P6B S Project Car

You better believe the bad petrol! There was no unleaded there either . I will send some more to give you a hint on life in Saudi.
Anyway, some rover stuff. After getting fuse 10 fixed and the pump running I thought i ought to check that the screen washpumpworked -NO. power was getting to it,but the switch was not earthing it. Disconnected the battery, dropped the switch panel, to find this explanation.
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To get at the rear grub screw I had to pull the switch.On my spare switch panel the knob pulled off easily, not so on the car. In the end I worked out how to release the knob and all was fixed readily. While I had the switch panel out I also changed the 2 festoon bulbs to LEDs I had ready. Neither old festoons survived removal - the end caps came off the glass.
 
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Life in Saudi - The most important not in there is one of the road rules;-
Drive at the Speed limit....or some multiple thereof.
Never actually saw this while there:-
But did see some of this...
 

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Having trouble finding a bellhousing dust cover, so I decided to make my own. Traced the bottom of the bellhousing onto cardboard with a hammer, drilled the bolt holes and the clutch slave hole, checked the fit. Found a sheet of 1/16" alloy, cut some of it with tinsnips, but had to finish it off with a Dremel. Hole saw for the slave hole. pic to follow when the paint is dry.
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Folding the top edge over will have to wait until I can bolt box to block again....
 
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Elsewhere have reported on dash PCB problem - Speedocame back from calibration without insulator, some pcb track damage cos i didnt twig.The book says there are5 wires connected apart from multi pin connections. mine has 6 wires - Clock power, 2 on the tacho (not confusable as one is spade, the other a bullet), 2 for the dash light dimmer, AND a black earth wire. Exploring local sources of a replacement PCB, shouldnt be a problem.
 
Dash replaced with a very clean unit. All back together, but with an annoying issue - cant get the rhs little metal finisher to fit neatly - is there a trick to align this or the screwed plate with clips on it ? It seems it can only go in one place so that the cover screws can fit through it, and there is liitle scope for it to move in any direction?
 
Back to sumps and dipsticks.
P6B stick o'all 53.8cm, 49cm to hi mark, 51.8cm to lo. 4.5L
D2 56 48.4 51.4 5.0L sump depth 20cm SD1 sump depth 14-15cm.
Both measured from inside the cap. Interesting that the hi-lo marks are so close.
The extra length on the D2 is almost irrelevant ,it just has text 'do not overfill'. The extra capacity of the D2 will be due to being longer, a little deeper.
The tubes outside the block are both close to 20cm. The D2 stick is curiously curved, at right angles to the pull ring, like a scimitar sword.Takes quite a push to seat it fully.
 
Next. Disco sump 14cm deep. Oil pickup is 12.5cm below sump face, so its ~1.5cm clear of the bottom. Full mark on dipstick is 4.5cm below sump face. Fill mark on P6B dipstick is 4cm below sump face. Previously noted that 5L in an SD1 sump reaches to ~34mm from top flange, so using the P6B dipstick would indicate full at ~4.75L, which sounds right for an SD1.
 
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Started pulling apart the Disco heads - HRC2479 castings, dated 03/94. Small chambers (28cc). Valves should clean up OK, felt good in the guides. the inlets are waisted, good news. The ports do not have the bad bits shown in Hammill's book, but the transition in the inlet from bowl to port has a sharp edge that could do with bevelling, but its not serious imho.
The exhaust valves are normal , but book mentions 'carbon break' types as better - cant find anything on web on these - anybody know about them, part no etc?
 
Found some later exhaust valves, so thats sorted. This may sound a bit naff, but I took a rat-tail file to the sharp edges in the head ports, and had them all nicely rounded in 30-40 minutes, blew out the debris with compressed air. Didnt want to risk applying anything rotary to the heads, too much risk of seat damage in my hands. love that soft alloy!
 
Read somewhere here that there were bolt thread changes from early to late heads , on the ends. In the P6 book the 11ACR mounting has 2 x 3/8 UNC bolts; the 18ACR mount has 2 x 3/8 and 1 x 5/16 UNC. All the holes on my 03/94 hrc2479 heads are 3/8 UNC. So I will need 1 x 3/8 UNC 2-1/2" long to fit the 18 ACR mount.
 
After fixing dash etc, test drive went OK, time for its first wash since I replaced the lower inner windscreen rubber,and that @#$%^ throttle shaft grommet. Laid paper in the front footwells to make sure I would see any leaks - hosed, washed, hosed off, wiped down- no leaks visible on the front floors - no drips on the paper. another winner, at last.
 
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Anybody ever wondered what changed in the exhaust area such that P6B & P5B did not use manifold gaskets, but the SD1 did?
 
??? Maybe the mechanic forgot at some point....My P6Bs have all had gaskets. I used them to make the plates for the extractors. I would not be surprised that someone decided that straight exhaust bog would be just as good as the gasket does create one extra mating surface...SD1s have a four into two pipe arrangement which may well be more flexible and prone to leakage without the gasket to take up slack
 
No gaskets shown in the parts book at all for the manifold to head face, which was what I was referring to. also there are none at the down pipe joint because its an olive & taper joint. SD1s list a gasket at the head face.
 
More changes noticed. In the WSM that covers 3.5, 3.9 and 4.2 versions they mention a value for valve installed height, ie height of stem tip above the steel washer under the spring. None of this is mentioned in the P6 book, or the SD1 book. There are notes about a change in the actual valves in later engines - 'carbon break' types for exhausts which have a lower installed height (~0.1"),and have a shorted valve guide on the chamber side.
Anybody know anything here?
 
In changing valve springs, which is usually needed when fitting hotter cams the new springs tend to have fewer coils to avoid going coil bound. The new springs should have an installed height in their spec.
There is a handy device for measuring installed height.
Installed stem height never figured on my radar as I always used the valves that came with the heads, or changed inlets for waisted of the same length, with short guides and the lifter pre load carefully checked.

4292 Valve Spring Height Micrometer 1.600"-2.200" Range Checker Gauge Tool Assy | eBay
There are shims available to set the installed height of the spring.
Real Steel sell them, I believe Moroso branded.
 
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The specs I speak of are purely for the height of the valve stem, not related to the springs. This can only be affected by the length of the valve, and how it is seated...I think.
 
P6B (and P5B) never had exhaust manifold to head, gaskets, and as far as I remember The SD1 V8's didn't have them either.
 
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