Oil Change for ‘t Kreng

Found some time and motivation to start on a somewhat belated general service for ‘t Kreng. My heavily modified Sprint engined FHC TR7. First job was an engine and gearbox oil change plus an oil level check of the back axle. So after ordering the necessary oil, I “booked” one of the 4 poster lifts at a friend’s workshop, to make life a bit easier!

For the oil I went for my usual choice of Valvoline VR1 Racing 20W-50 for the engine and fully synthetic Castrol Transmax Manual 75W-90 for the gear box. For topping up the back axle (with a Quaife ATB diff) I used the also fully synthetic Castrol Syntrax Universal Plus 75W-90. I used this oil when I changed the oil in 2012. The engine oil filter as ever a cheap and readily available Bosch P2056 spin on filter.

With the car on the lift it was rather straightforward. Added bonus of working in a fully equipped work shop has the advantage that small parts like sealing rings for the various fill and drain plugs are readily available. But there is also proper equipment to collect the old oil and oil filter without making an oily mess of it!

Draining the engine and gearbox oil was straight forward. As was the removal of the old oil filter, using the correct tool. The oil level in the back axle turned out to be slightly over the mark, so didn’t need topping up.

But that’s where the “disadvantage” of being a friendly workshop showed itself. I was not the only one that was using it. So by the time I had finished my work on ‘t Kreng, the work on this rather lovely Jaguar wasn’t finished yet. Time for some more coffee!

So it was a little later than expected that I returned home. On the scenic drive home the car behaved rather well though there again was the small hint that I need to address some oxidation in the wiring. Some connectors and earth points to be more precise. At a traffic light the engine’s revs briefly dropped below their normal value, and the low coolant light briefly flickered into action. So just to be sure, on returning home I did check the water pump area. It was bone dry! But there was a slight hissing sound somewhere near the header tank. Turned out to be coming from the left hand top corner of the radiator. So it is now official. After almost 30 years of faithful service the radiator has sprung a leak. Luckily it is a very, very tiny leak so far, so no priority there. But fitting a new radiator is now slowly making its way up the to-do-list!

As can be seen in the picture above, of the area where the leak is, there is hardly a sign of coolant leaking. There’s only a tiny damp area visible. Something to keep an eye on.