Got hold of a grab rail for my 109 safari but got carried away with the theme when painting 🦓:vb-embarassed-laugh:

Eureka! Thanks for that. I delved into the orifice with a screwdriver, punched through a wall of gunk and a dribble of the devil's own diarrohoea started to ooze out. A longer prodder was subsequently employed... and whoosh!

That's what I thought until I took the whole thing out and saw the back of it (picture 4). Nothing's coming out of the stem if the back of it looks like that, right?

Replying to myself now. Had cylinder head skimmed and a new helicoil put in to fix the bodge job done on cylinder 6 by a previous owner (common apparently, because access to the plug for cylinder six is obscured by the bulkhead).

This is my rad. I've no idea if it's any good, unfortunately. Bu99er to get out (did it really need ~12 bolts?). Seems ok 🤷‍♂️

I located the tap drain with the help of @marjon's link. Soaked in penetrating oil for a while. Tried to undo tap - snapped off immediately :rolleyes: Got a spanner on the nut (can't quite figure out the need for the tap bit if there's a nut?). Removed it ok, but no coolant came out ❓ Does...

Oooh thank you!

Hi wise ones, I was hoping someone might give me the lowdown on the existence (and location) of a coolant drain plug on the engine block of a straight six 2.6L? I looked in the manual and had a brief poke about but nothing obvious jumped out. Thanks, Josh

Post clean-up picks for your delectation. Some pitting between 5 & 6. I put a straight-edge on things - it looks to be ok but I've yet to get my hands on my dad's feeler gauges to be sure.

Feels smooth to the touch FWIW

There's what looks to be a mark of some sort but I don't know if that indicates gasket failure, happy to be educated :)

I've read that oven cleaner generally contains stuff (sodium hydroxide etc) that eats aluminium so it might be ok on the piston heads but not sure about the cylinder head?

Was running ok apart from cylinder 6

Rynner's feeler gauges are very long, he knows it's warped ;). In fact he's probably assuming so since I didn't follow procedure in terms of loosening the bolts in order etc. He might be right, but yes it stands to reason it should be tested first. Anyway, I assume that anyone able to deal with...

Hello, it's me the hapless have-a-go mechanic again 😝 So the head is off. Photos below: Any recommendations as to how to clean it up, or recommendations for machine workshops in the SW London/Surrey area? I think one of the plugs thread has a knackered helicoil in there, so I need...