skirky dave

First of all, i would just like to thank ALL those here, for your help and support over the last few months and to wish you a very Happy New Year. Just a quick heads up on things. Just before Christmas, 21st to be exact , my fridge freezer went bang so,, the funds being put to one side for my repair are now being replaced and i shall keep you informed as and when the repair starts again. Which will be soon!. Cheers Dave.

Ok cheers for that Nick.

So....just to be clear on this,..you turn the crankshaft so the piston is at the TOP of the bore,...then undue the bolts collecting the lower part of the bearing ,.. then push up the piston ///and out !!. Yes,

Monkie. Not to mention eye protection and gloves, if you splash that stuff in your eyes it's a trip to A&E,

Nick, Ok, got you now. I will be cleaning up the head this week. I don't want to start stripping things apart until i have all the parts. Then it will be 1 piston removal and conrods + barings at a time ,so i don't mess things up !!!!. When you remove the piston through the cylinder, would i be correct in using a wooden drift and some chopped up hose pipe on the threaded rods.

Struggling a little with this phone downloading images to where I want to post them. Will try to get it sorted out. As I said previously, the engine appears to be running a little bit with blue smoke. Exhaust manifold is a bit gummed up so new rings will be put in whilst I’m at it

Hi Monki, was you can see there’s a little discolouration on the valves which I think is due to steam, maybe. I don’t think there’s a problem as such with them and there’s no movement at all with the valve springs. Snagger, cheers again mate for your thoughts. I had got it into my head that the high pitching noise was due to a loose hot spot, I never thought it could be caused by the gasket. However, a new elring gasket has been ordered plus other parts are in the pipeline. More images to come. Cheers guy’s, Dave.

Also, Nick,....Yes i have seen Mike using the oven cleaner, but more to the point, the way he uses Vinegar to neutralize it straight away afterwards followed by WE 40 to prevent rusting. I shouldn't have a problem with my cylinder head with this stuff, as mine is pig iron and not ally like the V8 . I have some oven cleaner , so i'll give it a go . Also,..i noticed just before the ( incident !!!), that my engine / exhaust was burning a little blue smoke, so i'm thinking while i have it to bits and have access to the pistons , then i might as well buy a full set of rings £40 ish , deglaze the bores with the same tool as Mike used ,and re/ring it, as well as the bearings. What a palave eh. You start one job and then......Landy's. don't ya just love em!!.

Hi Nick, Which parts are you referring to, sorry mate, you've lost me a little there.

Hi Monki, was you can see there’s a little discolouration on the valves which I think is due to steam, maybe. I don’t think there’s a problem as such with them and there’s no movement at all with the valve springs. Snagger, cheers again mate for your thoughts. I had got it into my head that the high pitching noise was due to a loose hot spot, I never thought it could be caused by the gasket. However, a new elring gasket has been ordered plus other parts are in the pipeline. More images to come. Cheers guy’s, Dave.

Forgot to mention , no 3 cylinder gasket looks a little squashed to the lerft on the picture.

Bowie69 Thanks for that, appreciate it.

Just a a question, are replacement conrods numbered and is it bad practice to only replace 1 or 2 if need be, or ...are you supposed to replace ALL 4 . i read somewhere , that, their supposed to be replaced ALL together as they come as a balanced set. But i don't know ??. Confused !.

H i mate, The head looks fine, at least to me. There are a few like heat marks , To the valves as though someone has applied heat to metal with a blow torch. Kind of like slight colored marks but that may be due to steam probably. I'll take a couple of pics tomorrow. I followed the torque settings to the letter, but i've since been told that i should have re torqued the head after 250 miles or so. Which i didn't. Come to think of it, the bolts did come out fairly easy. Penny for your thoughts.

The valve marks on the pistons happened when the timing belt broke the other year and haven't caused a problem. As said before , the hotspots just fell out when i lifted the head off but i can't see any damage to them at all, no cracks, nothing. Hopefully removing the sump tomorrow.

Forgot to mention , no 3 cylinder gasket looks a little squashed to the lerft on the picture.

Hi guys, well this is my attempt at downloading images from my iPhone. Hopefully you can see the white tippex markes on the head gasket which I referred to earlier on in my post. The mark by the hole on the far left I think is some sort of gallery but the ones after that are clearly raised with a perforated hole in the middle, on close to cylinders 2/3 and 4.. If these are not clear enough, I shall take further images but closer. I have a few more images to take tomorrow and will download these ASAP. Cheers, Dave.

Oh yes i agree, but, the mere fact that only 1 light comes on the dash which indicates a fault and the owner should Contact The Local Dealer !!! According to the owners manual, means that some people can be ripped off by the dealer.. In a perfect world it would have been great if it came up on the dash screen, telling you which code it was and then being able to refer to the hand book as to which code it meant. i think it might give some of us some sort of an idea as to what could be wrong and what to look for. Or at least try to learn. Instead of just an engine management light telling you to pull up straight away and blah blah blah DEALER ££££..There are apps which people download to their phones / computers to keep their cars tuned up, so if it can save us a few quid , hey ho. Just my opinion, i don't want to stamp on anyones toes. I have heard of people being told to bring the car into the garage at say 9 am and when the owner phones up at 4 PM to see if the car is ready, there told..."Just finished it mate " when in fact the car was ready at 12Noon and was charged for 4 hours extra labour.. My so called ex brother in law used to work for a large ish dealer and they practiced this kind of behaviour for years. As a Land Rover enthusiast, i try my best to learn from people with years of experience, but i'm mainly a visual / kinaesthetic sort of learner as far as the land Rover is concerned.

The amount of dodgy one's i've had over the years.

FridgeFreezer Ha ha , yes , technicall,y but no to the same degree.

Phil. It was only when my son popped in to see me,.( at his girlfriends house most of the time and don't see him for a couple of weeks at a time ) that i told him about the advise given here, that he said to me " At our place were dealing with cars that need plugging into our machines and testing for fault codes and some of the software costs a small fortune, it's too time consuming stripping down engines and we don't have the facility's to check crankshafts and the such, so we just send them away, get them rebuilt if they need it, and then we put them back in ". He say's it's a different world to how it uses'd to be in your time Dad. We don't strip anything down like sensors , alternator's or starter motors. If there's a problem with modern cars, it gives us a fault code, we check it with multimeters, and order a new part on a service exchange basis, and replace it. He then said " The biggest problem with that is,...customers come in and tell us they can get the part much cheaper ( usually a cheap foreign part ) and expect it to last, like an expensive Bosche part., and it never does, then they complain because they think it's our fault the car has packed up again. You can't win Dad". I just sat there and thought to myself, thank god i don't have sensors on my 2A. That tractor looks mint mate. Did you rebuild that from scratch Phil ??.

Hi Monkey....Phil, Well,...i do have some really good news, in a way!. My youngest son is a mechanic, BUT....the garage he works for does NOT allow the lads to work on vehicles UNLESS it goes through the books. The lads are sometimes asked to work through their dinners etc , as and when the boss books in too many jobs for the day and they always oblige but as soon as they want to do a job for a friend, relative etc it becomes a no no. Which they feel is unfair. I for one, don't blame them. Even working AFTER the days jobs are done and they want to use the hydraulic ramps to check a mates exhaust, it is given the elbow!!. However, having said that, my son has his own piston ring compressor and has said he will bring it home for me to use. I already have the full timing pin kit, so that's not a problem. Members of my family have told me to hang fire with things as they've all been having a chat,.. and.by all accounts Santa may come early,..Ooo that sounds promising. !!. My son's problem is that , by the time he's finished work....it's dark. But if need be, he knows a mate who's just started up his own business ( known each other for donkeys years and help each other out, as and when ) who has a 4 poster ramp, so.. we shall see. Seems like everything is turning round for me.....for a change. Lucky you for having the tractor, ...bet it's a huge 4 wheel drive John Deere . So thanks for the offer Phil but i think we have things covered. I shall most likely be asking for advice later. My son has also stated that, i'm probably best asking advice on certain issues regarding the landy from members here , because at his place, if the boss wants an engine taking out of a vehicle and sorting out, it's usually pulled out and sent to an engineering firm for them to strip and replace the parts as necessary parts. It's then returned to the garage and they refit the engine. So basically....there fitters!!. Thanks anyway Phil, very generous of you for the offer, but i think it's mostly in hand. Cheers mate Dave.

lo-fi I take it i don't have to get the engine to TDC to start this procedure and to just do ONE piston at a time . Just one question ....IF i discover that a ring HAS broken, should i re/glaze the bore or just re/ring and fit. May sound a stupid question but i had to ask. Cheers again mate.

steve b, High Steve, torque wrench i've got. Iv'e done the cylinder head a couple of times. The biggest majority of things i've watched over the last few days have been Trail Fitters toolbox (Land Rover ) Norfolk based i believe, on youtube, but it's mostly 200-300 TDI'S and of course Mike in Canada , very good in my opinion as he goes through many pitfalls and tips. Cheers Steve regarding the point about the aluminium expanding, that makes sense now you put it like that. I was beginning to think i had a serious problem with the engine. I was hoping someone might have done this with the 2.5 N/A whilst the engine was in situ to say yes or no to removing the conrod and pistons. Cheers again for your input Steve Dave.

Bowie69, Ok mate. So let me get this clear in my head, -10 thou is an underground bearing , and standard size has no markings. Just got to make sure i take notice to how they come out/apart.' I don't suppose there could be any chance that the size could have worn away , leaving me in the mire, is their ??. In my mind, i'm probably overthinking this and judging by the way you've described it, it's far easier than i'm expecting it to be. I SHALL SEE !!! Don't disappear mate, your experience may well be called upon....in fact it most probably will. Cheers again mate Dave