Good to see it back on the road

 

… on proper Mondial Wheels!!!!

 

So you have managed the impossible---found a GEMs era RR with a working sunroof. Do yourself a favor, find that fuse & pull it b/c they will break...and usually break when open.

Gamblers are fun, but you (and I know you know this) are dancing with fire here. P38s do not do well driven slow---i'd spend $200 and get a 16" puller fan & make sure that radiator has plenty of airflow......then again if it is original, well another impossibility b/c these explode with regularity.

Coils you are fine.

You want it for more than Gambler order a Mobi device out of Australia & you'll avoid superlockout forever, and be able to basically keep it going.

And if you really want it for a while, a used nanocom for $300 or so (and you'll get same back when you sell) will save you years of WTF about these rigs.s

Let me know if you want to pull the EAS block + pump + master brake cylinder/control unit from your part vehicle and sell them. But if you are going to keep this one, do the $150 rebuild of your master cyclinder else you WILL have catastrophic brake failure in your somewhat immediate future.

P38s are fun.

 

Great input Shiraz! Thanks much!

How does the moonroof break? Can it be serviced or repaired? I have rebuilt Lexus moonroofs and am comfortable with them. I'll have more questions in my next post with more about the Gambler and my plans for these P38s.

I had no idea these were such pains to keep cool, but I guess I'm learning the hard way. To start I overheated it while offroad and taking the pics I posted before; I didn't seat a compression ring and blew a hose. Bad enough it had already been having coolant smell under hard use. I got it back home and it appeared to be fine until I attempted to go pick up a car; I made it about 5 miles towing an empty car trailer before it consumed a majority of the coolant and kicked off. We swapped vehicles and I trailered it home. Then on the drive to my shop it blew coolant out the back of the head gasket on the LH side. As if by magic my temperature gauge started working again too. I let it cool down, filled it back up, and drove it the 10 miles at highway speeds without overheating or losing coolant.

So I guessed that the head gasket failed. And I'm pretty sure it had blown previously and been sealed with a bottle treatment. As one can see in the pictures, I found some coppery looking gunk all in different parts of the coolant system.

I've never done this sort of thing before, but I guess I'm competent. I followed all the instructions in RAVE and did the job. The rockers were all coked up and some of the head bolts on the LH side were very loose. I cleaned everything off with diesel and carb cleaner and "hand-polished" everything as I put it back together.

I had one snag that held me up for 5 damn days! I found that the little cooler plate under the intake was a gunk trap, and how TF a paper gasket is expected to act as a partition is beyond me. So I deleted it! After reassembly I couldn't get a smooth idle and had a noticeable whistling. A fairly obvious intake leak. So I spent 5 days checking and rechecking hoses and seals, thought it was my IAVC or EVAP hose, until I decided to pull the intake plenum off and inspect it. ONE OF THE DAMN BOLTS IN THE COOLER PLATE WENT ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE PLENUM JUST INSIDE THE DAMN IAVC CAVITY. So I bolted the plate back on, but left the coolant rerouted. Started up and runs great.

AND OH BOY DOES IT RUN! After less than 150 miles of break-in, I put about 800 miles on it in 3 days for the 2019 Oregon Gambler 500! It was mostly highway miles, but I kicked up plenty of dust! I crossed some serious areas. Places other Gamblers feared to tread. It performed stupendously!

I HAD 2 original radiators, but one cracked during an off-road shakedown after the head gasket job. Then I broke it while carrying it as a spare to the Oregon Gambler 500. THREW THE WHOLE LOADED ROOF RACK OFF!

Here's a few pics of the head gasket job. Gambler pics coming soon!


Heavily coked LH head

Heavily coked RH head

RH block before cleaning (no after)

LH block before cleaning

The failure point on the head gasket

Coppery sludge from coolant passages

Some coppery sediment in a coolant pipe

The gross cooler plate on the underside of the intake plenum; notice the coppery gunk

LH block after cleaning

LH head cleaned and installed

RH head all clean and installed

All back together

cracked radiator

JB weld for plastics didn't hold well

The other one has less of a leak at the sides of the inlet and the repair holds better

Breather nipple broke off on both

1st attempt on cracked radiator

Nipple repair on 2nd radiator using standard JB weld (post Gambler pic)