Oil leak, hopfully not a daft question

Ian Anderson · Post by **Ian Anderson** » Sun May 20, 2007 8:38 am

We tried the Vaseline thing on the GT40 and it did not work

About 3 tubs of vaseline later and I bought a priming tool from Real Steel (About £12 if I remember including post)

We drained the oil soon thereafter and certainly that much vaseline showed in the oil.

20 seconds on the drill and it was primed - yes you have to remove the distributor to get the tool in but if you mark the position first you should not have to retime (but hecking it afterwords is always good)

Ian

leylandracer · Post by **leylandracer** » Sun May 20, 2007 3:21 pm

So does that sound a not so good idea filling the pump up with oil through the ports on the pump?

Just me trying to get out of mixing vasoline with my Silkoline

or taking the distributor off

Ian Anderson · Post by **Ian Anderson** » Sun May 20, 2007 6:46 pm

A bloke in the GT40 club came over to try and bleed / prime the GT40 Rover mill

He used to rae an MGB 8 and so knew the system inside out.

He had an oil can (squirty one) full of 20w50 and attached a piece of plastic pipe like from a Fish tank /windscreen washer and had a short length of brake pipe in the other end.

Unscrewed the oil pressure guage sender and stuffed the brale pipe and plastic into the hole. Pumped for 2 - 3 minutes and we got prressure (oil pressure light as still connected and went out when pumping the oil can.

He said at this stage he would normally remove the plastic pipe and refit the oil pressure sender and then crank over (no spark) to make sure he had oil pressure then rconnected the ocoil and fired it up. (pn mine we never got pressure on cranking on the starter.

So yes you can backfill and it may work - always check though that you have oil pressure on cranking before adding the spark.

so many ways to skin a cat!

Ian

Paul B · Post by **Paul B** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:16 pm

leylandracer wrote:Just got back from my hols and its time to put the new oil pump base/cover on , Just to be certain is it best to pack the pump gears with vasoline Does it mix well with oil Its just that iv spoken to a few mechanics whist iv been waiting for the parts and none of them have heard about packing the oil pump? wouldnt pouring some oil through the oil pressure port on the pump have the same affect on priming? Just nervous not wanting to wreck the engine
Any ideas what the tourqe settings are on the oil pump base bolts, Thanks

It shouldn't be necessary on a newish motor. I don't pack mine with vaseline every time I start the car, and that has plenty of time (sometimes more than a month) to drain all the oil away.

First time I started it after having the pump off I used an oil can to squirt a load of oil in one of the pump ports, shoved the blanking plug in, then fired up the motor, oil pressure no problem.

The pump is basically above the oil level, so if it is worn and dry it can not make enough suction to prime itself. A new pump, or one you've wetted with an oil can, should have no such problem.

ChrisJC · Post by **ChrisJC** » Tue May 22, 2007 8:45 am

I've primed mine by backfilling with oil from the remote filter head. Then used a priming stick, and it worked a treat.

Chris.

mgbv8 · Post by **mgbv8** » Tue May 22, 2007 1:34 pm

I didnt pack mine las time. I poured oil down the pipes and primed it with the drill tool. Got pressure up in the first 3 seconds of running.

Sondar · Post by **Sondar** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 3:33 am

The RV8 pump is not designed to self prime. If you're lucky, maybe it will but there's no guarantee & it ain't worth the risk of a blown engine.

Seems like different peopple have found different ways to make it work & I don't think it matters what method you use as long as you make sure it's primed before running the motor for more than a few seconds.

Spinning up the pump with the priming tool is an easy & fool proof way to check as you can see the pressure light go out without starting the motor; if you can find another way that's better for you, that's good too.