Once it was filled, I let it run up to temperature. It was running a bit hot, but then there was a big gurgle and the level went down.
A quick top up and I watched the gauge.
Something did not look right,but I could not put my finger on it.
Ahhhhhhhhh, there appears to be steam coming out of the left pipe, the right pipe was vapour free. I was running on LPG, so it could not be “smoke”.
Next I took off the oil filler cap. Mmmmmm, and instant steam train.
In fact it looked so cool I just watched it for a couple of minutes, and even blipped the throttle. I even contemplated if I could replicate it in a proper build.

With the coolant system under pressure I decided to check each of the cylinders on the left side.
When I took the plug out of No.3 (2nd one from the front) and turned the engine, a hot geyser erupted from the hole.
With the piston at the top water just poured out.
The heads will need skimming.

Time has also run out to play for the summer.
The tax is due at the end of the month, so I have taken the decision to SORN it.
It looks like it will not be back on the road until next Spring.
Over next few months, the lump will be meticulously checked over, the heads skimmed, a complete re-wiring, respray, and the back end re-designed, with the possibility of a smaller LPG tank and a much bigger petrol tank.

Oh no. This is the trike we are talking about.
It occupies its own private spot in the space time continuum, and specifically the little part that specialises in Chaos Theory.

So, what did happen?
The coil blew up :O
Well that may bit over dramatic, but not far off the truth.
The black bit sort of shot an inch out of the silver tube that it was crimped in to.
It managed to shoot coil oil, nope I did not know it was full of oil either, all over the headstock, and then rest dripped down over the inlet manifold and down into the Valley Gasket.

The garage now has a smell of burnt Bakelite combined with chip oil.

Had a chat with the guys at Rimmer Brothers, and a new coil is on route.

Oh yeah, and the battery did go flat, but that has now been charged.

I had shouted out on a forum to borrow one, and asked on Freegle to try and get a free one, but to no avail.

I saw a mate across the road coming home. A short while later I was testing the compression again with his tester……
125 psi!!!!!!!
That is with a cold engine and all the other plugs still in. So, after all that it looks like the compression is well within tolerance.

The moral of the story?
Don’t buy cheap tools off ebay to save a few quid.
The off ebay cost £10, a good one costs £25.

I have changed the head gaskets.
I was going to test the compression before I put it all back together, but could not find one of the connectors.
I knew it had to be in the garage, but it was stubborn hidden.

So I put the whole thing back together, though I did not fill it with coolant “just in case”.
It fired straight up and sounded pretty all right.
I then had another hunt for the compression tester, and it was exactly where it wasn’t when I looked for it!!!
A quick check of a sample of pots with a result of a mere 55psi.

It just does not make sense. How can I be out by so much across all the pots?

I am sure it is not leaking through the rings. It does not make sense that it could be warped heads, ‘cos by any stretch of the imagination it would not give a uniform result across both sides and all eight pots.
I also know that the marks on the camshaft and crank were lined up as they should be.

The next plan is to find a garage that can do a “leak test”, but for the time being I have walked away from it to take time out to enjoy the summer.

When I was putting the heads back on the trike I had a bit of an issue.
I had two sets of head gaskets. One set for a standard 3.5 and one set for a 3.9 (which came with the replacement engine.
The problem was that the 3.9 set were for a head with only 2 rows of bolts. My 3.5 had 3 rows.
So I “offered up” the 3.5 set and whilst they were a bit on the small side it looked like I would still get a seal on each piston.

The test ride soon showed that power was not as it should be. There was also emulsified oil in the rockers. A quick test with the compression tester gave a reading of 45psi.
A couple of choice words were uttered, followed by a bit of stomping around, and then some more choice words.

So, a correct set was ordered from Rimmer Brothers, purveyors of all things Rover V8.

I spent yesterday evening stripping the engine back down to the heads.
This also involves removing the engine mounts and dropping the engine a couple of inches so that I can remove the inlet manifold.

Anyways, I hear that the gaskets have arrived today, so this evening will be to get the heads off, gaskets replaced, and heads back on.
If I get more done then all the better, else the rest will be done tomorrow.
Test rides will be on the cards for Saturday morning.

The main thing to get your head around is that the carbs have little to do with it.
The “richness screw” on a carb adjusts the amount of petrol that is added to the air flowing into the carb.

On the trike there is a “gas ring” just down wind of the carb inlet.
So we need to adjust the flow of gas to that ring, which in turn will adjust the “richness”of the mix.

Gas is stored as a liquid, and so must pass though a vaporiser that will convert it too a gas.
This process can cause an ice build up, so the vaporiser will have a feed from the heating system to warm it.

A common vaporiser is an OMVL, and they are suprisingly easy to tune.
I do not have an O2 analyser, so opted for the “Setting without an analyser” section of the linked document.
I also removed my ecomax, which I may put back on one day if I ever work out how or if it is working.
I used this doc to tune the OMVL – http://www.landywiki.co.uk/index.php?title=OMVL_Adjustment

Tuning did not take too long, but then I had all the info I needed, plus a vacuum gauge to measure the draw on each carb, so as to balance them.

A must read – http://www.v8register.net/FilesV8WN/SUbookletsAUC9939AHIFtuningandservicing.pdf
NOTE: You need to save the pdf to get around the errors
A good vid – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASeMfXfjNpw

First problem was an air-lock in the water system.
This meant that it was not long before the temp red lined.
There is no thermostat, so the water should have just pumped its way regardless.
To make matters worse I was running on LPG, and due to the lack of hot water reaching the vaporiser it soon got a layer of steaming ice on it.
I let the engine cool a bit, then fired it up and gave it a good rev. This resulted in a geezer of water coming out of the fill hole and a mass of gurgling.
6 pints later and it was full.

I’m gonna need to drain some off again and add coolant.
I just hope it does not airlock again.

Well, I just have to post that I did get the new engine put together and got around to test firing it tonight.
After finally deciding to rotate the distributor 180 degrees, it fired straight up with a very healthy, and almighty, ROAR!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow night will be putting the front end back on the trike.

Next, was disconnecting everything that connected to the front end and the cross member.
Luckily the electrics where on a nice big connector that came apart easily.
The coil was on the cross member so that came off, and all the hoses were disconnected.
The oil cooler was next, and then the hydraulic hose for the front calliper was disconnected.
Now it was time to un-bolt the front end, and wheel it out of place.

Just for the fun, and to prove I could do it, I started the engine without the front on.
When I put the replacement engine in, I will run it up to ensure all is ok and that there is no oil leaks.