Today was an interesting day. Ultimately successful thankfully, but with a few hair raising / buttock clenching / trouser browning moments. But more of that later....
In between hanging outside lights, dog walks, family stuff, I managed to get quite a bit done on the car. First up was an annoying oil leak. When I had the car on the ramps sorting the clutch, that the oil leak was not any of the usual suspects, and thankfully not serious. After fixing the nadgered jubilee on my new oil pipe, it was still leaving decent sized patches (more than a mere drip) of golden oil. The cases are dry, mains dry, rockers very slightly weeping but this can be rectified at the 1st service after 1500 or so miles when we do the tappets. It was dripping down the tinware from very high up on the engine, suggesting the leak was on the top of the engine. Angus agreed, and the oil breather assembly was dry, so we narrowed it down to the oil pressure / oil sender console on banks 4,5,6, despite most of the oil running down the tinware on bank 1,2,3. Unfortunately, we confirmed this when dropping the engine for the clutch, but were not prepared for the diagnosis and had no gaskets or O-rings to reseal them, so put the engine back in as was. I did ask how the heck you replace them with the engine in, and Gus said you can but it's not easy....
Anyhow, I know the senders and switches themselves can leak if aftermarket, and not knowing what I have on there given the cars multi owner past, I was simply going to replace both at the same time. Two more items to add to the growing OPC shopping list. Then an evening googling, and I saw this for sale at Douglas Valley
It was £49, obviously included both and was said to be tested and working. For about 25% of the price of new, I thought it was worth a punt, and my cunning plan was to unbolt the whole console / cover plate, and therefore just have to reach to 10mm nuts instead of trying to wrench 21mm spanners in there in an impossibly tight space. The risk was that effectively it would require leaving a hole in the top of the case, so was as high risk as can be.
In fact, I woke up dreaming of this twice this week, whilst the parts were in the post, worried that I would drop something in there.
Anyhow, the part arrived and was as described, looked to be dry at the joints of both units and the cover plate, so I manned up and got fully behind my plan to replace both in one go.
So, mid morning I opened the bootlid and set about the task with girlish glee.....
What struck me first was how incredibly tight it is in there. You can just get your left arm in down the left side of the engine, and behind the throttle body. Front and right side access was impossible.
See what I mean?
So, for the 2nd time in as many weeks I took the filter assembly off. This is much easier now, because I completed a field repair on the rear clips which had become detached from the housing and required the dexterity of a Krypton Factor challenge and the hands of a small boy to do them up. Using a brilliant cable tie based solution the clips are now permanently attached and routine servicing is once more, just that.
Using this, I could just get on thr nuts from the top
Access much better down the RHS of the engine now
So with a bit of messing around, carefully removing the nuts, using a magnet to lift the washers I then had nothing that could drop in the hole into the engine, and put a rag over it whilst I changed the connections on the senders.
I then put the cover plate back onto the studs and it was super tight. I could not get it back into the case, so removed it again, smeared plenty of fresh oil over the O-ring (which incidentally is a totally different design to the one that came with the new engine gasket kit - the 2nd had one green and round, the new one black and flat). I decided to not change the seals and go with the older one, for fear of damaging either.
So I dropped it back onto the studs, and luckily it was enough to put the nuts on, and very carefully a turn at a time, side by side drew the cover back onto the case nice and square. It seated nicely, and took it for a drive up the road. What do you know, it seems dry too!
And you were thinking that the excitement of the day was dropping a nut / washer into my freshly built engine....
After a good clean, I put it back in the garage in a position where I could get both doors wide open to attach the interior.
