I’ve been making some good progress on the bodywork over the last few days, but fitting the offside rear wing has just taken me a full weekend of painting and welding, and it’s still not yet completely welded up – will do a complete update on that when it’s finally done.
Whilst I’m working from home full-time during this lockdown business I’m somewhat enjoying the ability to spend my lunch hours doing smaller jobs on the car – a bit of a silver lining in an otherwise terrible situation I guess. So here’s a quick post on one of those smaller jobs.
As mentioned in my previous V8 conversion planning post, my V8 engine came without the required “low profile” SD1 type sump that I’m going to need in order for it to fit my car. The seller did give me the original Range Rover sump to transport it with however, but unfortunately although this type of sump does have the right side profile needed to clear the MGB crossmember, the shape and bolt pattern at the front do not match the SD1 front cover assembly, so cannot be used without modification.
Fortunately I managed to source an original SD1 sump on eBay for under £50, along with all the other (unique and seemingly unavailable new) parts required to complete the installation. The photo at the top of the page shows the Range Rover P38 sump (top) alongside the SD1 sump (bottom) for reference.
Here’s the replacement sump mocked up in position to check fitment. It has a few battle scars and needed a re-paint, but it was in very good serviceable condition overall.
Here’s a close-up of the windage tray and oil strainer assembly in position. This engine originally used a different oil strainer design in the Range Rover application, but fortunately for me the block casting still retains the original position and threaded holes needed to fit this older type of strainer.
I thoroughly degreased the whole pan and then sanded it right back to bare metal. It has a few dents, and was slightly rusted and pitted on the outside, but once treated to a few coats of zinc-rich primer and high temperature chassis black paint it has come up almost as good as new.
So that’s one more important part crossed off the list, ready to fit at some distant point in the future.
