Drove it earlier today and starting got worse. I could hear the pinion spinning out on the flywheel and had to give it some gas to get it started. Pulled the starter and took it in to the parts store to have it checked and it's toast. Clutch not engaging the pinion. Picking up the new starter tomorrow.

There is definitely an oil leak coming from the rear crank seal. I didn't see any oil coming from it when I pulled the cover during my flywheel drama. I pulled the inspection cover again today to check the flywheel and there was oil at the bottom of the bell housing and the bottom of the round metal piece (?) where the flywheel is mounted to the crank. It's leaking about 10-15 drops from the inspection cover after about 20 min. of driving.

Local muffler shop will weld the flange for $20, I just have to remove the assembly and take it in. Ordering new studs, nuts and flange gaskets.

Good times!

 

Your doing all the right things to make it reliable, safe and drip free. You'll get there. The rear main seal is a bugger. For me it's the point at which I decide to rebuild or let this truck go......

 

Thanks for that. I don't have the cajones or the $$$ to do a rear main seal job... yet. It's not that bad for now but if it gets worse, other threads here have suggested a bottle of Blue Devil followed by a 200 mile road trip. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. So...

I'm finally getting to the driver side rocker cleanup, and the plenum cover is RTVd all to hell and stuck. I've tried rocking it back and forth, some light blows with a rubber mallet, light blows with the mallet to a block of wood, light blows to a plastic RTV scraper blade (ironically), and the damned thing won't budge. I have chisels and large screwdrivers but I'm afraid of damaging the mating surfaces...

UPDATE: Finally got it loose. Some good blows with a framing hammer to a short block of 2x4 at the front corners of the plenum cover did the trick. Moving forward...

 

Well, here we go. I cleaned up the driver side really good (it was worse than the passenger side as you predicted), flushed the cooling system and refilled it, switched to the Rotella Synthetic 5W/40 Diesel, and replaced the starter which was dead. Ran the truck for two or three days, and...

Oil light is still coming on after 10-15 minutes but the temp has been in the upper 90s, close to 100 today. Plus...

I suddenly had a lot of trouble starting it today. Starter was turning over fine and the engine would barely crank. Took several tries with giving it gas until it finally started, then got it home, shut it down and tried restarting, and the same thing. Starter turning but the engine won't crank over enough, and after several tries there was suddenly smoke coming from the handbrake cable. Now the cable is shot because it probably got too hot, and the truck will not start.

I did some reading here on possible grounding issues, and one thing I'm wondering... Pulling the lower radiator hose to drain the coolant results in coolant draining all over the front frame exactly where the neg battery cable grounds to the frame, so I'll clean that connection. But I'm going to pull the fan and the inspection cover first and make sure the crank is able to turn. I'll double check and clean the cable connections to the starter and hope that solves the problem.

Also hooked up my neighbor's code reader and it's throwing P1316 with no other fault codes.

Any other suggestions?...

 

And there are ground straps from engine to frame, I'd make sure those are in top shape as well. If you find the copper wire corroded cut the old ring terminal off, cut wire back and put on a new ring terminal. Use dielectric grease between ring terminal and clean ground then coat with anti-corrosion spray. The block to frame are woven, usually aluminum but I've used copper to replace them.

As far as the oil light, man it bugs me, that's 8 psi and below, barely enough to keep metal from metal contact. Do you own or can you borrow a set of calipers, preferably with a dial? I had similar problems and decided to check my connecting rod bearings and found them extremely worn, down to copper. I checked the journal size and found them worn to next size under - perfect. A little micro polishing, new bearings and for over 6 years no oil light when warm. Just do one. The cap bolts are one use only so you'll need at least two to replace. It took me a couple of hours under the truck to do all eight, another couple to do the mains. Done. What kills sleeve bearings is the carbon you found on top of the motor, that and neglected oil changes.

 

Not sure if this is relevant, but I hooked up my neighbor's code reader and it threw fault code P1316 and no other codes.

I've never used a set of calipers or one with a dial. What should I look for at the parts store? Maybe I can rent one? Another big learning curve.

Connecting rod bearings... do you mean the crank bearings? If so, the PO did the crank bearings including the big end. Or am I looking for something completely different?

UPDATE: I looked them up on a couple of Rover parts sites and they're the same bearings the PO replaced... listed as .10 over, .20 over and standard.

 

Excess Emissions Misfire Fault, probably from the gas pedal attack. Check your tabs and the crank sensor again, make sure everything is up to par. The heat seems to be killing your truck apparently. Rovers and heat are not friends.

Do you know how long ago the crank bearings where replaced and do you know if the crank was reground as well? I was talking about those.

 

Just loosened the serpentine belt and turned the crank and it seems to turn fine. Not sure that reveals anything or not. And I was just under the truck looking for the engine grounds and couldn't see any (where are those?) and I noticed the crank sensor has some oil on it dripping down from the back of the head... either the head or the valley pan gasket is leaking. There's also a leak at the front passenger side of either the head or valley pan just below the alternator bracket. But that's yet another issue.

The PO had the truck for about two years so he had to have done the bearings in that time frame. I don't know if he had the crank reground, but I can ask him tomorrow as I've been in contact with him.

 

Well, finally around 1am I got it to start without a problem. Apparently it was a grounding issue but I'll know more tomorrow as it's supposed to hit 100 again, and we'll see if it's not a hot starting issue. If it is, I'm guessing the crank sensor. As I mentioned earlier it had some oil on it from either the head or the valley pan. I cleaned the plug with electric cleaner and put a fresh dab of dielectric grease on it before reconnecting, so hopefully it's okay. The magnet and the flywheel pins were all straight.

The negative battery cable to the chassis had a little corrosion at the chassis terminal, probably from when I flushed the cooling system. I wire brushed the terminal and chassis mount and put some dielectric grease on it and reconnected. That helped the starting issue somewhat.

Then I pulled the ground strap from starter to chassis and it was pretty frayed and dirty... and bent 90* at the starter terminal which happened when I replaced the starter. I replaced the strap with a fresh insulated copper cable with female terminals on both ends, wire brushed the chassis mount, greased it and connected it... and the truck started right up. So that was the weak link... I hope.

Again I'll know more after driving it in the heat tomorrow. This Rover is just like my mom and my sister. It can't stand the heat. Time to consider moving back to San Diego if I wanna keep driving it.

 

Can't win an argument either.......

That's good news, man, nobody I know keeps at like you do and my hat's off to ya for hang'n in there when the chips are down.