A 'gentle' rebuild of my 3500

is it just me? I think the rover grey can obviously look shiney and clean, but I much prefer the aluminium look that Mike's got...

Rich
 
:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: Sorry Mike looks like i gave you a load of extra work ! When i first looked at the pic i thought " i'd paint that manifold while it was off " Then i saw you did ! i think the silver looks good , and it,ll contrast nicely if you get round to doing the rocker covers in a darker colour . I did mine one Sunday so the car wasn't of the road for more than about 6 hours . Remove the elbows and air can and you can just about wriggle them out without scratching them . Of course then you'll want to paint the can and elbows too , then the rad shroud , then - - - :LOL:
 
stina said:
:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: Sorry Mike looks like i gave you a load of extra work ! When i first looked at the pic i thought " i'd paint that manifold while it was off " Then i saw you did ! i think the silver looks good , and it,ll contrast nicely if you get round to doing the rocker covers in a darker colour . I did mine one Sunday so the car wasn't of the road for more than about 6 hours . Remove the elbows and air can and you can just about wriggle them out without scratching them . Of course then you'll want to paint the can and elbows too , then the rad shroud , then - - - :LOL:

:LOL: :LOL: I have resisted the urge to do this, but I will at a later date repaint the rocker covers.

Today was D-Day. I've had the car running and given it a test drive. Over the last couple of weeks I have purchased a carb balancer, timing light and a gas analyser so I felt ready to tune the carburettors and get the car running. Basically the idle is nice and smooth and I have noticed a massive difference with the responsivness when I accelerate, especially as I've tightened the throttle linkage, but tbh I think it still needs fine tuning so I think I will enlist the help of a knowledgable friend who is a mechanic as it would appear I have reached the limits of my knowledge and skills. I think the saying is 'all the gear but no idea'.

The idle, although smooth at about 600 RPM occasionally drops and when you rev the engine it does like to pop like a rally car. No flames though :LOL: . I think it may be running a tad rich but as I say under heavy acceleration it certainly pulled :D At least its now running and I can get it to my mate to check it over. Overall I'm quiet chuffed :D
 
Well done Mike. Another fine piece of methodical work carried out by yourself. Any pictures of everything back in place for us all to enjoy :D
 
codekiddie said:
Well done Mike. Another fine piece of methodical work carried out by yourself. Any pictures of everything back in place for us all to enjoy :D

Thanks Phil. I did take this photo just after I pushed the car back in the garage last night but its a little dark. I will have to take a better one. It looks a lot cleaner now :D


 
Mikep said:
codekiddie said:
Well done Mike. Another fine piece of methodical work carried out by yourself. Any pictures of everything back in place for us all to enjoy :D

Thanks Phil. I did take this photo just after I pushed the car back in the garage last night but its a little dark. I will have to take a better one. It looks a lot cleaner now :D


Looking very good Mike. Nothing like a nice clean engine bay :D
 
SUCCSESS :D

After my last post where I got the car running but didn't have it quite right I mentioned that I was going to get a friend to fine tune it for me but over the last couple of days I wasn't going to let it beat me so yesterday I got the car out of the garage and had another go.

I had bought myself a Gunsons Gastester Professional which I had read mixed reviews about but to be honest it was invaluable in getting set up properly, Well for me anyway, and I watched a couple of YouTube videos on tuning SU carbs. I felt far more confident.

It transpired that I had got everything well out of whack even thought the car was running. Both carbs were really lean so after sorting out the mixture and balancing the carbs I have a lovely smooth tickover at about 650rpm. The meter has a dwell angle setting, I found it to be well out so a quick tweak sorted that out as well. The final check I did was to check the CO2 and initially was high so I leaned off the mixture at about 5.5/6 %. I knoiw this is higher than the book and the MOT limit but the car seems to running really well at this setting. I can always drop it back for the MOT but when it last went they turned a blind eye to the fact it read 7%! I didn't check the timing as it was done not that long ago, but it seems ok and I have bought a timing light so I might as well check it at some point.

On the test drive it pulls really strongly right up to the redline and changes smoothly. I have also noticed that not only is throttle repsonse sharp but when I lift off you can really feel it drop back if that makes sense. I would imagine this has something to do with swapping the poppet valve butterflies for solid ones.

All in all I couldn't be more chuffed :D

My next job is to bleed the brakes as there is still some trapped air after the rear caliper was replaced so if the weathers good on Sunday I'll get it done.
 
Hi Mike,

I am glad that you are happy with the outcome.

I do however think that if your CO levels at idle are set too rich in order for it to run right, then something isn't as it should be. The Rover V8 will always pull better and use less fuel when running right rather than too rich.

Ron.
 
Mikep said:
...On the test drive it pulls really strongly right up to the redline and changes smoothly. I have also noticed that not only is throttle repsonse sharp...

All in all I couldn't be more chuffed :D

Good work Mike!

Although I have to admit to being a little perplexed if you're using BCA needles. I think the secret must be in using new/stiffer carburettor damper springs as you have done.

My guess is that you'll be using a lot more fuel with BCA needles, but if it improves the driving experience, then it's money well spent really :wink:
 
LeeEFi said:
My guess is that you'll be using a lot more fuel with BCA needles, but if it improves the driving experience, then it's money well spent really :wink:

That's always been my concern Lee. I will get some miles under my belt and monitor the fuel consumption and performance and see if the BCA needles are a viable long term bet.

SydneyRoverP6B said:
Hi Mike,

I am glad that you are happy with the outcome.

I do however think that if your CO levels at idle are set too rich in order for it to run right, then something isn't as it should be. The Rover V8 will always pull better and use less fuel when running right rather than too rich.

Ron.

I could probably tweak the mixture just to bring it inline Ron as it's not too far off the factory CO2 reading. I'll pull the plugs to see what they look like in the meantime.
I have read on many occasions classic car owners having to run their car richer than the factory settings suggest and lean the carbs off for the MOT. Could this be a result what we were talking about with the fuel here in the UK.
 
Hi Mike,

The first two measuring points on the BCA needles are the same as those on the BBG needles, which are the points which set the idle mixture. After that the BCA richens noticably leading to a very rich top end which is covered by measuring points 10, 11 and 12.

There is a fly in the ointment with regards to the UK fuel being the problem in that some Rovers run perfectly well on much leaner needles, whilst others bog down when running richer needles. You can try a little experiment, when driving pull the choke out and see what happens. Try it at a variety of speeds, but make sure there are no cars close behind when you do. If needles are too lean, then the engine will lift and you'll notice an improvement in power. If they are pretty close to the mark at that particular speed, then you won't notice any difference at all. If they are too rich or very close to being so, then your engine will bog down and you'll certainly feel it. Best if the road is slightly up hill as that will make the result very clear.

Ron.
 
jamesdean2112 said:
Very inspiring hope to get my block looking like this one day
well done

Thanks but I assure you that mine is towards the bottom of the scale when it comes to tidy engines. I still have some work to do, but I tackle a little bit at a time :D
 
Hi Mike,

I was just wondering if you have been monitoring your fuel consumption since overhauling your carburettors along with the installation of the BCA needles?

Ron.
 
SydneyRoverP6B said:
Hi Mike,

I was just wondering if you have been monitoring your fuel consumption since overhauling your carburettors along with the installation of the BCA needles?

Ron.

Hi Ron,

It's been a while since I've been on the forum and the Rover has only had a few runs since the rebuild (mainly because it's been too cold and wet to go out :( ). It's still running very well although I'm a little unsure as to the consumption. I brimmed the tank so I'm waiting to run it to half and top it up again and repeat this to work out the figures. I will be honest though and say that I think the first quarter didn't seem to last that long but that may have something to do with my over enthusiastic right foot :D

I shall keep you updated.
 
I've been meaning to update my progress for a while now but a few niggles with the car had kept it in the garage but now the weather has brightened up and the show season has started I felt it time for me to sort a few things out.

Last month I took the car out for a local Rover meet I regularly attend and whillst on the way I expreienced what I first thought was fuel vapourisation but the car was running at a normal temperature and it wasn't a hot day by any standards. This continued on and off for a few miles and then disapeared allowing me to get to the pub. However on the way home it kept cutting out and I had to park up in a lay-by. A quick phone call and Graham Ransley (GrimV8) rode over from the pub to have a look. The new fuel filter I fitted at the end of last year was full of a lot of debris from the tank and we came to the conclusion that some dirty fuel had got into the carbs. With VERY light throttle and a maximum speed of thirty I was escorted by Graham on his Hayabusa and part of the way by a friendly Mercedes Benz Ponton owner who pulled over to help :D

This little episode propmted the much delayed task of relocating the fuel pump to the rear of the car. I removed the N/s carb and cleaned out the float bowl and flushed the rest of it. It would appear that fitting a 99p fuel filter from the NEC Car show was a false economy. The filter element had come detached and allowed the fuel and all the debris straight into the carb :roll:

I had delayed the relocation of the fuel pump because all the while the car was running, or not on very warm days, it seemed a lot of work lying under the car. Basically I was feeling lazy. Later I found out that my facet fuel pump was a 'pusher' not a 'sucker' so was really struggling sitting behind the N/S headlight. As I have rearely used the reserve tap on the car I decided to leave the reserve tap where it was and plumb the pump into the main fuel line therby loosing this facility.

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Using some angle brackets found in the garage I made up a mount and drilled and tapped some holes on the O/S panel behind the spring.



I had been running the petrol tank low and as I couldn't remove the main supply pipe I readied my fuel can and cut the pipe. All was good until I realised that the 5 litre can wasn't going to be enough :shock: With fuel now spraying everywhere I ran round the garage looking for a suitable container. Clearly there was more fuel in the tank than I realised :oops:

I decided to fit a filter before the pump and simply connected everything up to the original plastic pipe to the front of the car.



Due to the proximity of the metal fuel pipe under the manifold i decided to remove that and run a hose from the tap and over the top of the N/S rocker cover, again with another filter to be safe. Hopefully this route being in a 'cooler' location.

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Another little modification I wanted to make was to fit some bigger air filters after reading Stinas thread and Rockdemons recommendations. I purchased the K&N style filters from Amazon and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. I'll be honest I'm not overly concerned about the better airflow but fancied a slightly louder induction noise ( thats the boy racer in me coming out). They give a nice grumble under light throttle and sound quite throaty when you accelerate quite hard. I will leave them for the time being to see if I'm totally happy with the extra noise.

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As a result of all this work the carbs needed a bit of re-tuning. As some of you will be aware after I rebuilt the carbs last year I decided to fit richer needles (BCA) and didn't noticed any adverse running problems other than shocking fuel economy. This was to be expected really so I decided to fit the original BBV needles. I didn't feel like tackling the tuning this time as the kickdown cable needed readjusting as well after I tightened up the throttle linkage. I was getting quite harsh gear changes and having to completly lift off to get 3rd gear :(

A massive thanks to GrimV8 who booked me into his workshop, Brooklands Motorcraft in Potters Bar(http://www.brooklandsmotorcraft.co.uk) at short notice to give the car a once over. I had actually balanced the carbs pretty well and the dwell angle and timing was fine. After some fettling and tweaking, adjustment to the kickdown cable and a couple of test drives the car now runs perfectly. The idle is smooth as are the gear changes which are seamless with 3rd achieved with no lift off from the throttle.

Another little improvment I've made was to replace my black 'ET' headrests for some buckskin headrests. I found a pair of teardrop ones on eBay and for £20 and some cleaning I think they look a lot more subtle. I may in the future recolour the 'ET's.

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Left on the imminent to-do list is to replace my rear springs. I have ordered these and some new rear shocks as the ones I fitted were some NOS ones but I think had been left sitting on a shelf for years.

I have been left with one problem since draining the fuel tank and that is a duff fuel gauge.I suspect the float is stuck after draining the tank but thought it best to check the gauge as well. I have shorted out the wires at the rear and didn't appear to get a response from the gauge, the temperature gauge does work by the way, so I removed the gauge this afternoon and wired a battery to it. The needle does move but very slowly and only went about halfway, I was expecting a full deflection.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
 
Mikep said:
I have been left with one problem since draining the fuel tank and that is a duff fuel gauge.I suspect the float is stuck after draining the tank but thought it best to check the gauge as well. I have shorted out the wires at the rear and didn't appear to get a response from the gauge, the temperature gauge does work by the way, so I removed the gauge this afternoon and wired a battery to it. The needle does move but very slowly and only went about halfway, I was expecting a full deflection.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Two wires on the sender: A supply and an earth. Remove and earth the supply with the ignition on. The guage will go full travel if the guage is OK. That would indicate a faulty sender. But to double check, join the supply and the earth together, if it still goes full travel it's definitely the sender, if it doesn't the earth wire is faulty.
 
Mikep said:
Another little modification I wanted to make was to fit some bigger air filters after reading Stinas thread and Rockdemons recommendations. I purchased the K&N style filters from Amazon and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. I'll be honest I'm not overly concerned about the better airflow but fancied a slightly louder induction noise ( thats the boy racer in me coming out). They give a nice grumble under light throttle and sound quite throaty when you accelerate quite hard. I will leave them for the time being to see if I'm totally happy with the extra noise.

Pardon ! Hay ? How loud :LOL:
I have a totally original idea that i'd like to experemant with and then post on here , think it'll be the way to go ,and look totally right and classy . Just need an air canister to play with , should of asked my old mate yesterday he had them laying about :?
 
Hi Mike,

Nice work there! Good to hear that you replaced the seriously rich BCA needles for the proper original ones. You'll probably need to change the needles again now that you have the K & N filters fitted. You may well find the BAF needles are just the ticket if you decide to replace the original BBV items.

Ron.
 
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