It is certainly interesting how the oil filling instructions change over time. With the early small gearbox engines ie FV, LM, SJM, the poor maintenance/understanding by owners of the gearbox lubrication is possibly the biggest problem in the refurbishment of these early engines. Most of the gearboxes that I have seen from these engines have significant gear and bearing problems. Perhaps the horizontal filling was a sensible attempt by BS in improving the reliability of the oil filling process by unskilled owners.
Gearbox oil, as John suggests, does certainly seem to get everywhere, although I find that the messiest problem when transporting the engine in the car boot after a run is the large glob of dirty oil from the exhaust rather than gearbox oil. This dirty oil seems to continue to dribble out for ages. Perhaps the 10:1 engines are worse in this respect than the later 25:1?
Charles. You asked what edition of the Operating Instructions I was quoting, in which it stated:- ‘Lay the engine on the floor with the tank downwards, remove the plug , and fill to overflowing’. It was the 8th edition. On the front cover, there is a number 1-55. This might possibly refer to Jan 1955. As the booklet covers FV, FVP, LS, SJM & SJP, it might possibly have been produced for the introduction of the SJM/SJP in 1955.
Jeremy
forty water circulation no 2
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