Member postings for Simon Robinson 4

Is this acrylic or enamel?

From experience, the enamel is slow drying and wants a lot longer tha 30 minutes between coats, or it could take several days to cure.

Acrylic should dry a lot faster.

Neil;

Running the engine will cause moisture and carbon to enter the oil, and any sulphur that was present, apart from any othger constituent (Base oil stock and the various additives) are likely to put acid into the oil.

One, the additives will have become depleted, and the frequent cold runs, inferred from less than 1K per annum, the oil will be in a very poor state.

I have seen engines subjected to continuous short runs, and poorly (infrequently ) serviced where the rocker levers were moving up and down in slots in the sludge.

Vans used by local councils rarely get really hot, and, like Noel, I have heard of cases where the sump plug could be removed with little fear of an oil drip onto the floor.

There have been cases of crankshaft seizure because the oil pump could no longer pump the sludge around the engine.

I've seen one strainer, 6" diameter with barely a 1/4" hole open, with the rest blocked by sludge, where this happened.

Economising on servicing does not pay. The "savings". get spent on repairs or eplacement.

I've seen engines where "To save fuel" the idling speed was reduced to just enough to keep the engine running. The fuel savings didn't pay for the rings and liners needed because the oil did not get thrown up the bores!

That Fiat engine might well be in bad way beacause of poor lubrication and corrosion.

If you are thinking of buying it, think VERY carefully

Howard

It ceratinly needs a good flush and new filter, followed by another new filter

Edited By Howard Lewis on 13/07/2023 14:33:33

My modern motor has done about 8000 miles and has had 3 oil changes. I did the first at 1,000 miles at which stage I was allowed to go above 4,000 rpm. The next two were annual services.

When I sold my last car to We Buy Any Car dot com, all they were interested in was the oil changes. The rest of the service history (i.e. every last nut and bolt since I owned it) was returned to me.

Be careful with high detergent oils in an old engine - you do not want to release the sludge.

New oil is always cheaper than a new engine.

Few will know better than Howard on this one, and I agree with his opinion ! The comment about a teaspoon may well be truer than you think - I have done oil changes where running the engine with paraffin in the sump to get the oil to become fluid enough to run out ! Noel.

I own an FX4/Fairway, the predecessor to the TX series cabs. It was one of the last built and has the 2.7 litre Nissan TD27 engine. Earlier FX4s had an Austin diesel, and after production of that engine ceased they used the Land Rover diesel, against the advice of Land Rover's engineers who felt that it would not stand up to taxi operating conditions. They were, apparently, correct.

The Nissan engine was much more robust than the Rover engine, with a 5 main bearing crankshaft and gear driven camshaft. It's more like a small lorry engine. The power output is quite low, about 80 bhp which aids durability. the automatic transmission has a feature which allows top (overdrive) gear to be locked out. The handbook recommends engaging the lock out for town driving - I don't know the reason for this, it might be to keep the engine revs higher and prevent cylinder bore glazing. I leave it disengaged all the time, but then I'm not a cab driver and my annual mileage is tiny by comparison.

it's not really true that diesels require to be driven at high speeds - one of the advantages of diesels is that they give good fuel economy at part throttle settings since the compression ratio (and hence thermal efficiency) isn't reduced by a throttle butterfly as in a petrol engine.

They also don't generally suffer from coking - diesels always run lean and with high combustion temperatures. The only seriously coked diesel I've seen was an old Perkins P6 which had evidently been used in some sort of road repairing tractor. The outside of the engine was thickly coated with tar and chippings, and the valve passages looked pretty similar, almost completely blocked with oily carbon - I can't remember whether it was just the inlets, the exhausts, or both that were affected. The combustion chambers were clear though. I presume it either had grievously worn injection components, or maybe had been used with some totally unsuitable (i.e. cheap) fuel.

Specific vehicles like black taxis could sit at a rank all day with its engine ticking over

The TX1 in particular wasn't even run-in until 500,000 miles

it used a Nissan diesel

Ordinary domestic diesels were not designed for the abuse that business vehicles were expected to take

The trade off was mpg and performance

The TX2 with a ford engine and the Tx4 with a chrysler diesel were disasters for the trade, a lot of guys flogged off their TX2 and bought low mileage TX1s from London

The London guys didn't need to work their units so hard to make decent money, in the North and Scotland they got serious abuse

Not usual. Check the expiry date? Your description is a little vague. Was this a thin ribbon from a usual cartridge type of dispenser, as usually fitted to a caulking gun? Or was it about 25% of the contents?

Silicone sealants give off ethanoic acid as they cure. Was this an excess of acid in this product. If it has separated, it may be important….

As above, if cheap, buy better.

Won't be the first time something got packaged wrong. If it doesn't smell of vinegar it's not silicone.

I have never had clear liquid out of a tube of sealer (even acrylic) even years out of date.

Crikey. How very Italian.

Yes a small wodge of silicone sealer could work wonders. The seal on the airbox can't be too good either. I am pretty darn sure no water would get past the airbox seal on my Toyota Corolla. It is a very robust structure with over-centre latches and an 0-ring seal in a captive groove all round. Back on track to your original question: leave the duff filter out and drive with no filter at all. Get a new filter ASAP. DON'T put sponge or foam or paper or golden monkey fur in the airbox. If it disintegrates and gets sucked into the engine you will be very very sorry. But driving short distances with no air filter on sealed roads is no great danger.

Crikey. How very Italian.

Yes a small wodge of silicone sealer could work wonders. The seal on the airbox can't be too good either. I am pretty darn sure no water would get past the airbox seal on my Toyota Corolla. It is a very robust structure with over-centre latches and an 0-ring seal in a captive groove all round. Back on track to your original question: leave the duff filter out and drive with no filter at all. Get a new filter ASAP. DON'T put sponge or foam or paper or golden monkey fur in the airbox. If it disintegrates and gets sucked into the engine you will be very very sorry. But driving short distances with no air filter on sealed roads is no great danger.

What on earth kind of car do you have that a) Lets so much water in around the bonnet b) Allows so much water to enter the air-filter housing and c) Has such a junky filter element that it disintegrates on contact with water, which is a common component of intake air? Lada? Trabant? Other?

The rest of us would like to be forewarned to avoid that brand and model, whatever it is.

Is the car french by any chance? Seemingly a french design technique is to put the air inlet low to the ground for cold air, I've noticed it more on my french cars than other brands.