GavinJ
Club Retro Rides Member
MGB 3.9 v8 Sebring
Posts: 927
Club RR Member Number: 209
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V8 Nightmare......GavinJ
@gavinj
Club Retro Rides Member 209
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I started stripping down the 'low mileage' v8 i bought off ebay about 3 months and i was horrified to see this under the rocker covers!! Looks lovely don't it?! according to the books i've got "Black and very sludgy? = Dead on its feet". Great, so now i'm left with a £230 knackered engine! that i wanted to install sometime next week don't you just hate ebay sometimes? What gets me though is the guy i bought off was a mechanic (collected it from where he worked) and he claimed he used to work for Rimmer Bro's who are v8 specialists so i trusted the guy..... But my luck changed last night when i found this cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4609321824&sspagename=ADME:L:RTQ:UK:1Only £200 and about 30 mile away from me, and i don't need the gearbox so that will be sold along with all the other ancillaries so i should make some money back
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slater
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,390
Club RR Member Number: 78
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V8 Nightmare......slater
@slater
Club Retro Rides Member 78
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Its not the end of the world, alot of engines get that black crud under the rocker covers. If the engine runs fine then don't worry about it.
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GavinJ
Club Retro Rides Member
MGB 3.9 v8 Sebring
Posts: 927
Club RR Member Number: 209
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V8 Nightmare......GavinJ
@gavinj
Club Retro Rides Member 209
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I'm just not confident with the engine at now though, as they guy sold it to me on the promise it was out of an sd1 but i've checked the engine number and its out of a Land Rover! and surely a car that has done 55k would never be that dirty? the sludge is about 3mm thick....
Just looked into the guys feedback who i bought it off, and he sold another engine ages ago as a 2.5 diesel and it turned out to be a 1.5 so he's messed people about before, just wish i had spotted it before but i just looked at his overall feedback which was 98%....
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GavinJ
Club Retro Rides Member
MGB 3.9 v8 Sebring
Posts: 927
Club RR Member Number: 209
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V8 Nightmare......GavinJ
@gavinj
Club Retro Rides Member 209
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Plus time is an issue at the moment and i can't afford to build it all up with the tubular manifolds, new front cover, remote oil filter base, new carbs, water pump etc to find out its knackered.
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paul4be
Part of things
'86 Capri Laser, Frontera 4x4
Posts: 395
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I take it you did actually check much further than just looking under the rocker covers to pronounce it dead?
What were the bearings, bores etc like?
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Nathan
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,649
Club RR Member Number: 1
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V8 Nightmare......Nathan
@bgtmidget7476
Club Retro Rides Member 1
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Let me know whet your plans are for it ucs if you are selling i may just take it off your hands
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id be tempted to clean it up and see what happens, maybe you'll be lucky.
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GavinJ
Club Retro Rides Member
MGB 3.9 v8 Sebring
Posts: 927
Club RR Member Number: 209
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V8 Nightmare......GavinJ
@gavinj
Club Retro Rides Member 209
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Pauls right it does need the head taking off so the rest of the engine can be looked at properly but at the moment i don't have the time to do this - so it will either be stripped down by me at a later date or sold on! like you say it still might run okay but i've had a second opinion and they agree that its most likely a high miler which is what i didn't want. Gonna whip the timing cover off tomorrow to see what the chains like... I just wanted a v8 i could fit straight in without stripping down it down, fitting new gaskets etc which is why i decided to buy another that was a guaranteed runner.
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I'd say it might just be gunked up - I've seen worse that's been recoverable. Degunk it, don't take the heads off, flush it with diesel oil (I think) a few times, run it up. I'd reckon it might be a goer.
But then again, maybe you shouldn't listen to me ;D
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That doesn't look promising To be honest of the 4 RV8's I have in my garage, most of them looked like this when I got them. They were all running OK, though. They do like their regular oil changes. This sludge will not just be in the rocker area, the ones I've stripped it was top to bottom. RV8's do seem to keep on running with some serious neglect though. If a full rebuild is not on the cards, I'd probably try it in this state, rather than trying to gunk it clean, I'd be more worried about dislodging curse word into the sump/oilways. Here's one of my 'collection', this was running OK, with a good oil pressure, even though as you can see it was seriously sludged with a practically round camshaft and a timing chain that so loose it was about to fall off... Heres one I made earlier..... This is what they should look like
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,937
Club RR Member Number: 71
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V8 Nightmare......bstardchild
@bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member 71
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Not a RV8 but a graphic example of the benefits of regular oil and filter changes Inside head 100,000 mile dealer serviced on the button (9,000 mile intervals) Close ups Inside head 160,000 mile oil changes every 5,000 miles by owner (or me :roll:) since 48,000 miles when he bought it Close ups And lastly in the interests of science Pics of a head fully rebuilt after a chemical clean Close up I think it's a very graphic comparison - whats do you think!!!!
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I bought a Rover P6 with 78000 miles on the clock with full history which ran sweet as a nut, but the sludge in the engine was far worse than what you have. I did a further 30,000 on this engine with no problems, and only took it out the car to replace the box, and did so with a low mileage complete SD1 unit. Engine still ran great and is still lying in my garage, and I'm sure would fire up easily, even after 10 years. Rover engines are easily found, so just use what you have and change when totally knackered - unless you want to totally rebuild, and then it may be better to go for a bigger unit, but they have their own problems.
Pete
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