HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby lord13 » Sun Jun 10, 2018 9:23 pm

Having some issues with the old girl, she's been losing water from the rad overflow, about a litre per run, but i've noticed that the rad cap had a very weak spring, so i replaced it with the correct item . After a couple of runs I checked it and sure enough, no water loss, happy days :)
So today i decided to sort out the rocker cover oil leak (it's one of many, but i though i should start at the top), took off the oil filler and was dismayed to see it full of creamy sludge, it hasn't been like that before, always was clean and good so I can only assume that the pressure of the new rad cap has shown up some other faults in the system....bugger :(
Anyway, always one for a cheap fix, I thought that I could try and torque down the head bolts a little more, cant hurt and might sort out the issue ( i've done it before and it's helped keep an old engine running a bit longer from time to time, and the viva head bolts dont have a huge torque setting anyway) so I got out the torque wrench and set to work. First bolt I touched wasn't even tight! I worked round the lot and found a total of 4 bolts were pretty much 'hand tight' , jeez...how did it run? and it ran pretty good to be fair, so I've done them all up to around 60Nm, which is just a touch tighter than they should be (43 lbft = 58Nm), I didn't get a chance to road test the old girl after i'd done so i'll take her out tomorrow and see whats what :)

oh, one of the head bolts is a torx head thing, not what I expected to find, i'm guessing that the previous owner had a little trouble with one of the bolts and this was a replacement, whether it's a 'helicoil' one or just something they had lying around I don't know, but this was one of the tighter bolts so it must be doing the trick :)
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby Kraken » Sun Jun 10, 2018 9:34 pm

I wish I was at the point where I had to worry about creamy sludge and water loss!

You'll have her running nicely in no time.
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby 1972nail » Mon Jun 11, 2018 10:39 pm

i haven't owned an OHV for many years but I do remember that creamy sludge / mayonnaise was a common problem on cars that didn't drive very far and did only relatively short journeys. My engines did 40 plus miles each way to work on week days and I didn't have a problem. I also maintained a neighbour's car which did about 40 miles per week but was still out two or three times every day! I finally solved the problem by fitting a warmer thermostat.
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby lord13 » Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:32 am

Could be some bad or at least 'inconvenient' issues on the horizon, awaiting tests etc but I may have to switch to an automatic... It may only have to be my daily driver that I go auto on, but If the worst case scenario happens....

so a few questions...did the HB auto's have a bigger tunnel? Or will one fit in my manual tunnel?

Any auto boxes going spare?

Any mods required engine wise, apart from the obvious flexi plate?

Cheers

If the worst does happen...and I cannot convert this old girl... she will be regrettably up for sale :(
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby 1972nail » Fri Jun 15, 2018 4:08 pm

It's an urban myth that there is an auto Viva shell and a manual shell. Some believe that the HPF (Droop Snoot Firenza) used an auto shell to accommodate the ZF gearbox. However, Vauxhall did not make a special tunnel for the Auto boxes, instead they did what any sensible design team would do (unlike F@£d) and made the tunnel large enough to accommodate either manual or auto. The ZF was an afterthought and only needed a bit cut out around the gear lever hole. F@£d, on the other hand, fitted different tunnels for auto boxes to their Crapee and Escreata shells as well as other models.

Probably the myth came about as people tried to fit a ZF box using a Bedford CF ZF bell housing or a Lotus Sunbeam alloy bell housing both of which have the clutch lever a little higher up than the HPF bell housing. The lever then fouls the bulkhead which in turn needs to be modified using a big hammer, hence the assumption that if it fits in a Droop Snoot and doesn't fit in a manual HC then the Snoot must have a bigger tunnel.

The parts books list various replacement floor and bulkhead panels as well as complete body shells and there is no distinction made between manual and auto.
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby lord13 » Sat Jun 16, 2018 7:35 am

That's good to know, I didn't think there was any distinction between the two but it's always good to ask...
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby lord13 » Fri Jun 29, 2018 7:14 am

So...investigations into the overheating have come up with this...

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Now I don't know if that is causing it, but this was the bolt hole with the suspect bolt in it, the bolt itself on closer inspection was the wrong thread, and looked like it had stripped the thread a bit. All a bit suspect. I can only assume that when the engine got hot, these cracks opened up and loosened the bolt, thus letting the compression gasses into the water jacket. Maybe...I don't know... So I decided to try fixing it, so after cleaning up the thread and sourcing a new bolt I carefully drilled out the cracks a little...

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Then welded them up...

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Then carefully filed them flat.

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Will this work? Was it my over heating problem?
Well I won't know until the new gasket arrives in the post, so I'll let you know :)
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby Johnboy HB » Fri Jun 29, 2018 9:38 am

Wouldn't have thought of trying that, hope it works
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby cooperman » Fri Jun 29, 2018 11:34 am

Very clever, I hope it works!
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby hbr341 » Fri Jun 29, 2018 9:09 pm

Hi
Just something to check the auto HB did have a different engine block i remember my dad had an auto and converted it to a manual.

Regards Chris.
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