Zel's Eclectic Fleet Blog (Volvo, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & Occasional Distractions)

[Zelandeth]

Literally have bags mostly packed for heading abroad at Oh God o'clock on Monday morning.

So why on earth am I setting out on a collection mission at 8am tomorrow morning?

Oh yeah... because I'm crazy. That's right. Nearly forgot.

[Zelandeth]

Full report later, but despite absolutely torrential rain the whole two and a half hour drive back from Bristol (plus a bit) which judging from the number of broken down cars we saw had claimed several victims, the new acquisition didn't miss a beat the whole way home.



Bit of a baptism of fire for the old girl!

[Luxobarge]

Ooh, I love those, my dad and several family friends had one back in my yoof.

That cabin's a lovely place to be isn't it? What model is it. 90, 100 or 110?

I'll be watching this with interest!

[Zelandeth]

Ooh, I love those, my dad and several family friends had one back in my yoof.

That cabin's a lovely place to be isn't it? What model is it. 90, 100 or 110?

I'll be watching this with interest!

It is rather a nice place to be. This one is a 110.

-- -- --

I absolutely did not set out this week to buy a car.

However this popped up on another forum at a really good price, being sold by someone whose workmanship and attention to detail I rate extremely highly. In the last few weeks they have given the braking system a thorough going over including installation of a new servo and master cylinder, some bug fixing on both fuelling and ignition systems and fitment of a full new set of tyres.

The P4 is a car which I think I'd have just passed by without a second thought a few years ago, but the whole well thought out, well engineered proper old school classic just really appeals to me now.

The P4 seems to be really undervalued compared to a lot of classic cars. How can these worth less than a Morris Minor?











There's an interesting little mini-project in here too.



This is the original valve based radio, which currently doesn't work. Or isn't connected. Or both. However I'm no stranger to reviving valve based technology, so sure we'll get this up and running again soon.

This currently isn't working either.



Though like the radio I don't even know if it's currently receiving power. Haven't had a chance to even think about looking at either of these yet and won't for a while. On the list though.

Some work does need to be done as a matter of urgency though. First up is having installed something which is currently totally absent: Seatbelts! Currently it has none...which is slightly unnerving, never mind with the standard of driving I see on a daily basis. Helpfully there's a company over in High Wycombe that specialises in period looking installs on cars like this, so they'll be getting some business from me pretty much as soon as we're back from the trip in a week and a bit.

Secondly is going to be installation of a new set of coolant hoses (which are in the boot), as the old ones are quite perished. Then a new radiator cap as the current one has basically no seal left. Not doing that until the hoses are done though for obvious reasons! I'll be checking on the thermostat while doing that job as the car according to the gauge runs quite cool.

Something I wasn't expecting from this on the move was the very classic Jaguar-esque howl at higher revs when accelerating. Nor was I expecting it to be quite so long legged. Normal modern cruising speeds on the motorway are entirely doable without any real stress. Hoping replacing the knackered door seals will at least slight reduce the currently biblical levels of wind noise though!

Definitely could say more, but it's going to have to wait till tomorrow as sleep is currently a high priority as I'm absolutely knackered.

Hoping tomorrow I might get a chance to actually drive the car in not pouring rain tomorrow...being able to see where I'm going would be nice. Oh...seeing what's behind me would be nice too. The wing mirrors adapted the most aerodynamically advantageous position within about 90 seconds of joining the motorway this afternoon. Not that you can really see the nearside one over the bonnet anyway...

[Zelandeth]

Was out yesterday for the first time in decent weather. Car has done its first errand run in the family, a dog food run to cover while we're away.



Has to be said it was far more pleasant driving it when I could actually see where I was going!

I've driven a fair few cars from the 50s/60s before, but picking this up was my first drive in a P4. Pleasantly surprised with the whole driving experience.

While it's not up there with a hydraulic Citroen, the suspension does an astonishingly good job of absorbing some pretty horrendous road surfaces. I know Brickhill road between the A5 and Bow Brickhill train station is utterly knackered, yet she ironed that out out pretty much without any fuss at all.

Also really does go surprisingly well once wound up to speed. It's really not a car that at a glance you would expect to see cruising comfortably down the road at motorway speeds is it?

You don't so much drive it as "proceed" as it was described by someone on another forum. Particularly pulling away from junctions etc you don't so much accelerate as move off. You can't rush it, and there really is no point in trying. First and second gear are extremely low, and the gearchange requires a good count of one between gears. No synchro on first either as was pretty standard for the period.

For all it's quite a simply styled car at a glance there are quite a lot of little touches here and there. One which is more obvious than most is that this was very much when cars still had real emblems rather than just little plastic badges.



Question for those who know Rover's history better than me: Did our Viking friend here have a name?

Nice touch which would have taken me a while to spot if someone hadn't told me about it is this little wooden panel below the dash.



Which hides this.



With a surprising amount of the original tools still there given it's been 60 years.

Another interior detail I quite like is the gear linkage arrangement. They could have hidden this all behind a rubber or leather gaiter. However they decided instead to chrome plate it and leave it on show.



Similarly chrome plated is the handbrake, the style of which does rather give the game away as to this being quite an old design.



Interior details which are somewhat less pleasing when you're driving the car for the first time are the heating and ventilation controls which clearly predate the levels of research into ergonomics we became used to...this lot takes a little figuring out. Not too bad, but not something you want to be trying to decipher while driving the car for the first time!



I have ascertained that the "screen" control is indeed not attached to a cable, so I'll need to attend to that sooner than later - or at least see if I can manually open and secure open the associated flaps so we have slightly more airflow to the windscreen.

Some rather nice engineering under here too.



One might say over-engineered in some areas. This intake setup is a little over the top...



Some slightly unusual engineering too, especially compared to modern designs.



Note the two valve covers...one on the top and one on the side of the engine. This is an Inlet-Over-Exhaust engine - the inlet valves are in the head as with any (relatively) modern OHV setup, yet the exhaust valves are on the block as they would be on any older side valve engine.

I need to do some more reading on the history and how long this was used for. It's a design I knew existed but had never really looked closely at until today. Never even consciously realised this was an IOE setup until I looked more closely under the bonnet yesterday.

It was good to see that the run over here didn't result in any oil or water being used. Had no real reason to expect any usage but still nice to see.

Fuel usage came out at approximately 19mpg, though I didn't note the exact starting mileage and I'm not convinced when I fuelled up before we started out that the pump didn't click off a bit early as when I fuelled up yesterday the gauge went visibly higher. Not expecting miracles out of this, but if we could hover at least around the 20mpg mark it would be nice.

Something I do need to replace ASAP are the coolant hoses (a full set came with the car) as they are quite crispy.



Think I may need some new door seals too as the rubber in those doesn't seem to have fared any better.



Yeah, those have seen better days. Or indeed are entirely missing as with the driver's door one. Thankfully replacement seals of the correct profile are readily (albeit not particularly cheaply) available, and have been ordered.

Still really happy with the car - just wish I hadn't not had to leave it for a week and a half!

[Dick]

Love the rover, what a fabulous car.. if I remember correctly you will be off to America shortly? Will you be coming back with something interesting?

[Zelandeth]

Love the rover, what a fabulous car.. if I remember correctly you will be off to America shortly? Will you be coming back with something interesting?

Yep. Getting here was a debacle in itself - mainly thanks to Air France being their usual completely ineffectual selves and Paris Airport being a complete disaster which as of this trip I am now just making a point of completely avoiding travelling through. It's been absolute hell every time I've been through there. We finally got the last bag reunited with its owner this morning, despite arriving on Monday afternoon.

Won't be anything interesting coming back with me this time, unless I stumble across any interesting tech or have more old cameras thrust on me by family...

No real chance for shopping for anything this time though, only here for a week, and that's pretty much all already spoken for.

[Dick]

I love the French bureaucracy, they take something so simple and managed to fork it up so not even they know what is happening

[Zelandeth]

While the trip home was pretty awful we got there eventually.

Of course that means it's time to get stuck back into this.



Spot the difference.



First new door seal is in. Looks a bit healthier.





One down, three to go. You can still see a little daylight around the top of this, but it's far better than it was. The wind noise is still there, but has been reduced by several orders of magnitude.

I did notice when getting back from the test run I could smell a bit of coolant, sure enough it was dripping from the hose to the heater matrix.



The staining there suggests it has been for quite a while. The hose actually just pulled straight off as it had compressed so much under the clip. Lost about 50ml of coolant changing this as it's the highest point in the system and the leak was positioned such that it had let the water drain down into the rest of the system.

I've noticed that she does have a bit of a miss now and then, especially when cold. While the surprisingly good impression of a V8 burble at idle might be amusing on the right car, it needs sorting. Investigation has shown that we have a really weak spark on no 1. Which is interesting as I know the previous owner has already done some fault finding on this. We seem to have an absolutely solid spark at the other five cylinders (my eyes have just about stopped spinning from checking that), however removing the plug for no 1 at idle when cold does nothing. Removing the bakelite lead holder entirely from the equation (as they have a tendency to go electrically leaky) we still have a very poor spark from that HT lead. So it basically has to be the lead itself or the distributor cap I think - that's the only thing not shared with other cylinders I think.

Ran out of time today, but hopefully that will be pretty simple to sort as there's only so many variables involved.

Also noted this when I got back from a run this afternoon.



That's oil. Quite a lot of oil. Not quite as much oil as the Jag used to mark it's territory with, but close. I was initially concerned this might have been coming from the rear main, but I'm not so sure now. I'm not expecting this car to ever be 100% oil tight, but that's a little much.

There's definitely evidence of quite a lot of oil running down the right hand side of the block towards the rear.



Also oil having visibly pooled on top of the inlet manifold in the same area.



I'll need to remove a couple of things to investigate though as that side of the engine bay is rather busy.



Wondering if it might be something as simple as a wrecked intake valve cover gasket given it does look quite well squished where I can see it towards the rear. No idea when the valve clearances were last checked anyway so would definitely not hurt to check those anyway. Helpfully one set need to be done stone cold, the other at full operating temperature.

I'm just waiting on coolant arriving so I can get the rest of the cooling system hoses changed.

[Zelandeth]

Had a spare half hour today after the rain had moved on so set about investigation of the oil leak.

A full top end gasket set is on the way, but I'd like to get a better idea for certain of where this is coming from. The gasket set includes everything needed to do the head gasket - which I'll likely need to do at some point to deal with this somewhat crusty looking O-ring.



My initial reaction there is "surely it would be easier to remove the water pump..." But apparently they're renowned for snapping bolts, so the head is probably the lesser of two evils. Plus I don't know for certain if you can actually manipulate things into position when slotting the pump into place. I guess the assumption would have been that back in the day you'd have the head off relatively regularly for decoking anyway - obviously less of an issue with modern fuels and oils. I'm not going making work just now though, I'll deal with that seal when it becomes an issue or when we can include it with other work.

For now we're after the (primary) oil leak. I'm sure there are several, but there's only one actively making a mess right now so I'm concentrating on that.

I'm kind of used to when dealing with engines of this sort of age which haven't been meticulously looked after taking off the rocker cover and having to hunt in among the slime and tar to try to find the valve gear. So was pleasantly surprised when this was what greeted me.





I'd be happy finding an engine that's ten years old that's that clean.

Unsure whether this was the cause of THE leak, but it definitely can't have been helping anything.



Three very clear splits in the cork seal there.

I've done a bit of a bodge to see if I can improve that until the new seal arrives.



Absolutely is not a fix. I'd just like to see if the leak is at all reduced before the seal kit arrives. Stripping things down to this stage takes all of about ten minutes so it's no huge hassle. Just waiting overnight for that sealant to set before I give it a test.



Did spot one little bit of work for the weekend though.



Note the bits of bare copper visible. Especially on the larger wire to the left - that's connected directly through to the battery negative, maybe via a fuse if we're lucky. Yeah I think I'll be deploying a bit of heat shrink tubing there.

A little wiring correction already made its way onto the to do list today. I'd noted that the nearside tail lamp was behaving oddly, with the brake and running light functionality seemingly reversed.

Turns out it's because the wires simply were connected backwards on the lamp holder. So a 30 second job to sort.





Prior to my work on the ignition system yesterday I'd found this to be quite a cold blooded car. She needed a good dose of choke to catch properly and wanted it for quite a while after starting to not stumble and miss under load. Today, started absolutely instantly on all six, and was happy with the choke fully in after less than a minute. Quite a contrast.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be reporting back on a fixed or at least vastly reduced oil leak. Fingers crossed.