Paul LeClair newest project July 2023

[Andy J]

It's not hard to comply, and it's dangerous not to. It doesn't take much exposure to cause profound issues years later.

Too right, you could ask my father in law - if he was still alive.

 

[chrisk]

Too right, you could ask my father in law - if he was still alive.

Mate of mine went toes up last year from it. He used it lagging machines from heat as an apprentice.

73, dead dead.

I guess the job of cutting up little frisbees for use under the Bunsen burners in science classes at skool isn’t a way to skip class anymore and aren’t even used anymore either

 

[Paul LeClair]

If the body is knackered anyway, can you not simply cut it away in pieces, saving any good bits such as doors, rear hatch, etc. for sale later? No need to lift anything that way. Forgive me if you've already embarked on such a plan and I missed it somewhere amongst the thread posts.

That method is not so helpful when it comes time to drop your good body over the re-furbished engine/chassis.

Hi Cam

back from holidays, now 20 or so so hours into Range Rover engine removal process without removing body, liberal use of oxy acetylene torch to clear bent frame members and other impediments. Bloody hell, this vehicel is assembled like a complicated puzzle. Little working room or clearance, my hat is off to those who service these things profesionally.

I should have the motor out on Saturday. While it is outI will replace spark plugs, belts, hoses, etc, al the stuff that is really tough to access otherwise, then load the engine into my trailer and deliver it to the shop I have found to install the engine into my 2012.

I am satisfied that I am still capable of doing the engine swap myself. Twenty years ago, maybe ten years ago, maybe even a couple of years ago before my pancreatic cancer surgery, I would still have charged ahead even without a proper lift. Now, having taken out the engine myself from the damaged parts donor I bought, I will hand over the next steps to a properly equipped shop and go for a motorycle ride or three while the shop completes the swap......,

 

[piranha-bro2]

Holy shyz! Rather you than me Paul!

 

[Steve G.]

I work on Range Rovers once or twice a month.
There seems to be no regard in their general engineering design to minor or major repair or maintenance. Technicians walk fast or run away when one rolls in for repair. Everything takes twice as long to do compared to BMW or MB, and centuries longer than Toyotas or Hondas. Much head shaking and eyes rolling are part of the experience.

 

[Alzero]

What do you expect from a country that once had “fitter” as a job description. A man whose task was to take new replacement parts and using files and other tools alter them to fit where they were supposed to be installed. When the Packard Merlin arrived in the UK, the technicians maintaining them were stunned to discover that repair parts could be taken out of the box and mounted directly onto the engine. Rolls Royce cars were handmade because they hadn’t yet mastered interchangeable parts.

 

[CLEMTOG]

oy you carefull, the UK Ford built Merlins and Griffons were the dogs danglies, the RR built ones (Crew/Doncaster) ?????
I still want one working or not.
CLEM

 

[GregT]

oy you carefull, the UK Ford built Merlins and Griffons were the dogs danglies, the RR built ones (Crew/Doncaster) ?????
I still want one working or not.
CLEM

Keen motorcyclist friend of mine - and engineer for the local Harbour Board - helped his brother in law emigrate here from the UK. BiL came ex Rolls Royce where he'd worked for years. One of the things he brought out was a large chest of hand scrapers. My friend took one look at it and immediately told BiL "You won't need that here, you've wasted your money" Quite true. Last i heard was they were on display in the Air Force Museum.

 

[Vince]

I don't know, a building I did maintenance on did a full refurb on the 4 elevators they had. Everybody was complaining about how long it took till it was explained that they were so old the main bearing they ran was the poured type that then had to be hand scraped, some old bloke came out of retirement to do it. They couldn't find anyone else.

 

[Paul LeClair]

I work on Range Rovers once or twice a month.
There seems to be no regard in their general engineering design to minor or major repair or maintenance. Technicians walk fast or run away when one rolls in for repair. Everything takes twice as long to do compared to BMW or MB, and centuries longer than Toyotas or Hondas. Much head shaking and eyes rolling are part

Hi Steve

not sure if the Range Rover is over or under engineered. Beautiful to drive, the interior is spectacular, the sound system is over the top, and the 510 hp is interesting. But, the list of known mechanical issues is long, servicing is stupid difficult (no access from underneath to any oil drain plug, to do an oil change have to vacuum suction oil out from the top of the engine....) parts prices are ridiculous., and to remove the engine the bloody entire body is supposed to be lifted off.

engine is now ready to be lifted out the front with the body still on. I now have about 30 hours in, some with the plasma arc, oxy acetylene, and Sawzall cutting out all the bent and obstructing crap, a lot removing stuff to get at the stuff that needs to be disconnected to remove the engine. Just getting to the engine mounts was stupidly time consuming. I left for last the unbolting of the torque convertor to the flywheel as to get to the access point into the junction of the engine and transmission to get a wrench on the torque convertor bolts, the active hydraulic sway bar that covers that entire area must come out, To get the sway bar out you have to remove a frame section and dis-assemble the entire suspension on both sides to free the sway bar. Just to get at the torque converter bolts, unbelievable...... i just finished all that and torque convertor is now disconnected, but it was an ugly job done in a home garage lying flat on my back.

I have a pile of removed plastic covers, formed aluminum shields, heavy duty skid plates, plus the hood, crushed front bumper assemblies, bent frame rails and thick sheet steel, crushed fender and fender well, radiator assemblies and mountings, etc,. etc.. towering in my driveway pissing off the neighbours. As the Range Rover with the toasted motor is the only vehicle I own with a trailer hitch, I can't even haul the trailer loads of scrap to the dump until the swap is finished

what I had not thought through until earlier today is that once I lift the motor out tomorrow and load it into my trailer and strap it in, I don't have a vehicle to pull the trailer to the shop doing the engine swap, bloody hell.... Will have to borrow a tow vehicle. I was threatening to fit a trailer hitch to the 79 Lincoln Mark 5 project but it is not quite finished, the muffler shop did a great job fitting a full new exhaust system which then revealed one of the exhaust manifolds is cracked, which i will deal with once the Range Rover motor goes to the shop.....

I did pretty much ruin the big welding blanket I Iwas using for shielding while cutting, lots of sparks and flames and hot metal flying around. I did manage not to set the garage on fire with the oxy acetylene and the plasma arc so did not have to break out the fancy fire extinguishers I have littered all around the garage.

ps the inexpensive Chinese made 50 amp plasma arc is the best cool new toy I have acquired in years, although I did have to add an additional 50 amp breaker and additional outlet to run the thing. I can think of lots of further uses for the plasma arc, although the oxy acetylene may still be more versatile. We will see how long the $450 Chinese made plasma arc lasts, so far it has worked pretty much as well as the name brand $3,500 plasma arc machines I have used in the past

Paul LeClair

 

[chrisk]

Keen motorcyclist friend of mine - and engineer for the local Harbour Board - helped his brother in law emigrate here from the UK. BiL came ex Rolls Royce where he'd worked for years. One of the things he brought out was a large chest of hand scrapers. My friend took one look at it and immediately told BiL "You won't need that here, you've wasted your money" Quite true. Last i heard was they were on display in the Air Force Museum.

I don’t know what a hand scrapper is, or used for …. Please explain

 

[Vince]

There like Metal chistles, and it scrapes very fine material away. Doing bearing housings requires assembly and blueing that reveals the high spots and away you go, or so I am told. There are wood scapers as well, they look like a rectangular piece of steel, you develop a burr on one of the long edges, and you hold it in 2 hands perpendicular to the surface flexing it and rubbing away, they're particularly useful for removing blemishes in the middle of a veneer. They can take tiny shaving off, the old boys would wet a rag, lay it on a blemish raising the grain and scrap away. I am 65 and there wouldn't be many younger than that who had ever heard of either tools.

 

[Exmoor beast]

There like Metal chistles, and it scrapes very fine material away. Doing bearing housings requires assembly and blueing that reveals the high spots and away you go, or so I am told. There are wood scapers as well, they look like a rectangular piece of steel, you develop a burr on one of the long edges, and you hold it in 2 hands perpendicular to the surface flexing it and rubbing away, they're particularly useful for removing blemishes in the middle of a veneer. They can take tiny shaving off, the old boys would wet a rag, lay it on a blemish raising the grain and scrap away. I am 65 and there wouldn't be many younger than that who had ever heard of either tools.

My old mate Reg used to apply lead and hand scrape Bearings in old cars, not many can do it now.

 

[GregT]

Vince is correct - but to put it in Anzac terms, the poms couldn't make things to close tolerances so everything was hand scraped until it was "just right".
WW2 war in the air was won when a yank at Packard redrew the Merlin so it could be made on automatic machinery to correct tolerances.
No hand labour needed to correct the fits so production went much quicker. Hence more planes in the air.
By the time my friend's bro in law came out here scraping bearings was definitely a thing of the past.

 

[Steve G.]

Hi Steve

not sure if the Range Rover is over or under engineered. Beautiful to drive, the interior is spectacular, the sound system is over the top, and the 510 hp is interesting. But, the list of known mechanical issues is long, servicing is stupid difficult (no access from underneath to any oil drain plug, to do an oil change have to vacuum suction oil out from the top of the engine....) parts prices are ridiculous., and to remove the engine the bloody entire body is supposed to be lifted off.

engine is now ready to be lifted out the front with the body still on. I now have about 30 hours in, some with the plasma arc, oxy acetylene, and Sawzall cutting out all the bent and obstructing crap, a lot removing stuff to get at the stuff that needs to be disconnected to remove the engine. Just getting to the engine mounts was stupidly time consuming. I left for last the unbolting of the torque convertor to the flywheel as to get to the access point into the junction of the engine and transmission to get a wrench on the torque convertor bolts, the active hydraulic sway bar that covers that entire area must come out, To get the sway bar out you have to remove a frame section and dis-assemble the entire suspension on both sides to free the sway bar. Just to get at the torque converter bolts, unbelievable...... i just finished all that and torque convertor is now disconnected, but it was an ugly job done in a home garage lying flat on my back.

I have a pile of removed plastic covers, formed aluminum shields, heavy duty skid plates, plus the hood, crushed front bumper assemblies, bent frame rails and thick sheet steel, crushed fender and fender well, radiator assemblies and mountings, etc,. etc.. towering in my driveway pissing off the neighbours. As the Range Rover with the toasted motor is the only vehicle I own with a trailer hitch, I can't even haul the trailer loads of scrap to the dump until the swap is finished

what I had not thought through until earlier today is that once I lift the motor out tomorrow and load it into my trailer and strap it in, I don't have a vehicle to pull the trailer to the shop doing the engine swap, bloody hell.... Will have to borrow a tow vehicle. I was threatening to fit a trailer hitch to the 79 Lincoln Mark 5 project but it is not quite finished, the muffler shop did a great job fitting a full new exhaust system which then revealed one of the exhaust manifolds is cracked, which i will deal with once the Range Rover motor goes to the shop.....

I did pretty much ruin the big welding blanket I Iwas using for shielding while cutting, lots of sparks and flames and hot metal flying around. I did manage not to set the garage on fire with the oxy acetylene and the plasma arc so did not have to break out the fancy fire extinguishers I have littered all around the garage.

ps the inexpensive Chinese made 50 amp plasma arc is the best cool new toy I have acquired in years, although I did have to add an additional 50 amp breaker and additional outlet to run the thing. I can think of lots of further uses for the plasma arc, although the oxy acetylene may still be more versatile. We will see how long the $450 Chinese made plasma arc lasts, so far it has worked pretty much as well as the name brand $3,500 plasma arc machines I have used in the past

Paul LeClair

The Lincoln would be a great trailer puller!!

 

[Paul LeClair]

The Lincoln would be a great trailer puller!!

Hi Steve

Lincoln is almost done, has been around a laundry list of specialist shops from differential to exhaust etc., is expected to be finished end of this week, when I will run the carpet and upholstery cleaning machine on the complete interior, and then the ozone generator. Then subject to putting some shakedown miles on and figuring out a decent sound system/apple car play system to install in it, it should be a driver. If everything works out I likely will install a trailer hitch on it, tickles my fancy as an occassional tow vehicle.

I now have the engine out of the 2013 Range Rover Sport Supercharged. See photos attached. When I did get the engine out, I then couldn't move the parts vehicle out of my garage after I had to take the suspension off to get at the torque convertor bolts, and I wanted my garage bay back. I had to hire a tow truck to haul the parts donor out of my single garage bay and place it in my driveway. As I had to have the tow truck come out anyway and it turns out the engine is ridiculously heavy, I also paid the tow truck driver to deliver the donor engine to the shop that will now do the transplant into my 2012, which I also had the same tow truck pick up and deliver to the shop today.

It turns out it is possible for a determined home mechanic to remove a Supercharged 5 liter V8 Range Rover engine, and do it without removing the body. I suspect my home garage may be better equipped than some, with heavy reliance on high torque air tools, socket extension bars and swivel joints, and some specialty tools, etc. but I did it with only floor jacks and a portable 2 ton engine crane.

Although I have now fully covered the parts donor in the driveway with a large car cover, I have already had two different old biddy neighbours at the door asking about how long the vehicle is likely to be in the driveway, and I chased them both away........ I am expecting another visit by a city bylaw officer yet again but the car is on my private property and is well covered. I have ads running for resale of various parts from the parts donor, looking to recoup some of my costs. I suspect city bylaw officers can't do anything about it, but I will put up a fight if they try. I am now going to strip off any and all high value parts, then after I have it stripped I will have the carcass towed away when I am done.

in summary of my experience with finding and buying a parts donor vehicle for a very expensive replacement engine, dealing with all the towing, and spending likely all in close to 40 hours of my own time in my home garage taking the engine out, the mechanical work has been a lifelong hobby, I enjoyed the experience and proving to myself I could still do it, and I would probably do it again. That being said, preferably not another overcomplicated and unfriendly Range Rover, bloody hell....................

Paul

 

[piranha-bro2]

You amaze me Paul! Bloody good effort to even CONSIDER tackling that - I'm shying away from even changing the oil in the Skoda!

As for the neighbours ... what can we say?! Sound like some uppity bunch of elitist losers! Maybe invite the local biker gang to move in for a week or two next time you holiday and see how they like that! As for the bylaw dudes, you obviously remembered that you're a lawyer as well as a dab hand with a spanner

 

[GregT]

One thing life has taught me is never live next door to a lawyer. You'll never, EVER win an argument.

Well done indeed Paul.

 

[Vince]

Karens, there everywhere and multiplying like rats.

 

[Paul LeClair]

some of the nastier neighbours are quite literally "little old ladies" who have lived in their houses since they were built in the early 1960's. I have tried everything to build bridges and mend fences, including running my big motorized snow blower the full length of my streets sidewalk, both sides, after heavy snowfall in the winter, doing the sidewalks for about 20 houses. Rather than a thank you, one of the old biddies cornered me at a neighbourhood event earlier in the summer to complain to me that I didn't get out with the snowblower quickly enough after a snowfall.......

we do have some really decent nice neighbours as well, but as I now know a couple of the city bylaw officers by sight and name after being repeatedly complained about to the city, I am getting a bit grumpy about a couple of the little old ladies.