The mother of all oil leaks found !!!!

[Bluejuice70]

Hi all. Thought I would share this pic with you all. Had to strip my recently purchased 450 down as it was leaking oil all over the top of the gear box and onto the exhaust, narrowed it down to the valley gasket, was expecting a small leak, check out what I found !!!!

Luckily it looks like all the old gasket was blown upwards and out as there is no sign of anything in the engine valley, going to remove the sump and change the oil and filter just to be on the safe side. All in all the pic says it all about storing a car for a few years and not checking if the valley gasket gets weak ;-(((.

Next job while pulled apart is the exhaust manifolds to remove the pre cats wish me luck as pretty sure a couple of bolts will snap will let you know how it goes but am expecting to have to remove the heads.

Now I know why everyone I told I was getting a TVR said I was mad !!!! You now I don't care though, it's the sound, the fun of owning a British sports car and it will all be worth it next time it's driven ;-)))).

Thank god my every day driver is a VW Caravelle

[Alexdaredevilz]

Just a quick warning, every time I touch those things I seem to slice my finger open, so be careful

[Bluejuice70]

The only thing I have sliced open is my wallet so far , but will watch out, am sure before I have finished I will slice open more.

[neal1980]

Alexdaredevilz said:

Just a quick warning, every time I touch those things I seem to slice my finger open, so be careful

I got the slice on my finger still very true Alex

[Simon says]

Have seen many variations of crankcase evacuation installs before but .........

[Mark_S_24]

Some folks have removed the Pre-Cats without removing the manifolds.
It's hope I plan to do it.
Got my cheapo sockets for removing the Lambda sensors.
I'm gonna do mine when my radiator is away getting fixed as I assume that will give me more room.
So it might be worth giving it a go before you remove the manifolds?

HTH
Mark

[Alexdaredevilz]

neal1980 said:

Alexdaredevilz said:

Just a quick warning, every time I touch those things I seem to slice my finger open, so be careful

I got the slice on my finger still very true Alex

Yesterdays removing Haircutmikes cam!

[Bluejuice70]

Well I attacked the car today Managed to get both manifolds off in the end after using several spanners and sockets, and some serious force, drivers side off no real prob in about an hour, passenger side, 4 hours and the two rear bolts snapped off, oh well it's the head off time to get them removed properly.

After sorting the manifolds I decided to take it even further so all front suspension is off and going for blasting, luckily I have a mate who does it for beer money and also while he is at it he is going to anodize my rocker covers, inlet manifold and plenum chamber in bright red

All in all my first month of TVR ownership has trashed my wallet and turning me into a mad man pulling the car to bits to make it perfect. Will get it back on the road in the next couple of weeks for the summer and then pull the whole thing to tiny little bits over the winter and restore it properly with the body off

[v8 racing]

Bluejuice70 said:

Hi all. Thought I would share this pic with you all. Had to strip my recently purchased 450 down as it was leaking oil all over the top of the gear box and onto the exhaust, narrowed it down to the valley gasket, was expecting a small leak, check out what I found !!!!

Luckily it looks like all the old gasket was blown upwards and out as there is no sign of anything in the engine valley, going to remove the sump and change the oil and filter just to be on the safe side. All in all the pic says it all about storing a car for a few years and not checking if the valley gasket gets weak ;-(((.

Next job while pulled apart is the exhaust manifolds to remove the pre cats wish me luck as pretty sure a couple of bolts will snap will let you know how it goes but am expecting to have to remove the heads.

Now I know why everyone I told I was getting a TVR said I was mad !!!! You now I don't care though, it's the sound, the fun of owning a British sports car and it will all be worth it next time it's driven ;-)))).

Thank god my every day driver is a VW Caravelle

If the gasket has blown upwards it is because of crankcase pressure, make sure the rocker cover breather is free and the plenum, if it is just corrided dont worry too much they all do this over time

[TJC46]

Bluejuice70 said:

All in all my first month of TVR ownership has trashed my wallet and turning me into a mad man pulling the car to bits to make it perfect. Will get it back on the road in the next couple of weeks for the summer and then pull the whole thing to tiny little bits over the winter and restore it properly with the body off

A proper TVR owner. Welcome to the world of the empty wallet [just the petrol alone can do this]and the frustration of the car being in bits every time its sunny, and all fixed and raring to go and its pg it down

[Bluejuice70]

Hi Mark. I read up lots before even thinking about taking out the pre cats, to be honest the risks involved with trying to remove in situ are not something I wanted to risk. The amount of hammering and force needed to remove them can cause damage to the welds on the manifolds and thats going to cost more than a few hours/ day to remove the manifolds. I only broke 2 bolts, they could prob be removed in place but its such an easy job to remove the heads I am going to play safe. I have ARP bolts and nord locks for refitting so in the future the job to remove the manifolds will be so much easier. There is an easy way to remove the lambda sensors too, just cut all 3 wires about 5 cm from the lambda, that way you can fold the leads left in the socket, remove the lambda then just solder and heat shrink the connections, easy as

Mark_S_24 said:

Some folks have removed the Pre-Cats without removing the manifolds.
It's hope I plan to do it.
Got my cheapo sockets for removing the Lambda sensors.
I'm gonna do mine when my radiator is away getting fixed as I assume that will give me more room.
So it might be worth giving it a go before you remove the manifolds?

Anyways good luck with your work, just don't get carried away like me, was very close today to thinking balls to it all and take the body off while I was at it

HTH
Mark

[Bluejuice70]

Well it's been a better day, attacked the pre cats today with a sds for a couple of mins, then with a curved crow bar, took 30 mins to do the two

Got all the front arms and shocks back blasted and ready for paint, now the rebuild begins