• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Wedge TR8 just imploded

Share this page

tdskip said:
swift6 said:
The pressure sending unit is on the oil pump, which is external, opposite (above) the spin on oil filter. Right underneath the alternator.
Click to expand...

Thanks Shawn - so I checked and the send is still there and feels firmly attached, but it is hard to tell.

When the senders go what signs or visual indicators do they provide?
Click to expand...

When mine failed, it leaked a lot of oil. Not in the spectacular way that yours did though. Other than that, there was no other sign. My oil light never came on because the pressure loss wasn't enough to trip it.

With the info Mickey posted though it brings up another possibility. If your sending unit is on the external pump then those shiny threads could be to a plug for the oil gallery. Especially if they moved the sending unit to that area. If that is what was there and it fell out it would be an oil geyser.

You could always fill the sump with oil, disconnect the distributor so it won't start, and turn it over until you get oil pressure. Then see if oil is coming out of that hole or out of the sending unit. Cranking RPM shouldn't spray the engine bay anymore but should identify the leak area.
 
That hole is a hole to nowhere. It is a mounting hole for the Range Rover engine mount. They are only found on 4.0 and 4.6 liter motors. You can see the bolts that are for the cross bolted main caps in your photo, so you have a 4.0 or a 4.6 motor in your car. The oil pressure switch is mounted near the filter on the timing cover. It appears that not all of the oil is fresh on that block. It may have been leaking for a while without you knowing. It also looks like you have a power steering fluid leak. The hard lines are prone to wearing as they rub up against the oil pan. Even more so once there is an oil leak and road debris starts to stick to the lines. The sand particles act like sand paper and speed up the wear process on the hard lines. Good luck.
 
Thanks for clearing that up, Todd. I knew it was different from my 3.5.
 
swift6 said:
With the info Mickey posted though it brings up another possibility. If your sending unit is on the external pump then those shiny threads could be to a plug for the oil gallery. Especially if they moved the sending unit to that area. If that is what was there and it fell out it would be an oil geyser.

You could always fill the sump with oil, disconnect the distributor so it won't start, and turn it over until you get oil pressure. Then see if oil is coming out of that hole or out of the sending unit. Cranking RPM shouldn't spray the engine bay anymore but should identify the leak area.
Click to expand...

I gave this a try, but couldn't pin point where the leak was coming from. The good news is that she turned over like normal with no knocking or other scary expensive sounds. Good idea though Shawn, and I <span style="font-weight: bold">really</span> appreciate you and Don, Mickey, Todd, Larry, Tom, Paul's and everyone's help and concern.

I actually called AAA late afternoon and had it towed to a local shop that specialises in these Rover V8s, albiet for Range Rovers. They were totally groving on having a real TR8 in the shop so she'll get good care and feeding.

One interesting note - as soon as the shop owner looked at her he said "now why did those buggers use the wrong heads if they rebuilt her?" Turns out that I have the low compression heads on her, and he was going to put a pair of higher compresson rebuildable heads aside for me.

Wow - good eyes Todd. She has a 4.0 liter block from Woody, and my power steering pump was basically a sieve and I disconnected it. I think she was leaking for some time and I missed that it might be something bigger other than what was left over from the power steering leaks in the past.
 
I was driving my 8 back from D.C. when my power steering rack decided to no longer work and spew power steering fluid all over the road and my headers, I thought I had blown my radiator it happened so quick. I am in the process of awaiting parts to finish swapping a manual rack into my 8. I am going to explore having my rack rebuilt because it sure make parking allot easier. I hope it is nothing serious.

I hope there is not a TR8 exclusive disease going around, my power steering rack, your yet to be diagnosised engine issue....
 
Up until recently, it was harder to find a set of 4.0 heads than it was to find the blocks. When BMW took over a few years ago, they had a fire sale on new engines. We were getting new 4.0 short blocks from Rover for under a grand. Once they dried up, BMW stopped making the Rover v8 and destroyed the tooling. All dealer motors now are rebuilt from cores. Since many of those 4.0 blocks went into TR8s, it was common to just install all of the externals from the 3.5 - including the older style heads with the larger combustion chambers. There really isn't a displacement difference between a 3.9 and a 4.0. All of the components are different, but they have the same bore and stroke. The combustion chambers in the heads are smaller on the 4.0/4.6 and very late 3.9s. That is where they get the CR bump. Put the 3.5 heads on a 4.0 and the compression goes back to where it was on the 3.5/3.9. The 4.0 heads also dropped the outer cylinder head bolts. On the very late 3.9s, there is additional material cast into the blocks where the later 4.0s actualy got the cross bolted mains. The last 4.9 Woody built has 3.5 heads. Since the pistons were changing anyway to stroke the motor, he just adjusted the piston dome to get the CR he wanted. It was cheaper to reuse to older heads which were all ready rebuilt with bigger valves. My next project is going to be a 4.0 block with the 3.5 heads. I want the lower CR to go along with the Turbos that are going to be installed on it. I'm looking for a modest 400HP at the rear wheels. Tim Lanocha and I have been talking alot lately about this project. He wants a similar 4.6 pushing around 500 HP. I will handle fabbing up the hard parts(turbo manifolds, headers, etc.) and he will handle the engine management part of the 2 projects.
 
I'm probably chasing my tail here, but those shiny threads REALLY bother me. With all that crud from the oil and P/S system, how come the threads are so clean? Seems like SOMEthing was there, and not now. Might get your guys to check that, although with their interest and experience, I would imagine they will on their own.

This is a good'un - thanks for sharing it with us. Looking forward to hearing the outcome.

I'm in the middle of a redo on mine at the moment. Don't want to hijack this thread, so when I get a bit further along, I'll post.

Mickey
 
You jinxed me.
I read this thread yesterday.
Took the 8 out last night and it got ~real~ hot in traffic.
Turns out of of my electric fans has stopped working.


<span style="font-weight: bold">Please don't anyone post about problems with 6's.</span>
I couldn't stand to have both off the road...
 
That's a lot of dirt and a lot of oil...

I suspect that there may be too much crank case pressure, and that it's blowing out the oil pan gasket. This can happen when the PCV valve becomes stuck.

It can also happen when the bolts holding the pan in place are too tight. They should be snug, but not cranked down (generally speaking), because the pan has a tendancy to warp, allowing oil to seap out.

If you look at the second picture, in the center are two bolts. The one in the block has no oil dripping off the bottom, while the one holding the pan does have oil dripping off the bottom. Not conclusive evidence that it's leaking from the oil pan gasket, but enough to make me think that could be the problem...
 
rlandrum said:
I suspect that there may be too much crank case pressure, and that it's blowing out the oil pan gasket. This can happen when the PCV valve becomes stuck.
Click to expand...

There is blow-by on the oil dip stick, but to be fair she is missing the little felt insert as well. I'll make sure they check the PVC valve as well.

Thanks for the idea.
 
The rule of thumb I was taught for pinpointing the source of the fluid leak is: look for the clean place. Oil (or whatever else) collects dirt and creates all that cruddy goop that adheres to all the surfaces in the engine compartment. <span style="font-style: italic">Leaking</span> oil (or whatever) <span style="font-style: italic">washes</span> this deposit off.

Yes, those clean threads are strikingly clean and suspicious, but the boss around the opening is not washed clean. The area around the oil pan that rlandrum points to does look suspiciously cleaner than its surroundings.

Sounds like your car is in the hands of the pros now and, hopefully, they'll find the source of your, hopefully, innocuous problem. Just thought I'd throw out a good leak sourcing technique.
 
Moseso said:
The area around the oil pan that rlandrum points to does look suspiciously cleaner than its surroundings.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the tips! I wiped the front of the oil pan off to see if the filter was leaking, but didn't wipe any other sections off.

The "blasting" of the oil suggests is was flowing back under pressure from under the headers near #1, 3, or 5. Evidence still seems to point to the oil pressure sender. Brad Wilson pointed out that even though the switch is still there and intact when it fails the oil can spit out from the center...
 
...I am glad I read these posts I have just put appx 1000K mile on my TR8 going to and from Lake Michigan. My car ran like a top. Has I read this thread first I would have worried even more than I did. I hope you get it worked out and let us know. One more thing, I am not a car biggot, but I sure got fed up with giant SUV's on the road. I couldn't see crap in the traffic at 75+ mph.
 
Hi Don - she is in the shop. Won't know until next week since he is a bit backlogged.

One bit of good news is that I tracked down a set of proper 4.0 heads.
 
Hey! So I got some an update on the TR8 yesterday.

Turns out that the oil loss was in fact caused by...... wait for it.... wait.... the oil pressure sender switch!

Shop doesn't think that any real damage was done, but no way to know for sure, but I'm cautiously optimistic that this turned out to be the best case scenario.

Thanks for your help and support guys!
 
YAY!

Now, if I can only get mine back together... :crazy:
 
Pulled the timing cover to check on cam alignment - and, of course, fans, radiator, P/S pump, compressor, etc. have to come off as well.

Found that cam timing is dead on, so something else is going on that keeps me from being able to time it correctly. Am in the process of reassembly, but don't have a lot of time in one or two blocks to accomplish it. Hopefully, by this weekend, things will be back together, and I can see what happens.

Not a total loss, however, as I'm installing a couple of Porsche Boxster fans to replace the stock ones. Less current and more air!

Mickey
 
Back
Top