Ok so this is "Earl", it's a '98 2.8 final edition cabby and was purchased as a donor car around 2 years ago for my 2.6 cabby of the same colour, that I since sold on. I bought Earl with a problem gearbox (manual) and a goosed alternator and wayward steering.
As it was supposed to be a parts car (and I got him cheap) I wasn't bothered about the issues, but me being me decided to have a look when I got it back to my place and this is when the donor car became the "potential" project car.............
In the glovebox was a full service history book, the problem gearbox turned out to be the leather gear lever gaiter that had become so stiff you couldn't select anything apart from 1st and 2nd and I sourced a 2nd hand alternator from the bay of thieves. The body is solid apart from the passenger side wing, hood is good and working, the lights are all good with no corrosion of the reflectors and the leather interior is good with the bolsters all intact and no holes..........sounds like a bargain....
Well it was until it suddenly dropped oil pressure, tappets rattled their head off and began drinking water like a good un............damn it head gasket
That was May last year since then it's been dumped in a corner feeling very sorry for itself :grr: as I had no idea how bad the damage was and one came up cheap I picked up another good low mileage 2.8 AAH engine which also has been dumped in a corner
Roll forward to last week, its a sunny day and thoughts turn to the heap at the bottom of the garden. After reading up more on different forums (mainly US ones where they don't have a hatred for the V6 as we do over here) I learnt that the oil cooler is a common failure mode for these engines and being inherently lazy and trying to avoid an engine swap, I lashed out the princely sum of £29.99 for a new oil cooler. After an hour of skinned knuckles and swearing (missus really needs to curb her language) new cooler is fitted, oil changed and coolent replaced............fire up the cabby(ok maybe not) ...... Car fires almost slight away but tappets are rattling like mad, switch off check, oil still clear, fire up again, let it get some heat into it and then held it a 3000 rpm for 10mins........rattling stops....switch off.......fire up, no rattle..... Get it up to full temp, no white smoke good oil pressure (1.5 bar at idle) fantastic I'm over the moon, so decide to see what else needs doing and this is when I realise it's not good to abandon a cabby over winter without taking some precautions....
So, better get a move on if I want him on the road this summer...
As it was supposed to be a parts car (and I got him cheap) I wasn't bothered about the issues, but me being me decided to have a look when I got it back to my place and this is when the donor car became the "potential" project car.............
In the glovebox was a full service history book, the problem gearbox turned out to be the leather gear lever gaiter that had become so stiff you couldn't select anything apart from 1st and 2nd and I sourced a 2nd hand alternator from the bay of thieves. The body is solid apart from the passenger side wing, hood is good and working, the lights are all good with no corrosion of the reflectors and the leather interior is good with the bolsters all intact and no holes..........sounds like a bargain....
Well it was until it suddenly dropped oil pressure, tappets rattled their head off and began drinking water like a good un............damn it head gasket
That was May last year since then it's been dumped in a corner feeling very sorry for itself :grr: as I had no idea how bad the damage was and one came up cheap I picked up another good low mileage 2.8 AAH engine which also has been dumped in a corner
Roll forward to last week, its a sunny day and thoughts turn to the heap at the bottom of the garden. After reading up more on different forums (mainly US ones where they don't have a hatred for the V6 as we do over here) I learnt that the oil cooler is a common failure mode for these engines and being inherently lazy and trying to avoid an engine swap, I lashed out the princely sum of £29.99 for a new oil cooler. After an hour of skinned knuckles and swearing (missus really needs to curb her language) new cooler is fitted, oil changed and coolent replaced............fire up the cabby(ok maybe not) ...... Car fires almost slight away but tappets are rattling like mad, switch off check, oil still clear, fire up again, let it get some heat into it and then held it a 3000 rpm for 10mins........rattling stops....switch off.......fire up, no rattle..... Get it up to full temp, no white smoke good oil pressure (1.5 bar at idle)
fantastic I'm over the moon, so decide to see what else needs doing and this is when I realise it's not good to abandon a cabby over winter without taking some precautions....
So, better get a move on if I want him on the road this summer...
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