This was the NAUGHTY CORNER

I almost had a nice car for the SPOTTED thread, but turned out it was driven by a celebrity and she was sittingin it, so I didn't want to appear to be adding to her life of celebrityness being snapped by crusty members of the public every time she ventures into the real world.

We had a nice chat though. She was clearly interested in talking about the car (A metallic deep blue Stag V8, Rover engine, converted to manual gearbox) and was chatting away for ages telling me all about it.

Lovely example. Looked like it had just come out of the showroom brand new.

Here's the pap shot of a the very same car. She's had it for eight years apparently.



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Anyway...
My sump pan arrived. It's very crusty but what can one expect from an ebay bargain. There are places where it looks like it will have rusted through beneath the crapola, but each area I've hit with my wire brush goes back to solid metal. I suspect it's a bit thinner than it once was in places but so far I haven't found a hole.

I need to clean it up, find a way of attempting to test it for oil-tightness with some pressure pumped in, and if all is well, I need to find some time to fit it. Sump plug looks good as does the thread of the hole. Finger's crossed then.









I think the thing to do at this point is clean this up, make sure the contact areas are good (the lip needs dinging back into shape in a couple of places) and coat it, ready to go on.

Once I've got that as a back up, I'm going to pull my leaky sump plug again, see how good the thread is on the actual sump and whether that got chewed up or whether it's only the softer sump plug that got its thread chewed.

If the existing sump still looks good it might be a case of taking a reading of the thread count and seeing if I can find the right diamter sump plug with the right thread pitch and giving it one last go before I swap them.

If life were that simple Glen!.

The effect of the last 3 weeks of enthusiastic posting is that it may have created the impression that all I have to worry about with my car is how to apply sticky-black plastic to make it look like David Hasslhoff.

In reality there is a growing list of proper mechanical things that actually do need doing, .and... Like.... Now. This is the appropriate time



The list is actually a bit overwhelming. In hindsight I probably should have left the console, sunroof, rooflining, windscreen rubber, eyebrows, mingbeard etc etc until after RRG, and instead put all of time and effort into some much needed mechanical servicing.

Too late now. Work has now punched me right up the trousers, so the car will have to be rested and limped carefully to RRG.

I did get the left full beam headlight working last night though. I needed a feel good progress win at 10pm when I got restless. Easy pickins!

Zoe Ball. Mostly on the radio I think. I knew she was a near-neighbour (until a divorce recently) but I'd never seen her growling about the locality in a Triumph Stag before.

To be honest, once I'd asked if she wouldn't mind me having a quick look at her car I literally didn't get another word in edgewise, such was her friendliness and enthusiasm. I didn't even look round the car haha.

^ this is all meant in a very complimentary way, before anyone accuses me of "slagging off" Zoe Ball. She was really into her car. Awesome stuff.

Yeah, spark plugs will be out... I'm a numbnuts, but not that much of a numbnuts. Just need to get the dashboard out first so I can feed the plug lasso through the big hole there and then yank them gently from their fittings with a bit of brylcreem to get them moving.

The roof hole could in theory be uncovered fairly swiftly except for fact it's watersealed, but driving it today in the heat, it did occur to me it might be worth it.

One interesting thing that did happen today though was I had started to mock up a roof lining of overlapping slats. Hadn't got Round to finishing it but it was okay because the slats just snapped into place and stayed there. They haven't moved at all for many weeks.

Apart from today. When it got really hot, and they all just gave up being rigid and flopped down while it was parked in the sun.

So that will need finishing.

Had a bit of free time this mornng and I'm really not happy with the way my car is running at the moment. It's gone from feeling tight and sorted for most of winter (bar the usual snaggles that I live with) to feeling a bit grouchy and uncooperative. Seems to blast along open roads in high gears perfectly but sit in traffic and it starts to sulk a little bit. Add to that that I now have oil dripping and it does seem to have got worse after yesterday's drive (now sat with an oil tray beneath it to limit the amount of staining on the road).

Also, having cut down the orchestra of noises drastically by tightening up my zorstparts recently, I am left with this intermittent and occasional "shiff-shiff-shiff" when it's getting warm and when it's hot. Part of me wonders if this might actually be clutch or some friction somewhere. The problem is once I notice it I focus on it and them I find I'm unable to work out if it has become uncomfortably loud or whether I'm merely obsessively focussing in on it.

Last weekend when out on a blast I freewheeled at about 60mph and out of gear I gave it some revs, and the noise stopped for the remainder of the trip. But it always comes back next time and I haven't been able to repeat that trick again.

Anyway, the story seems to have been so far that it's probably tappets. On thing I noticed when I got back from my long 3 hour drive in the hot sun yesterday, was that there was a slurry of oil on top of the N/S rocker cover. The one with the oil filler/breather cap. So there's really something not right on that side and when I'm hearing the 'shiff shiff shiff' it does seem to me to be coming from that side.

So I decided this morning to just make a basic start that commits me to investigating it and eliminating valves. Time to pull them there rocker covers off.

Its my first Essex and my first V6. I really don't feel I know what I'm looking at. One thing I will say is I'm a bit concerned about the amount of 'play' there seems to be in some of the rockers, and there is about .4mm of sideways play in the rods (estimated by hand)... but I need to read up more on what I should be expecting there before I start duct-taping everything down nice and tight and filling the holes with Bostick.

The other thing is I naively expected it to be the standard nut and flathead screwdriver to adjust, and it isn't. So I need to go and buy something if I'm going to adjust. As the hallowed Cliffords autoparts has now closed its doors that limits me to Halfrods and the internet. Shame.

Anyway, it all seems to be getting oil, which is good. The plugs came out (after the shots below) and seemed to be mostly OK except that the frontmost O/S plug was slightly wet with fuel around the threads.... hhmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Had fun pushing the car up and down the empty parking bay outside so I could watch all the rockers doing their thing over two or three cycles. So they are all moving. It's not as though one is obviously stuck.

Oh, and the other thing.... there seems to be a height step between the inlet manifold and the top of the cylinder head both sides. I have absolutely no idea if this is okay, if it's within tolerance, or if it's a problem on an Essex engine which I have not ever fiddled with before. I have to assume that the engine was decked or the cylinder heads skimmed at some point and now it doesn't match up. Might very well be standard for an Essex... I have no idea... but it could be a problem! One random pic below to show the step. My gut feel is "it can't be too good".

On other thought I had... I wonder if this might be the early signs of my oil pump breaking down and not quite being able to supply enough oil consistently. So it's actually the worrying sound of dryness I can hear when it's running. In some ways, in my tiny mind, my *hard revs in neutral* fix whilst coasting may well have been me forcing the oil pump to work a little bit harder and lubricating everything properly.

You are overthinking things.

It should not be oil pump - relax. If tappets went dry you would know about it pretty quick - they shriek and gall up and the engine gets sick fast.

Std 12 sided socket will adjust tappets, there should be play in them when at the base of the cam lobe so relax there as well.

Interesting to see pushrod guide plates - don't know if its std on Ford V6 or not but they are a good thing to have.

Again, the lip on the inlet - looks pretty std and nothing to worry about - inlet works and does not leak so its fine.

Read up on correct proceedure to adjust tappets & clean & gap plugs, possibly the carb might need a little tune up as well but do one item at a time to see the results. How is ign timing/ points? I'd be looking there as first point of interest.

Can't help on the shiffing sound - kinda need to be there to diagnose.

Indeed. I've done as many inspections as I can to eliminate as many contenders as I can, and I've managed to isolate this one noise from various other noises that had crept in over the last few months. At this point the conclusion is it's something that can't be seen. It is definitely more obvious when in motion but it can be made to happen when moving up through the rev range in neutral and stationery - which would rule out wheel/brake noise. In that event (stationary and neutral) it seems to be most prominent at around 2000rpm. When driving, it seems present at all times once I've focussed on it. The frustrating thing is I've tried countless times to record it and it NEVER turns up n the recording at all. That lead sme to belief my paranoia could well be amplifying it!

I myself have never been convinced its tappet noise. In the past, on smaller and simpler engines tappet noise has always been a fairly crisp percussion where as this does to my mind seem more of a noise I would assign to a friction rub or a pressure squirt.

My good buddy - who is very knowledgeable about a specific car/engine and has generally more chops and experience than me, has diagnosed tappets and having refused to go along with that until I've checked out as many alternatives as I can, I am now at the point of checking that out. If it is tappet noise I believe it's going to be softened byt he fact that it's a few tappets in sequence, making the 'shiff shiff' sound rather than one 'tick tick tick' sound.

The other thing I do feel (just a hunch) is that this noise is not actually anything to do with the slightly gruff running at the moment. But I need to tackle something off the mountain of things I feel need tackling, so I'm starting with this and I'll see how I get on.

No, not really. It's not exactly consistent with anything actually. I've tried all sorts to see how it affects it. It's generally there once I'm up and running and little seems to affect it apart from that one time when I freewheeled at speed and revved a few nuts out of it (not drastic, but hearty). One that one occasion it distinctly disappeared and didn't come back for the remainder of the journey. But that has never been repeated.

having said 'No' though... I am personalyl of the opinion that somehow it's going to be down there somewhere. A throwout bearing noise or possibly something to do with the clutch plate. I fully suspect the clutch plate is going to be a platter of gunge and oil when it does eventually get pulled out.