Troyboy

Get yourself down to Lidls they have 3 Professional Toothbrushes on sale this week for £1-25 . No batteries involved although the term 'Professional ' baffles me somewhat .

Just paint the bitumen over the Vactan no need to rub down or wash off . Vactan soon dries but I cannot remember how long the manufacturers recommend before overpainting . You will find it on their website I'm sure.

I would treat any areas of rust that you wire brush off with Vactan and then black over the Vactan . Any area of blacking that stay on after pressure washing I would leave and just paint over . Whilst using a roller is easier I've found it doesn't always get into the small pits so prefer to use a brush which also applies a thicker coat . I also black the baseplate which is about as controversial on this forum as cassette versus pump out.

Where are all the 'no need to paint the baseplate it doesn't rust ' members ?

Measured my 1.5 dipstick at the weekend and the measurements are the same as John quoted . The only measurement I can add is the overall length of my dipstick is 463mm. My sump is the standard BMC vehicle sump not a marinised version .

Thanks John , there will be a lot of 1.5 owners measuring their dipsticks now including me .

Make sure you change the oil filter at the same time . If you have the canister type not screw on then a Mahle OX13 is one filter that fits . Costs about £6 from your local motor factor .

This is now on the River Nene at Barnwell or it was a couple of weeks ago . Not sure if it still does pump outs but it was near where the fuel boat moors.

This thread is of interest to me as I have a BMC 1.5 in my boat and putting 8 pints of oil in would way overfill it from marks on the dipstick. I always slightly overfill it from the dipstick mark as it probably takes about 6 pints to reach the full mark on the dipstick . I'm sure my boat has the standard J4 van sump not a marine sump but the J4 workshop manual shows oil capacity of 8 1/4 pints [ 4.69 ltrs] including filter which holds 1 1/4 pints [ .7 ltrs] . I thought I might have the wrong dipstick and sourced another one but that was the same . One observation when I drop the dipstick in there is a noise that sounds like the dipstick touching the bottom of the sump which I'm not sure it is supposed to do . I have had my boat over 30 years and running with about 6 pints of oil hasn't caused any problem so far but I do change the oil and filter regularly . I'm with Tony on the dangers of overfilling with oil but I will watch this thread with interest . I'm not at my boat at the moment but maybe the question should be asked of 1.5 owners 'How long is your dipstick ?' in fact I'm sure that would make an eyecatching header for a new thread . I would also be interested in whether their dipstick touched the bottom . Wow what an opportunity for double entendre.

I have always blacked the bottom plate on my narrowboat .When it was surveyed for insurance purposes 25 years after being built the surveyor recorded the following in his report .'' Pitting was noticed on the bottom plate up to 0.4 mm. The bottom had been painted at some time in the past and this lack of pitting is testament to the advisability of this practice. Only minor pitting up to 0.3 mm was noted on the sides,bows and swim .The steelwork is generally in remarkably good condition for its age.'' I know many people say painting the bottom plate is a waste of time and money but deep down I think it is because of the difficulty getting under the boat . I will continue to paint mine every two years . The baseplate is 7.5mm thick.

Well spotted. Obviously too early in the morning. tensioner 17H 6680. Sorry

I have a BMC parts book for the 1500 and 1622 cc petrol engines plus 1.5 diesel . The BMC part numbers were different for the petrol than the diesel . Not sure about 1800 petrol as in the MGB. In case you are interested the petrol part numbers were timing chain 2H 4905 ,tensioner 17H 343. Diesel timing chain 2H 735 tensioner 2H 735.

Yes they are about 4mm, I've just measured a used one I have in my garage.

Is there still a working pump out there ?

The part number for a BMC 1.5 diesel pulley is 12H 253 or 12H 1460 according to the BMC parts book I've got .Both numbers are listed as alternatives.