Don't you just love classic cars. 1.5 hours with the spanners and it looks like this. On a modern car your lucky if you can change a lightbulb in that amount of time. Hot running mystery solved, stat is 88 degrees. Coolant leak mystery also solved. That pipe clearly can't hold its water...

The pipe or the plug? Either way, the manifold has to come off. Not a job I'm really looking forward to, I removed it from the spare engine and all sorts of crap fell into the valley. Maybe this time I should clean the top first.

Strombergs carbs. This is the manifold from a spare engine but I am pretty sure this is what the underside looks like. The hoses from pump to manifold to matrix are not new, I'll replace them and see if it cures the leak. If it doesn't, next suspect is that freeze plug. Cheers, Rob

Thanks cooltide. This is what it looks like. And before anyone asks, I have no idea where that puddle of coolant comes from. All hoses are dry but I'll check again with a cold running engine. Anyone know what this (hexbolt with pipe) is for? Thanks, Rob

I was about to ask if there is a tried and tested method for bleeding the system. A bleedscrew would be handy. @cooltide: by matrix, you mean the heatermatrix? O/S is 2468 cyl.bank? Thanks, Rob

Thanks for the quick replies, will try a new stat. Wish I had checked it when I put the sensors in. Cheers, Rob

My temp gauge is showing some intermittent readings when driving, sometimes it's in the middle and a few minutes later it's near the red zone. I decided to install a watertemp gauge instead of the clock and put sensors in the top and bottom hose. After bleeding the system and fully warm the...

After a minute or so it runs on all 8, and not to bad either. For a 32 year old, nearly 2 ton car this thing is pretty quick. Hence my curiosity as to what cam is in there. Checked camshaft timing today. Made a pistonstop from a sparkplug to determine true DTC The markings on the pulley are...

Hi guys, What (if any) checking height is used for timing the RV8 camshaft? I wanna know what's in there now as I like how it drives but I think I'm in for a new camshaft/lifters. My 3.5 carb has a knocking sound on cold start up which goes away after a few minutes. A compression test revealed 2...

No need for jealousy, it does have some mechanical issues. The engine has a knocking sound on cold start up which goes away after a few minutes. Compression test revealed 2 cilinders with 0 pressure, the rest is around 150 psi which is a bit low. The sump plug from the autobox had this on it...

Thanks. Some more pics. Looks very clean under the bonnet with plenty of new stuff, rad/hoses/viscous/fan etc. It's running pig rich on them Strombergs but I have plans for MS, already have the efi from a 3.9 (just the bits on the engine, no loom/ ecu) Rob

After a bad first experience with a Range Rover classic (so much rust), I decided to give it another go and find a decent one. Took me over 6 months before I found a rust free, low mileage, italian import from 1983. Well chuffed with this one. Rob.