I may have been down in the dumps whe last I wrote, but I needn't have worried, things were about to get woerse.
On the way back from a very pleasant blatt out to the very pleasant Bourton-on-the-Water where we ate a very pleasant breakfast, while some very pleasant young oriental ladies were photographed with out hostelry as a backdrop, We got as far as Hartley Whitney when my reverie was disturbed by the SatNav woman saying "turn right HERE", the road was clear, but I was almost past the side road. The sensible thing would've been to cary on, turn round & go back, but I decided I could make the turn.
But I was wrong.
I was low curb, with a 45deg angle to it, so the car should've gone over without a problem, but one of the curbstones was mis-aligned to it's nieghbour & stood up by about an inch. This passed under the front of the car & neatly took the front corner clean off the sump. It was quite a thump.
As it my wont I repeated the mantra "it'llbealright it'llbealright it'llbealight" but it wasn't, the radio cracled into life with one of my fellow blatters saying your car's leaking something" just as the oil light came on & I shut down the engine.
Arse!
A breif technical inspection showed the extent of the damage (a 'kin big hole in the sump") so I was going no-where. I called Green Flag, to be told I should download thier App - not on my Nokia I won't, but if I didn't want to do that the call wait time was currently 15 minutes - but my call was importent to them.
Eventually it was answered & I explained that all the oil was gone, so I needed a truck - not to worry, someone would be with me in 30mins - great!
After about 25 mins what appeared to be a 16 year old in a small van appeared I told me that all the oil was gone & I needed a truck - which would be another four hours.
I arranged for my daughter to pick me up & went home for tea, then went back to meet the truck later, we got the car off the truck & into the garage & I shut the garage door & went to bed.
The next day I started looking for a replacement sump. The quality of the one on the car was "adequate" but the piece that had departed had sheared along the extremely coarse grain bounderies, it was not a quality casting.
I have always been a little suspicious of cast alloy sumps as the tend to shatter on impact rather than bend & they seem to be very thick & heavy for what is essentially an oil-tight box. The obvious alturnative to my now defunct one was the "Racecraft" sump, but with the comedy price tag of £600, I wanted something little more "basic". I happened upon the "KitSpares" site (the parts division of GBS) who were offering a steel sump which was much more the sort of thing I wanted & was half the price.
In preparation for the swap I thought I'd jack up the car & take off the belly pan. cutting a not-very-long story short, the car slipped on the jack which went up through the side pod.
Really REALLY not having a good week.
I may have slammed the garage door a bit.
On Friday the new sump arrived. As promised it was shiney black on the outside, but rusty inside, OK it would be full of oil so "whateva", then I looked at the supply pipe Which is a clever design, in as much as it's a bent pipe with the bottom cut out & meshed over, but the end cap wasn't welded all round so there was an air gap at the top - not ideal on a suction pipe.
So bright & early Saturday morning I went out to the garage & tried to raise the car again - damaging the side pod even more, then raised the front, took down the belly pan, took down the sump & swapped the new pick-up pipe onto the engine, then trial fitted the sump - "clunk" it went.
The sump is intended for a seven type car - GBS make seven type cars, so why design a sump that can ONLY be fitted or removed with the engine OUT of the car?
I took the sump back down & reched for the angry grinder - & cut out the front baffle completely. Then it fitted. so the slot in the baffle was a whole 1/2" too short to allow the sump in & out with the engine in!
I re-made the baffle I made for the cast sump to replace the part I'd cut out & filled (I thought) the oil pump with vaseline bought especially for the job (I'm emphasising that I didn't just have a large pot lying around) fitted the sump gasket with blue loctite sealant (which oozed out all along the join - a good sign), put in some oil, took out the spark plugs & turned the engine over - no oil pressure - great.
So tomorrow when I get home from work I'll start all over again. on the up-side, the new sump barely shows it's face below the chassis though so it will be better.
On the way back from a very pleasant blatt out to the very pleasant Bourton-on-the-Water where we ate a very pleasant breakfast, while some very pleasant young oriental ladies were photographed with out hostelry as a backdrop, We got as far as Hartley Whitney when my reverie was disturbed by the SatNav woman saying "turn right HERE", the road was clear, but I was almost past the side road. The sensible thing would've been to cary on, turn round & go back, but I decided I could make the turn.
But I was wrong.
I was low curb, with a 45deg angle to it, so the car should've gone over without a problem, but one of the curbstones was mis-aligned to it's nieghbour & stood up by about an inch. This passed under the front of the car & neatly took the front corner clean off the sump. It was quite a thump.
As it my wont I repeated the mantra "it'llbealright it'llbealright it'llbealight" but it wasn't, the radio cracled into life with one of my fellow blatters saying your car's leaking something" just as the oil light came on & I shut down the engine.
Arse!
Eventually it was answered & I explained that all the oil was gone, so I needed a truck - not to worry, someone would be with me in 30mins - great!
After about 25 mins what appeared to be a 16 year old in a small van appeared I told me that all the oil was gone & I needed a truck - which would be another four hours.
I arranged for my daughter to pick me up & went home for tea, then went back to meet the truck later, we got the car off the truck & into the garage & I shut the garage door & went to bed.
The next day I started looking for a replacement sump. The quality of the one on the car was "adequate" but the piece that had departed had sheared along the extremely coarse grain bounderies, it was not a quality casting.
I have always been a little suspicious of cast alloy sumps as the tend to shatter on impact rather than bend & they seem to be very thick & heavy for what is essentially an oil-tight box. The obvious alturnative to my now defunct one was the "Racecraft" sump, but with the comedy price tag of £600, I wanted something little more "basic". I happened upon the "KitSpares" site (the parts division of GBS) who were offering a steel sump which was much more the sort of thing I wanted & was half the price.
In preparation for the swap I thought I'd jack up the car & take off the belly pan. cutting a not-very-long story short, the car slipped on the jack which went up through the side pod.
Really REALLY not having a good week.
I may have slammed the garage door a bit.
On Friday the new sump arrived. As promised it was shiney black on the outside, but rusty inside, OK it would be full of oil so "whateva", then I looked at the supply pipe Which is a clever design, in as much as it's a bent pipe with the bottom cut out & meshed over, but the end cap wasn't welded all round so there was an air gap at the top - not ideal on a suction pipe.So bright & early Saturday morning I went out to the garage & tried to raise the car again - damaging the side pod even more, then raised the front, took down the belly pan, took down the sump & swapped the new pick-up pipe onto the engine, then trial fitted the sump - "clunk" it went.
The sump is intended for a seven type car - GBS make seven type cars, so why design a sump that can ONLY be fitted or removed with the engine OUT of the car?
I re-made the baffle I made for the cast sump to replace the part I'd cut out & filled (I thought) the oil pump with vaseline bought especially for the job (I'm emphasising that I didn't just have a large pot lying around) fitted the sump gasket with blue loctite sealant (which oozed out all along the join - a good sign), put in some oil, took out the spark plugs & turned the engine over - no oil pressure - great.
So tomorrow when I get home from work I'll start all over again. on the up-side, the new sump barely shows it's face below the chassis though so it will be better.
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