138 grey, how much water does the sump hold?

[John]

Answer, A fair bloody bit

The "going concern" 138 I bought was close to firing up for the first time. Wound it over with the dissy cap off to make sure we had spark e.t.c when I noticed what I first thought was oil running out of the rear seal.
I thought maybe the sump gasket has the issue so I decided to drain the new oil back out of it and pull the sump off. When I undid the drain plug out came a huge amount of water.Then a mixture of water and oil, then oil.

So, either I pull her out and do a full rebuild, pull the head off and hopefully its just a head gasket, or do i drop in a red?

So, how was everyone elses weekend

[Harv]

Damn, sounds like a 138 grey will hold about the same amount of water as a 327 Chev does when the previous owner hasn't tightened the head bolts (don't ask me how I know ).

Head gasket, or from memory the welsh plugs behind the sideplate could do the same.

New head gasket, refill with water and see if the sump fills overnight. Drain, drain, drain, run the oil pump up with a drill to flush the bearings out, then fire her up. Drain again after cooldown. Repeat. Change oil. Worked OK for the Chev (same "built so you can't kill it" school as the grey design).

Cheers,
Harv.

[bootlegger]

How long had the engine been full of water. Whenever I've sunk a boat I've drained the oil out then filled the sump with metho. Drain again. Fill with fresh oil warm it up and drain again then put new oil in again.
This is for engines that have just been dunked.
If its been siting for a while I would pull it out and check it. Somethings not right if it just filled up on its own.

[MeFB]

Ouch

Not one of life's nicer surprises! Hope it's something 'simple' like a head gasket.

[Thommo]

Whenever I've sunk a boat.........

I like they way you just causally mentioned that, as if its just a normal thing
So how many times is it now

[Mick]

i've got one for you tim had a grey motor pistons were marked standard (size) put new head gasket water dissapeared into sump another head gasket same thing more investigation found a split bore how do you end up with a split bore with standard pistons when they are standard 161 red motor pistons only figured it out after talking to a mates old man that had had hotty FJs

[Mick]

apparently based on my mates dad it was reasonably common he said straight away what it was and to look for split bore or bores, kinda like boreing a 307 chev out to 4" you can do it but gotta hope there was no core shift etc

[Mick]

yep I had a grey with 151 Zephyr Pistons in it. Most people reckon 149 red is the largest to use, probably for that reason

but the world of modified motors just gotta try that little bit more