nutmeg1

Thanks for the advice.  I dropped the sump but couldn't get the bearing caps off as the engine is out of the car and unsupported and I couldn't get enough torque on the socket set.  I remembered I had a cheap car endoscope so took a look at the bores with that.  They looked ok. Just taken it to a local re conditioners.  Diff looked OK too as did the gearbox as far as I could see, but I'm far from confident in my diagnostic abilities here.  I've re-fillled both and will re-visit the issue later in the year. Thanks once again for the help. Richard

Thanks for the advice so far. The car needs a total restoration and I was most of teh way through the stripdown with just the engine/gearbox/diff and rear suspension to remove. The property was OK but we've some major house renovation to look forward to so won't be in a position to do very much to it until the winter. If a visual inspection looks ok (drop sump, lift head and check diff through the drain plug) do you reckon it would be enough to re-fill with oil and re-visit this whole issue in Nov/Dec? Am I right in thinking that anything other than light surface rust is a problem? Cheers Richard EDIT : the water was above crankshaft level

First post here - be gentle! During the Jan and Feb floods my immobile Vitesse II sat in the River Thames for a total of 2/3 weeks.  I managed to raise it on axle stands, but some water got into the engine, overdrive and diff.   I've only just been able to get around to assessing the amount of water in the engine and it was probably as much water in there as oil. So, the question is how much damage is likely to have been done to the mechanics and is it worth taking them to re-conditioners or wherever and letting them start work with the possibility that it's all too far gone? Any thoughts gratefully received. -Richard