Sump disaster!!!

[JP]

Driving home tonight on little B roads I must have gone over a large rock. The loud bang was shortly followed by a smell of burning oil and an slow drop in oil pressure. I stopped and looked (in the dark) I thought I must have cracked the sump. Once I was towed home (good AA service) I had a good look. It looks like there is a crack in the leading edge of the oil filter adaptor (oil is still dripping v. slowly.

Is this a Caterham part or can I just go to my local Rover (1.6KSS) dealer? It looks like the unit is held on by 4 bolts. Can I just unbolt these, bin it and replace ?gasket and part or is there anything more complex I should know?

(Although there are a number of scrapes on the sump I think it is intact.)

Help please,

James.

[Bob Corb]

You have mail.

 

Merry Christmas (its come early)

 

BC

[stevefoster]

I hope you are right and you have a lucky escape of needing

a sump fix or a new one. The sumps are pretty tough.

Jason cloughted his so hard it unshipped his engine mounts on the Haggis trip.

[oilyhands]

Although the housing simply unbolts bear in mind that one of the oil galleries (the return to the pump housing/main feed) is shifting filtered oil directly to the bearings, if you do remove the housing and replace it *absolute cleanliness* is essential, any foreign material which inadvertantly gets into the oil gallery will likely wreck your bearings.

 

It's a standard Rover part BTW.

 

Oily

[Bob Corb]

JP

 

For info I ran the new filter housing through a degreasing tank, then washed it out in a hot rinse tank and finally blew it dry with an air line so it should be totally clean.

 

Hope it all fits well.

 

Bob

[JP]

Bob,

Thanks for the housing you're a life saver!

Once I'd removed the old one the full extent of the damage was obvious - as well as the cracks it was bent so that the mating face with the filter was oval shape.

I had a few moments of swearing when I filled the engine switched on and the needle on the guage hardly moved. Bugger no oil pressure I thought (for about 5 minutes). More swearing, and more swearing - then noticed I was looking at the temp guage! Car runs perfectly.

Cheers everyone for your words of advice.

James.