P38A Feckity feck!

Cheers for the tips chaps. Hopefully get a couple of hours free today get onto this.

Well......it's running!

My old alternator sounded terrible at first but soon quietened down.
Expansion tank took about 5lts & left running for about 10 minutes. Was expecting something to happen with thermostat opening by this time but nothing. No warm air through heater vents yet. Should i just keep it running? Maybe thermostat still hasn't opened yet?

Mine took about 10 minutes to open I think. At least it was longer than I was expecting! I'd screw the cap on and rev it up a bit. Say 1500 rpm for 30secs will get the water pump doing it's thing, and then let it idle and carefully (and slowly) take the cap off and see whats what. I would have expected the level in the tank to have dropped considerably.

An empty cooling system should take something like 12 litres to fill I think, so you've a way to go. Squeezing the top pipe can get the coolant moving too.

Cheers fella, will persevere. Just expected thermostat to open but will let it run a little longer now.

Just keep your eye on the temp guage....

All looking good. Getting hot air through vents & all pipes are hot. Temp guage is nice & steady at 12 o'clock. Still no sudden drop in coolant, but maybe not all the coolant drained as there certainly wasn't 11ltrs came out so maybe some left in engine block. Will prop the front end up & see if there are any air locks before taking it out for a spin.

Job done! Just make sure you check the level when it's all cooled down again, and I think you're done. Beer time.

Martin just a pennies worth have you thought about buying a good runner breaking etc with reasonable miles, I had similar problems mate and bought a scabby bodied motor with a good engine with history for 800 quid, sold whatever I could salvage and nearly got the money back. Just a thought. And just another thing, I've bought the full set of wrenches from halfords and they've done tons of work and still 100% and bought Bethan breaker bar had some big swing on it and never an issue.
Good luck

Grezzer said:

Martin just a pennies worth have you thought about buying a good runner breaking etc with reasonable miles, I had similar problems mate and bought a scabby bodied motor with a good engine with history for 800 quid, sold whatever I could salvage and nearly got the money back. Just a thought. And just another thing, I've bought the full set of wrenches from halfords and they've done tons of work and still 100% and bought Bethan breaker bar had some big swing on it and never an issue.
Good luck

Click to expand...

Sorry that should say Bergan. Bloody spell checker.

Grezzer said:

Martin just a pennies worth have you thought about buying a good runner breaking etc with reasonable miles, I had similar problems mate and bought a scabby bodied motor with a good engine with history for 800 quid, sold whatever I could salvage and nearly got the money back. Just a thought. And just another thing, I've bought the full set of wrenches from halfords and they've done tons of work and still 100% and bought Bethan breaker bar had some big swing on it and never an issue.
Good luck

Click to expand...

Well, it's still a possible option if this still fails.....but, this will be the 3rd engine in the cars history. This one was supposed to be the bullet proof answer to the fickle Rover V8 (Top Hat linered). I lived in fear of liners dropping since owning & it inevitably did on the second engine so i'm very dubious of the standard V8. Tell you what though, after doing all this i'm a lot more confident in swapping engines if the need arises. My tool collection since P38 ownership has certainly expanded somewhat! I bought a 3ft breaker but didnt need it, managed to use the 18" bar to do the head bolts.
I wouldn't & couldn't have done it without all you helpful guys on here.

Well done that man