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[Colin G]

I thought it might be useful to document this job, I've printed out the How Toos for the various jobs I'm doing on my car and I'll keep this thread updated with progress.  I'll have some questions I'm sure which I'll highlight in RED in the hope that some of you knowledgeable guys will be able to answer for me. If this post is in the wrong place please move.

Okay, so I discovered that Hellmans had paid a visit to my coolant system so what to do? give up and buy something else or to soldier on.  Well I like the car, it's the 2nd miggy I've had, 3rd if you count the Carlton I had years ago and beside, I'd just had Chrisgixer sort my wishbones out for me.

I decided to sort the oil cooler out and seeing as though I was gonna be buried in the bowels of the top part of the engine, I thought I might as well do some other stuff while it's stripped down namely :-

• Oil Cooler
• Cam Cover Gaskets
• Thermostat
• HBV

So got all the parts ordered and assembled the tools (why is it you always have something missing?) and got stuck in stripping down this morning.  1st problem, don't have a 12mm allen key to remove the oil filter housing so that put paid to releasing the oil cooler pipes by the oil filter - trip to Machine Mart tomorrow.

Anyway, started removing the plenum, got the inlet trumpets out.  I can't remember the last time I cleaned the breather system whether I had fluid sloching around in the trumpets however, this time I tipped quite a bit out of them, I'm assuming this is a bi-product of the knackered oil cooler? So the plenum is off, got the inlet off and started taking the sandwich plate off. Bugger, one of the bolts sheared off, the one right at the back on the passnger side.  Ended up spending nearly 3 hours drilling and punching it out, luckily, the thread appears alright - hope it's okay when I put it back together and torque it all up. Could anybody give me the size of the bolt as I need a replacement

Back to stripping, got the cam covers off and cleaned up ready to replace with new gaskets. I have 16 o ring seals, where do these actually go as I can't see anything that looks like them.  Next thing on the list was the HBV, this proved staright forward although I tooke the opportunity to remove as much crap as I could and took the hose between the Coolant tank and HBV off and gave it a proper flushing - trying to minimise the ammount of crap left in the system.  Final job of the day before packing up was to replace the thermostat.  What a nightmare, had to give up in the finish as the light was fading. Managed to shead the fixing point off the transfer pipe trying to break the seals - what a really crap design.  I shall be ordering a new transfer pipe and hopefully I can extract the transfer pipe and thermostat as a single unit.

Stay tuned 

Col

[albitz]

The 16 o-rings go on the underside of the cam covers.The old ones will resemble little hard plastic discs.Lever them out with a very small screwdriver or similar.then clean up the recesses where they came from and fit the new rings.
Good luck with it,I did the same job recently. I dont bother undoing the cooler pipes at the bottom,I jsut gently bend them up put of the way, but its a personal decision.Dont blame me if one breaks.
I would advise to remove the hoses and rad while your there.They can be cleaned out thoroughly off the car then.I find it easier to do that then the nseemingly never ending flushing routine after the jobs finished.It depends how far the car has been driven since the cooler started leaking  though.If you caught it early it might not not much flushing,but if its been driven like that for a while its a nightmare trying to get it all out.

[rob in gib]

Get yourself a bottle of Forte bio degreaser and use for the final flush out.
Is the best product around for removing all the oil from cooling system 

Here is a link for info http://www.forteuk.co.uk/product.php?id=41/Bio_Degreaser


HTH
Rob

[dbug]

Get yourself a bottle of Forte bio degreaser and use for the final flush out.
Is the best product around for removing all the oil from cooling system 

Here is a link for info http://www.forteuk.co.uk/product.php?id=41/Bio_Degreaser


HTH
Rob

Second that - just ignore the smell 

[Colin G]

Thanks for the tip guys - duly ordered.  Forgot to ask, is it normal to find some mayo in the top of the the cam covers, I seem to remember seeing it in other rocker covers in the long distant past

[Marks DTM Calib]

The 16 o-rings go on the underside of the cam covers.The old ones will resemble little hard plastic discs.Lever them out with a very small screwdriver or similar.then clean up the recesses where they came from and fit the new rings.
Good luck with it,I did the same job recently. I dont bother undoing the cooler pipes at the bottom,I jsut gently bend them up put of the way, but its a personal decision.Dont blame me if one breaks.
I would advise to remove the hoses and rad while your there.They can be cleaned out thoroughly off the car then.I find it easier to do that then the nseemingly never ending flushing routine after the jobs finished.It depends how far the car has been driven since the cooler started leaking  though.If you caught it early it might not not much flushing,but if its been driven like that for a while its a nightmare trying to get it all out.

There's a risk with that method, on around four occasions now where this has been done I have had to go in and fix an oil leak at the cooler pipe to block joint as the bending can cause the flare nut to lossen in the block and oil sprays out!.

Be warned 

[Marks DTM Calib]

Thanks for the tip guys - duly ordered.  Forgot to ask, is it normal to find some mayo in the top of the the cam covers, I seem to remember seeing it in other rocker covers in the long distant past

Yes, you should change the oil after an oil cooler failure.

Although whilst running, the oil pressure is higher than that of the coolant and hence the mayo in the header tank, when the engine is turned off, the coolant pressure remains higher than atmospheric longer than the oil pressure does.....the result is that some water can get into the oil.

[Colin G]

Thanks Mark, yes I wasn't too confident about just bending the pipes out of the way so I shall do it by releasing the pipes at the oil filter.  I have finally managed to get the thermostat out.  In the end I ended up taking the hose of the transfer pipe, drilling through the end of the transfer pipe so that you could get a screwdriver right through to use this as a lever. Obviously this is only relevent if you are replacing the transfer pipe as I am cos I bust the bracket in my late in the day attempt yesterday 

Yes I had planned on doing a mini service of oil and filters.  Is there any real merit in changing the oil filter to the spin on type?

This is going to be a long job, just going to take my time, thankfully I've got an understanding partner who has given up her car and is catching the bus to work........must be love 

[Colin G]

What a b...ard, got the oil filter housing off and released the right hand oil cooler pipe, put the crows foot socket into the left hand pipe and bugger, it's slipped of and disappeared down under what I assume is the engine mount. Can't feel it, don't seem to be able to get to it with my magnetic tool so it looks like the mount will have to come off.  Any tips on doing this or if anybody has any suggestions on how to recover said crows foot socket without having to remove the mount would be gretefully recieved.

Cheers

Col (in tears)

[TheBoy]

The 16 o-rings go on the underside of the cam covers.The old ones will resemble little hard plastic discs.Lever them out with a very small screwdriver or similar.then clean up the recesses where they came from and fit the new rings.
Good luck with it,I did the same job recently. I dont bother undoing the cooler pipes at the bottom,I jsut gently bend them up put of the way, but its a personal decision.Dont blame me if one breaks.
I would advise to remove the hoses and rad while your there.They can be cleaned out thoroughly off the car then.I find it easier to do that then the nseemingly never ending flushing routine after the jobs finished.It depends how far the car has been driven since the cooler started leaking  though.If you caught it early it might not not much flushing,but if its been driven like that for a while its a nightmare trying to get it all out.

There's a risk with that method, on around four occasions now where this has been done I have had to go in and fix an oil leak at the cooler pipe to block joint as the bending can cause the flare nut to lossen in the block and oil sprays out!.

Be warned 

I fully agree with MDTM on this.

Before starting the job, I had spoken to MDTM, and he warned me not to bend the pipes, amongst other good advice.  Needless to say, I chose to ignore him and bent the pipes (as I didn't have crowsfoot sockets)

Not only was it 10 times harder to refit the pipes, but 2 weeks later, I have to buy the crowsfoot sockets to cure the leak near the oil filter

[Colin G]

Well a bit further forward today.  Couldn't get the engine mount off to try and recover the crows foot socket that went walkabout ( will search to see how to get this off ) could maybe update the guide for us accident prone people by suggesting putting a rag in the top of the mount  . Anyway, ended up pushing the front pipe out of the way to get at the oil cooler plate which went okay.  Talked nicely to SWMBO to see if she had any old towels she was throwing out to use to soak up as much of the mayo in the oil cooler recess to try and reduce the ammount to flush out.  Got the area all cleaned up an installed the oil cooler with the grey sealant as per the guide.  Put the two oiler cooler pipes on and tightened the one I'd managed to release down by the oil filter.  Put new washers on where they connect to the oil cooler and started to torque them up to 30nm as per the guide.  Bugger!! the front hollow bolt sheared before getting to the torque setting.  Oh well, more new parts to order.

Gave up on that and fitted the new thermostat and transfer pipe, very easy, used some silicon grease on the seals and it went in dead easy. Decided that I'd had enough of spannering for the day so decided to do a bit of cleaning.  Cleaned the top radiator hose using road film remover and hot water - squeaky clean now, slowly getting down the amount of mayo kicking around.  Then had a good clean up of the cam covers ready to fit tomorrow (weather permitting).  Think until I get the new bolt for the oil cooler pipe I shall concentrate on clearing as much of the crap out of the system as possible - radiator, coolant tank.

If anybody could give me any tips on removing the passenger side engine mount I'd be really grateful - spent 1 1/2 hours trying to get at the top left hand bolt where it connects to the engine block - I need to recover the crows foot socket 

[albitz]

I cant believe you need to take the mount off tbh.Have you shone a torch around the area to see if theres any sign of it ?

[Colin G]

Tried all sorts to locate it - must stuck between engine mount and engine

[Colin G]

Bit more done today, got the Cam Cover gaskets done and cam covers back on, coil packs in and then onto the B...ard bolt.  It came of very easily, putting it back on was another story but it's on now.  Just waiting for the oil pipe to cooler screw to arrive and then it'll be onwards and upwards to the finish hopefully.  Have got the coolant tank off ready to degunge and am gonna try and flush the rad without taking it out.

[Colin G]

Little bit more progress, picked up a new oil cooler pipe bolt from Vauxhalls, bloody thing is too big to go through the banjo on the end of the oil cooler pipe. Decided to try one of the bolts from the coolant bridge, fitted a treat and the oil cooler bolt fitted the bridge.  I notice they are different part numbers but a comparisson of the two they look identical - will i be okay leaving it like this?

Got the coolant tank cleaned, next is the hoses and flushing the radiator before starting to put the top back on the engine.