Coolant loss, problem found!!

Finally bit the bullet after fogging out the road behind me with white vapour and started dismantling my V8 to find the problem.

The following pictures are the result.



Not the best pic of the plenum but the blue bits are the gas injectors for the LPG. The rails had to be removed from plenum which meant removing the tubes from the injectors (after labeling everything). The allen head bolts holding on the plenum were sprayed with penetrant the night before.

The throttle cables had to be unclipped as did all the vacuum hoses.



Notice i have labeled and numbered everything.



Six bolts hold in the ram housing which came out easily.

To remove the intake manifold i had to unplug all the injectors, to remove the injector loom i had to take off the fuel rail :doh:



There was loads of crap on the inlet manifold. I removed as much as possible before removing it but as you can see from the pics there was still a load i could not get.





The crap has a blue tinge so i think most of it is crystallised coolant.

A couple of the coolant hoses had holes in them in places i could not see until i had removed them hence coolant EVERYWHERE!!







Underneath the valley gasket was not too bad at all, just a little brown.



This was the side of the gasket with the biggest leak. The brown/green/yellow stuff was a sort of soggy crystal substance which i think is half dried coolant and hylomar with maybe a bit of silicone thrown in for luck.

:doh:
:doh:
:doh:
:doh:

Who would have though only last year the only thing i would do to a car was put fluid in it!!!

lets hope it all goes back together!

Anyway i will be spending most of tomorrow cleaning up the mating surfaces.

Im thinking that i will take the injectors out too and give them a service.

Also im going to degrease everything then jet wash it before sprucing it up with a lick of high temp paint.

Anyhoo ill post more as i do it.

Cheers,
Stu.

Pics are great, what about the commentary?

some people are never satisfied!!!!!!

Consider it done. The commentary is voiced by David Attenborough

Great that you seem to have found the problem, and a damn fine thread in response! Hope all goes well in re-assembly!

So today i carried on and in such cleaned all the crap off the plenum (filthy), the ram housing (even Filthier) and the inlet manifold (as dirty as my woman..............really filthy).

After degreasing i took them down to the garage to pressure wash them, most of the water ended up on myself so if you are going to do this wear waterproofs.

Anyway i took the injectors out of the manifold to give them a good clean too. When checked not all of them performed as well as each other. However after cleaning they were all going great guns.

This is how i cleaned them (and saved myself £100 and a week of waiting).

First find a 12v source (i used a small phone type charger) then rig up a wee circuit consisting of crocodile clips and a push to make switch.

Then melt the end of a 5ml syringe so that the injector will only just squeeze in the end (it must be a tight fit).

Fix the tube from a can of carb cleaner into the thin end of the syringe.

(if both ends dont fit tight then the syringe will burst off the injector covering you in solvent......and making you s**t yourself).

As you squeeze the carb cleaner push the push to make switch.

This will blow the solvent through, if the injector is blocked you wont get much flow. Wait a minute then try it again.

Do the same for the rest of the injectors.

Here are some piccys :blabla:



Injectors seperated from manifold.

fantastic thread! and especially like the last line in your sig.

Thanks Rasheed

So now in process of putting it back together.

Cleaned all mating faces.

De-greased everything.

Spit n polish.

Taa-daa!!

Future note to all, the injectors are a real bitch to get back in. Use 3 in one oil to re seat them. At first i used a lighter grade oil but it didnt cut the mustard and i ended up damaging some o rings.
Also if you put the injectors in the fuel rail first the put the whole lot as one piece back in you will save a good deal of time and a huge amount of frustration



Sorry about the bad pic (phone cam). But you can see the damaged o rings. These must be replaced as the fuel rail is pressurised and you DONT want it leaking!!







Degreasing.



Mating faces nice and shiny again.



Reinforced the wiring with some insulation tape (loom on left not done yet).





Oh yeah this was the state of the valley gasket end seal (old n new)

Before.








After.



Livingroom spray booth.





So getting there slowly but surely!! Might have finished it today it if wasnt for those pesky o rings!

Great post.

Do you have a missus? I only ask as you appear to have been cleaning the injectors on the coffee table in the front room! A job which you yourself can become very messy. lol

Yes but she was on nightshift, how do you think i got away with the livingroom spraybooth!

:behindsofa:

Now that's what I call a post !!! Absolutely brilliant...makes a change from all the much repeated stuff, EAS fault, Heater blowing hot one side,cracked head, slipped liners, what oil, Lockout messages etc.etc.
You are a credit to the forum !!!

raise:raise:

Thanx! I could'nt find a post like this before I started so I thought it only right to post it with pics so that the next numpty like me who wants to save a few quid might attempt it themselves.

Anyhoo i'll be posting more as I bring the old girl up to standard.

Yeah I agree a great post with great pics and good descriptive.

Nice one, hope all goes well with you with the rebuild

recon it might do well as a sticky to save it for reference when its all done. thats given me the will to make a fresh start on mine as i have the dreded steaming exhaust pipes and have seen the dreded "water in the vally" just got to get my head round the engine not running cos of the Becm. Well done top thred :nothingtoadd::5biagree:

Sorry, no more updates till Wednesday I can't get any new injector o rings until then!

Again no update, the Stealers ordered in the wrong o rings, even after I showed them which part I needed and giving them the part number.

" oh I thought you needed these ones "

Did not have me smiling :brick:

So here we go again.


The stealers have still not come up with the goods so i went online to rimmerbros.co.uk and ordered the o rings. They were here 24 hrs later! hows that for service? Brilliant for parts and second to none for fast delivery.

Anyhoo back to the job in hand!

So after getting the new o rings i started putting back in the fuel rail.

Tip: Connect the fuel rail back to fuel lines before refitting (much easier then if done after!)

I had real trouble trying to get the injector retaining clips back on which was really frustrating.

What i had done inadvertantly was to push the injectors back too far into the fuel rail. this meant the clips could not seat in the the grove at the top of the injectors. Have a look at the pretty piccys:



As you can see there is a clear groove at the top of the injector.



This is one of the clips.



This is how the clip should seat on the injector (obviously put in in the rail before putting the clip on though! )



The installed product!



This is the ram housing being reinstalled. Put a coat of hylomar on the mating faces (which of course are clean and free of the old sealant) and re torque to 22-27 Nm. Use an alternating pattern to tighten the bolts and dont torque them all the way up initially. Just do each one a little at a time so the pressure is spread equally over the entire housing.

Dont forget there are vacuum hoses to be attached to the ram housing. On mine there are three, two on the left hand side and one at the back underneath the Idle bypass which connects to the fuel pressure regulator. Easy to forget as you cant see it (put of sight out of mind! )

Plenum fitted. Again make the the mating faces are clean and apply hylomar blue to ensure an airtight seal.



TOP TIP!!

Above (in the blue rectangle) shows a pic of a T-Piece. This T-piece is part of the crankcase breather hose. It has a special reduction piece in it (see following pictures). If you break it (i did as the plastic was perished) a new one costs £25!!

however if you do not want to spend 25 bucks on it (which are better spent in the pub) then you can make one really easily.



This is the part that broke off. Notice the metal insert in the end which has a specific diameter.





Using a soldering iron (this one gas powered) you can melt down each side of the broken piece to remove the metal insert.