Finishing the Leak Cures

I managed to refit the oil pump and sump this afternoon, making best use of the fair weather (laying on your back in puddles of rain water is not condusive to a high standard of workmanship). I also took a close look at the bottom end of the dipstick before fitting the sump, and the “MIN” mark is indeed at the level of the sump/ladder joint, so filling to the “MAX” mark has definitely been over-filling the engine. Whether this mis-indication is due to me straightening the dipstick tube or whether it’s down to some other error I don’t know, but at least the issue has been found and corrections can be made.

I also applied some PTFE plumbing tape to the oil pressure gauge’s capilary tube union on the filter housing port T-piece and fitted new washers to the oil pressure warning light switch to stop two very minor leaks from the T-piece. With the sump refilled with semi-synthetic oil, all that’s needed on the engine is to reset the injection timing, while I can still tip the engine to use the flywheel timing tool.