Inspected the oil pump and all seems well. Put it back together, packed with Vaseline and got the water pump mounted on the front cover. Looked more carefully at the exhaust gaskets and they were both in pretty bad shape, so I got those ordered. I guess because it wasn't in the AB video on head gaskets about the valve seals, I just assumed there wasn't anything to do to them. Looks like I'll be picking up a valve removal tool from Harbor Freight so we can replace those seals. Hoping to make a lot of progress by the end of the weekend. Now that the injector and valve seals are accounted for, that covers a lot of my questions. When we get further along I'm sure I'll have questions about the remaining gaskets. Truly appreciate you guys!

 

Respect on the valve seals. I didn't have consumption problem so I left those seals in the box. I'm not trying to talk you out of it, just that the valve seals were more of a master class than I wanted on this old V8. Injector seals I will try and talk you out of. Since you don't have to disturb them, if they weren't leaking previously I'm not sure it's worth doing it now (unless you already removed the rail from the lower intake mani). I'm sure I will get chided for suggesting this shortcut but in my experience injector seals rarely leak on their own. Admittedly I have very limited experience with Rover fuel rails so maybe it's a thing here. In any event it's not that difficult to do later if one does end up leaking, of course it's even less difficult to do now I suppose...

 

Agreed. Seals are probably there just in case injectors had to be removed along the way rather than being included as a prescription to replace preventatively.

 

Injector o-rings and filter caps are very easy, but you can buy a remanufactured Bosch set of 8 injectors for $60-$80 on ebay...worth doing.
Valves also come out easily, but the guides/seals are pressed in.

 

Nice work! Good luck with your weekend work!

 

Got a lot of ground covered this weekend. Went ahead and replaced both the valve seals and then injector o-rings. Was thinking I wasted my time on both at first, but the last valve seal was a bit screwy and the valve would not move freely at all in it. Slid perfectly with the new seal. O-rings on the injectors were definitely brittle although no sign of leaks. Got the heads on and all torqued up. Front cover back on, valve covers and the new coil packs/wires and plugs. Lot's of re-assembly left to do, but except for the oil pan, most of it is just bolting stuff back on! Hope to have it up and running by the end of the day on Saturday.

 

Good job and good thoughts on getting her fired up

 

Awesome! The home stretch. Good luck getting across the line.

 

Good news, bad news.... We got the engine put back together on Saturday and I was completely shocked that it cranked up with no issue and sounded great. However, apparently in our excitement we did not get the coolant system bled out properly and it started running hot....because that was the original problem and we had gotten accustomed to watching the temp closely, we immediately pulled over and bled some of the air out and cooled right back down. I think we have that taken care of now and there appear to be no coolant leaking anymore although that was an intermittent problem to begin with so I'll wait till we have had it on the road more to claim that problem solved.

The new problem is that the engine is now leaking oil where it was not originally (or not that I could tell with everything else going on). I'm not seeing anything obvious for the source, but it seems to end up on the passenger side exhaust, cross member and back of the oil pan and transmission. I see no leaks around the oil pan and nothing obvious anywhere else. I'm not spotting any sign of oil at the heads or above either, but there is a lot to try to look around.

 

@entjohnson bet you it is the valve cover gasket, take a look at the rear of the valve cover