Getting ready for the winter!
During the last few weeks I've managed to get on with some jobs on the Rover. Firstly I changed the front windscreen and rubbers. The old rubbers were causing water leaks into the footwells, also the screen had a stone chip. The bottom rubber was so bad that it was crumbling when I removed it. I managed to pick up a screen for 99p off ebay which although had a couple of minor scratches was in excellent order. As a sealant I used Arbomast on the new rubbers and it looks to have done the job of keeping the water at bay.
This week I changed the Driver's side engine plate as the old one had been leaking in the bottom lefthand corner. I hadn't been looking forward to this job as it looked like it could be awkward to get at all the 22 little bolts out, and then get them back in!
(A rather damp looking engine side plate which was leeking from the bottom left corner.)
With the engine mount removed and a fair amount of patiences I managed to remove all the bolts. I was worried that some might have seized in the block but fortunately they all came out without too much trouble.
On removing the plate there didn't appear to be too much of a build up of sludge. The engine was apparantly a recon unit about 25000 miles ago. Anyway I got the garden hose out and gave the inside a good blast to get what was there out. Next I scrapped all the old gasket off with a blade and installed a new plate complete with new gasket, sealant and new drain tap and immersion plug.
It was rather fiddly getting the new bolts back in around by the oil pump, but with a bit of perserverence and countless dropping of the bolts on the floor I eventually managed it! Before filling up with new coolant I replaced all the water hoses as they were looking past their best. Whilst I was under the car I also swapped the old SC oil pressure pipe for a TC one which will allow me to rig up an oil pressure gauge via the sender unit.
All in all it 's been a good few weeks on my daily driver and hopefully I will have a leak free car now ready for the winter. 8)