Sunday was my lucky day (well sort of)

[johng]

I set off for the Helmingham Hall car show on Sunday morning in convoy with my son in his 68 Mustang. About half way there my son fortunately decided he needed to stop to fill up with petrol. When I pulled up behind him in the garage, I noticed a lot of steam (or was it smoke?) coming from under my bonnet! Since I had stripped the carb down and had a small petrol leak that needed fixing during the previous week, my wife was more than a bit nervous and quickly removed her seat belt ready to jump out.
On opening the bonnet it was apparent that I no longer had any coolant in the expansion tank and the coolant was instead spread all over my engine.
So why was this my lucky day?
Well 1) because the leak was in the heater hose just where it goes into the intake manifold
2) there was sufficient slack in the hose for me to cut off the leaking section and refit to the intake manifold
3) several years ago I'd put a Swiss army type knife in my car tool kit, so I had something to cut the hose with
4) the petrol stations complete stock of 500ml bottles of distilled water and coolant was just sufficient to refill my cooling system
5) the repair was done in just enough time to still get us to Helmingham on time.

The other good news was that otherwise the car ran perfectly and my petrol leak hasn't re-appeared.

 

[Roscobbc]

And the engine issues are gone?

 

[johng]

All gone for now

 

[Mad4slalom]

I set off for the Helmingham Hall car show on Sunday morning in convoy with my son in his 68 Mustang. About half way there my son fortunately decided he needed to stop to fill up with petrol. When I pulled up behind him in the garage, I noticed a lot of steam (or was it smoke?) coming from under my bonnet! Since I had stripped the carb down and had a small petrol leak that needed fixing during the previous week, my wife was more than a bit nervous and quickly removed her seat belt ready to jump out.
On opening the bonnet it was apparent that I no longer had any coolant in the expansion tank and the coolant was instead spread all over my engine.
So why was this my lucky day?
Well 1) because the leak was in the heater hose just where it goes into the intake manifold
2) there was sufficient slack in the hose for me to cut off the leaking section and refit to the intake manifold
3) several years ago I'd put a Swiss army type knife in my car tool kit, so I had something to cut the hose with
4) the petrol stations complete stock of 500ml bottles of distilled water and coolant was just sufficient to refill my cooling system
5) the repair was done in just enough time to still get us to Helmingham on time.

The other good news was that otherwise the car ran perfectly and my petrol leak hasn't re-appeared.

Were you in the boy scouts ?

 

[johng]

Were you in the boy scouts ?

Well it was the Sea Scouts actually My son said it felt like we were on a Top Gear road trip (I am about the same size as Richard Hammond).

 

[Roscobbc]

John did you get that Chevy V6 sorted in your boat?
Over on Rods N Sods forum for sale is a Mercruiser 305 V8 complete and just out of a boat with 560 hours use. No price on it.....upgrade for your boat?

 

[johng]

Well it's still running and still knocking. We are coming to the conclusion that it's a small end and are hoping it won't explode before the end of the summer! I think we will fit a reconditioned short, or possibly a long, block over the winter. I'm not sure if a V8 would fit in the boat (I've never seen one of mine with a V8 in it) and it would presumably need a new exhaust (which aren't cheap) and also I don't know if my drive leg would fit or be able to take the extra power.