Steam Powered Griff
Discussion
Interesting this one, I notices that my Griff was behaving like a steam train clouds of it coming from the exhaust.
Of course loss of water, so what the hell I though I decided to take the heads off myself, do you know you can take the exhaust manifolds off quite easily with the correct spanners I modified a couple of 14mm open and ring spanners only one bolt on the offside #4 cylinder lower needs to be accessed from below.
needed a power bar to remove the head bolts but I did notice that the offside head bolts were nowhere near as tight as the near side.
Of course removed my pride and joy carbon fibre plenum carefullyand eventually removed the heads. The gasket on the near side was intact and looked like new. the gasket on the near side was split horizontally half welded to the head and half welded to the block what a job to remove it.
But for all that I can not say definitly that the gasket had failed to the water galleries.
I took the heads to a very good engineering shop in Prescot and they have done a very good job of refurbishment re-cut the seats and reground the valves new guides and stem seals 300 pounds Oh and of course vacuum tested the heads no cracks they dressed the faces as they were completly flat.
There was no evidence of any stem cleaned pistons all were covered in a usual carbon deposit.
The bores after careful inspection showed no cracks , the liners have not moved either.
There was no water in the oil.
The car never overheated .
I am going to try dye penetrant on the bores to be 100% certain there are no cracks. The engine is a highly modified 5 lt '98 putting out some 345 bhp
I know pre 96 engine blocks were weaker
The question is has anyone else experienced similar problems with their Griffs.
By the way I of course pulled all the cam followers and really they were perfect as is the hybrid cam so thats is going back in.
Has anyone tried setting the clearences on the lifters, what a bloody hit and miss exercise that is.!!
The complete top end gasket set for this job by the way was supplied by TVR power through Gorners excellent service 120 pounds includes new head bolts and stem seals, and I didn't ask for them they just included these necessary items.
Short of removing the block from the car and doing a pressure test on it I can think of any other way to be certain there is no crack.
So if anyone else has experienced this fault I would like to hear.
regards Simon
Of course loss of water, so what the hell I though I decided to take the heads off myself, do you know you can take the exhaust manifolds off quite easily with the correct spanners I modified a couple of 14mm open and ring spanners only one bolt on the offside #4 cylinder lower needs to be accessed from below.
needed a power bar to remove the head bolts but I did notice that the offside head bolts were nowhere near as tight as the near side.
Of course removed my pride and joy carbon fibre plenum carefullyand eventually removed the heads. The gasket on the near side was intact and looked like new. the gasket on the near side was split horizontally half welded to the head and half welded to the block what a job to remove it.
But for all that I can not say definitly that the gasket had failed to the water galleries.
I took the heads to a very good engineering shop in Prescot and they have done a very good job of refurbishment re-cut the seats and reground the valves new guides and stem seals 300 pounds Oh and of course vacuum tested the heads no cracks they dressed the faces as they were completly flat.
There was no evidence of any stem cleaned pistons all were covered in a usual carbon deposit.
The bores after careful inspection showed no cracks , the liners have not moved either.
There was no water in the oil.
The car never overheated .
I am going to try dye penetrant on the bores to be 100% certain there are no cracks. The engine is a highly modified 5 lt '98 putting out some 345 bhp
I know pre 96 engine blocks were weaker
The question is has anyone else experienced similar problems with their Griffs.
By the way I of course pulled all the cam followers and really they were perfect as is the hybrid cam so thats is going back in.
Has anyone tried setting the clearences on the lifters, what a bloody hit and miss exercise that is.!!
The complete top end gasket set for this job by the way was supplied by TVR power through Gorners excellent service 120 pounds includes new head bolts and stem seals, and I didn't ask for them they just included these necessary items.
Short of removing the block from the car and doing a pressure test on it I can think of any other way to be certain there is no crack.
So if anyone else has experienced this fault I would like to hear.
regards Simon
I've had the coolant loss / oil in the water / water in the oil thing caused by a leaky valley gasket. Obviously the oil doesn't go through the valley gasket so it isn't obvious how the valley gasket caused this, but I think it may have been water leaks into the inlet manifold of the end cylinders and down past the pistons, also water sitting on the bottom of the valley gasket could conceivably have found its way into the crank case if the end seals leaked. I was pretty sure I had blown a head gasket, but thought it was worth cleaning and re-sealing the valley gasket in case the PTFE liner was causing trouble. Luckily this seems to have done the trick, I think (touch wood) the head gaskets are OK.
Thanks David,
If the block were pourous then water would be seen in the oil/sump and there is none at all. the liners are in excellent condition , a crack or hole behind the liner would not allow water into the combustion chamber, only water down into the oil. None of the liners have moved, so Im hoping that is was indeed a blown head gasket.
I have now done a dye penetrent test on all the bores nothing, its messy but worth it.
It would have to be a big hole as the amount of steam was impressive.
I suppose its getting very close to the time when I rebuild the engine, then I will find out if it was the head gaskets or not.
You can imagine I wanted to cover every possibility before I did the rebuild.
www.rpiv8.com/engine-6a.htm this is a great site if you want to read about V8's and overhauling/tuning them
regards
simon
If the block were pourous then water would be seen in the oil/sump and there is none at all. the liners are in excellent condition , a crack or hole behind the liner would not allow water into the combustion chamber, only water down into the oil. None of the liners have moved, so Im hoping that is was indeed a blown head gasket.
I have now done a dye penetrent test on all the bores nothing, its messy but worth it.
It would have to be a big hole as the amount of steam was impressive.
I suppose its getting very close to the time when I rebuild the engine, then I will find out if it was the head gaskets or not.
You can imagine I wanted to cover every possibility before I did the rebuild.
www.rpiv8.com/engine-6a.htm this is a great site if you want to read about V8's and overhauling/tuning them
regards
simon
I don't know if it helps since you have seemingly ruled out a porous head, but this did happen on my 98 500 recently. There was no mixing of oil/water, just a steady flow of coolant into the manifold. The first symptoms were not of steam from the exhaust, but unburnt fuel. When the mechanic removed the manifold there was a good pint of fluid steadily doing for the pre-cat
Thanks Catretriever,
must ask you sometime how you got that name!
That is an interesting one and an expensive one, but the head shop pulled a full vacuum on both heads 30 inches of Hg and left them for a day they held so thankfully ruled that one out, I take it you fitted new head/s
As I said Ill find out soonish , trouble is Im debating weather to have a new cam cut now Ive got this far down in the engine I might as well go the full mile
I can have a hybrid case hardened 9 vickers finish 3.5 degree valve overlap high lift sports cam for 200 pounds so I might try it
let you know in a week, again thanks for your inputs all good ideas
Simon
must ask you sometime how you got that name!
That is an interesting one and an expensive one, but the head shop pulled a full vacuum on both heads 30 inches of Hg and left them for a day they held so thankfully ruled that one out, I take it you fitted new head/s
As I said Ill find out soonish , trouble is Im debating weather to have a new cam cut now Ive got this far down in the engine I might as well go the full mile
I can have a hybrid case hardened 9 vickers finish 3.5 degree valve overlap high lift sports cam for 200 pounds so I might try it
let you know in a week, again thanks for your inputs all good ideas
Simon
My Rangie never had any signs of water in oil, the only visable sign was a discoloured bore(so say RR)! Funny they did not find, or even go there before taking money for heater matrix, new Rad and ALL hoses being replaced TWICE ! The warranty Co would not pay as it was "manufacturing fault" and after all this they admitted they had done a "few". Still, didnt pay in the end, long story !
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