Photo of the Octopus ?

[ellevie]

Now that that horrible cold spell has passed I have finally attempted Ken's temporary repair method to the octopus - with great success ! The short leakback from the HC was in very poor condition so I removed it completely, cutting it right back to the octopus head. I put a short piece of brakepipe, about one and a half inches, into the hole in the octopus head and completed the path back to the HC with a short length of clear rubber pipe - lo and behold the leak has completely stopped ! I managed to do the cutting and re-connecting using just one hand by leaning across the engine from the front and sticking my right hand down by the bulkhead near the center. Now I can get on with further work without oil leaking all over the place.

Thanks Ken for a brilliant tip.

EDIT (many moons later).
The clear rubber pipe that I used was not a good idea. Over time it was attacked by the LHM and swelled so that it no longer formed a tight seal with the length of brake pipe. It’s best to follow Ken’s advice and use a longer length of brake 3.5mm pipe and a small piece of the original black rubber return pipe from the octopus which is designed to contain LHM.

[ken newbold]