As Good As She Looks ? Ford Capri Engine Health Check.

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:10]Heat up here.

[00:00:48]Oh, hello.

[00:00:50]Hi there, folks. Um, we have something else in the workshop.

[00:00:57]1981 Ford Capri that started life as a 3 L V6 and is now uh powered by the 3.5 L Rover V8. She's in for an engine health check. And uh yeah, let's take a closer look.

[00:01:19]So, this example belongs to a friend of mine and like me, he's had a few Capri and this one very presentable.

[00:01:34]Some subtle modifications, obviously the V8, but uh the wheels and the suspension's been uh improved.

[00:01:46]And generally she's she's a nice thing.

[00:01:50]She will sit well.

[00:01:54]Um today need to investigate some uh oil leaks which Yeah, I can see one down there already.

[00:02:10]But I think what I'm going to do is actually uh a compression test.

[00:02:16]and try and establish what condition this engine's in. So, yeah, let me uh lift the bonnet.

[00:02:30]There's the heart of the beast Rover V8 3.5 L.

[00:02:39]Um, this has been here in the workshop before and can be seen in uh some earlier videos. I'll put a link in the description.

[00:02:52]So, I think what we shall do is I'll give you a little look around the engine and then we shall pull the spare plugs, pull the carburetor throttle open, uh, and with no ignition do a compression test.

[00:03:13]So, here we have the little Rover V8.

[00:03:18]As you can see, she's got a four barrel cab. Um, I've taken the air filter off just so we can see things a bit better.

[00:03:26]Um, you see there's a pool of oil there.

[00:03:33]This gasket's wet.

[00:03:38]That screw, that hole goes straight into the rocker cover and that's letting oil past.

[00:03:49]Mhm.

[00:03:53]Oh yeah, the uh air filter itself.

[00:04:01]A lot of oil.

[00:04:09]And the same in the top of the careta.

[00:04:23]And also if you can see down there in down there. Can you see the oil?

[00:04:33]Well, that's blowing up through the distributor.

[00:04:37]Now, I did put a new distributor in this last year, and that one was, not this one, the old one was full of oil. So, I'm going to pull the cap and just see if any is making its way into it.

[00:04:52]Let's take a look.

[00:04:56]Oh [ __ ] that's wet through again.

[00:05:04]There's one way to create uh misfires.

[00:05:08]In fact, that central electrode on the rotor arm, that center part, that's already started tracking it here.

[00:05:20]Well, I shall show you underneath it the uh obvious oil leaks and uh yeah, compression test.

[00:05:31]So, here we are underneath.

[00:05:35]As you can see, that's some flux rather wet.

[00:05:41]Uh yeah, that's just overnight after it uh running for a short period.

[00:05:50]So yeah, it's it's definitely coming out of the sump gasket wet up there.

[00:06:09]Yeah, she's rather unconscious because that's losing oil and that's losing oil and that's losing oil and oh dear if you can see the car plug just up there beyond the to motor.

[00:06:34]Um, like plugs are becoming a thing.

[00:06:42]It's oily up there.

[00:06:53]He's blowing oil out of the Rora face and Can't see now.

[00:07:03]Yeah, that car plug is definitely on the piss, which makes you wonder if she's uh had a bit of frost damage.

[00:07:18]Yeah.

[00:07:28]Yeah, she's definitely incontinent.

[00:07:41]So, as you can see, she's blowing oil out of everywhere, folks.

[00:07:47]So, there's there's no way these are all unrelated gasket failures, I would say.

[00:07:53]There's um excessive pressure in the in the crank case.

[00:08:01]So on that bombshell, I think what we shall do is whip them spark plugs out and dig out the compression tester.

[00:08:13]Right, spark plugs removed as can be seen.

[00:08:20]And it should also be noted that you look down there 10.5 to one CR 10.5 to1 compression ratio which would make this an early example of the Rover V8. Um so yeah, this would have been fitted to either a P5B Rover or a P6.

[00:08:47]And yes, good points and bad points. Good points, high compression. Bad points, rope oil seals.

[00:08:57]Now, some people used to convert them.

[00:09:02]Maybe this one has, maybe it hasn't.

[00:09:05]If it hasn't, um, yeah, that's not going to help with the oil leaks. So, the spark plugs, yeah, they're not looking great.

[00:09:17]Um, yeah.

[00:09:24]A bit like it's burning oil to be fair.

[00:09:33]Right. Let's uh give it a compression check.

[00:09:40]Cabra is held wide open. Ignition coils disconnected. So, we can just crank it.

[00:09:46]So, let's get the uh tester in place.

[00:09:52]So, got the gauge set up on well, number two.

[00:09:56]Um, yeah, I'll set you up so you can see the gauge and we'll spin the engine over so we have four compression strokes on this cylinder and see what the reading is. Okay, gauge is there. Not the best view. Uh, let's give it a go.

[00:10:25]Sounded a bit fable. Let's have a look.

[00:10:34]120.

[00:10:37]I know. 130.

[00:10:40]Mhm.

[00:10:43]Next one.

[00:10:55]What we got there?

[00:11:06]142.

[00:11:07]I make it.

[00:11:11]Right. Next one.

[00:11:28]I'll make that about 128.

[00:11:34]All right, the last one on this uh even bank.

[00:11:43]Mhm.

[00:11:45]And the survey says 130.

[00:11:53]Right. Let's try a cylinder wall.

[00:12:09]And the survey says 129.

[00:12:21]Next And the survey says 130.

[00:12:45]And the next one And the survey says 131.

[00:13:12]Right. looking last.

[00:13:29]And the survey says, "Oh, um, yeah, that's the worst one by far."

[00:13:41]115 116 maybe.

[00:13:48]Right. This is uh just a little idea I had. See as I have this uh rather cheap camera.

[00:14:00]Let's just uh I don't know how well you can see the screen on that. One moment while I find the hole.

[00:14:26]That looks like a piston.

[00:14:34]No.

[00:14:37]M.

[00:14:53]All right. So, it's not the best camera.

[00:15:06]Yeah. Maybe we need to move the piston down a bit.

[00:15:14]That's suddenly quite clear.

[00:15:22]Mhm.

[00:15:31]I do question that side there.

[00:15:34]Just Here.

[00:15:39]That doesn't look good.

[00:15:45]It slipped out. Love.

[00:15:49]Yes, that does look a bit like detonation to me.

[00:15:55]Right. You go in there, right?

[00:16:06]U M U M U M U M U M U M U M U M U M U M Uhhuh. Guess that one's coming up then.

[00:16:09]That uh Let's just back it up a bit.

[00:16:44]Mhm.

[00:16:48]Yeah.

[00:17:14]Right, that's at the bottom.

[00:17:17]Peek.

[00:17:31]Here.

[00:18:01]Yeah.

[00:18:06]Do believe it's had some issue there.

[00:18:10]Hold on. Get the camera to point there.

[00:18:13]Oh, god's sake.

[00:18:19]Let's give it a bend.

[00:18:31]It's off.

[00:18:46]Yeah, there's definitely something going on at that side.

[00:18:52]Wish I could focus in on it.

[00:19:00]This definitely something going on there. I can see some scrapey lines. That's never good.

[00:19:09]Should have a look in a in another cylinder.

[00:19:14]So, here's the scoreboard. Uh we've just had a look in number seven.

[00:19:20]And we can see that there's damage in there. So, let's go for number six.

[00:19:33]I don't know how well you can see that.

[00:19:36]Um, let's see if we can get it in the in the cylinder.

[00:19:53]the white.

[00:20:00]Mhm.

[00:20:11]That's a valve. Um, you can see the sea doesn't look the best.

[00:20:33]Yeah. Let's uh move that one down to the bottom.

[00:20:49]Let's see if I can make it better for you guys to see.

[00:20:57]That's any good enough. anywhere.

[00:21:02]Going down. No, we're going up H.

[00:21:25]There she flies.

[00:21:30]Looks like there's pitting on the cylinder there.

[00:21:45]All right, let's have a little look.

[00:21:50]Don't know well that's showing up for you guys.

[00:22:04]H. Let me just turn that brightness up a bit.

[00:22:19]Little cylinders are knackered.

[00:22:23]Look at that. I don't know if you can see that guys. Might be a bit bright on your screen.

[00:22:34]Don't know if that shows up.

[00:22:39]Yeah, that's not looking good.

[00:22:55]Mhm.

[00:22:59]Right. One more.

[00:23:03]All right. Number four, which strangely had the highest compression.

[00:23:10]Uh Yeah, we have to drop the piston a bit.

[00:23:21]Let's just move it around if she flies.

[00:23:44]If you guys can see that.

[00:23:57]It's not the best.

[00:24:03]Right. Let's just have a little move around.

[00:24:20]Mhm.

[00:24:26]I mean, I can see horning marks there.

[00:24:59]Well, that looks quite a gap to me.

[00:25:06]But this one has the highest compression.

[00:25:20]Not the best cylinder surface.

[00:25:33]M.

[00:25:38]Yeah, I'm going to be honest.

[00:25:43]It's not good.

[00:25:46]Okay, let's uh let's take a look at what we found out.

[00:25:54]So, first up is all the oil leaks with evidence of them coming out of almost every gasket joint.

[00:26:05]Um, an excessive amount of uh oil fumes coming up these uh crankase ventilation pipes.

[00:26:15]So, I'm starting to block a bit.

[00:26:18]Carburetor full of oil. Um, distributor full of oil.

[00:26:33]A lot of oil in the air filter.

[00:26:38]Some very poorly looking spark plugs show evidence of burning oil and some piss po results on the compression test. Um, a good Rover V8 should be seen at least 150 across the board. Anywhere up to, I don't know, 170, 175.

[00:27:02]Yeah.

[00:27:05]Also, I don't know how well it showed up on uh on the little camera we had down the plug holes, but it's not looking good. I think uh there's only one diagnosis for this engine.

[00:27:20]Yeah, basically it's toast.

[00:27:24]Those cylinders don't look good. Blowing out oil, all the classic symptoms. She's a bit tired, a bit incontinent, and needs a little bit more love than just a few gaskets changing and a tuneup. So, I'm going to have a word with the owner. That's it for this video. Thanks for watching. Catch you on the next one.