut. at that point you know all the clearance specs and where the issue sits. Further i would say while its sounds bad, a "slappy tappet is a happy tappet" loose clearances cost you a little power, can make the idle a bit stty and sound annoying, but otherwise don't generally cause an issue, its when they go tight you have a problem!

You should see bigger clearances on the exhaust side than the inlet as the exhaust side gets hotter so runs a wider gap for expansion

[olv]

IainWhy said:

Side note, when you changed the rad did you find that the lower support cups had separated from the rail?

No, pretty sure it was all intact. Have you got a pic?

[IainWhy]

olv said:

No, pretty sure it was all intact. Have you got a pic?

yes mate. its no drama as i just cleaned it all up and bonded it back with 3m DP6310 which is i am almost sure what asston used in the first place. but i was surprised to find both insecure. Just years of heat and vibration i guess.