Les Henson

You could always show a little taste

Re work the pipe layout as detailed in this thread.

Are you now going to use the brakes with the slaves at 3 and 9 o'clock? If so, what you are doing is potentially dangerous. The braking system is designed for leading and trailing shoes to maximise brake pressure and efficient braking if the system is well maintained. Altering the pipework to ease maintenance is one thing, but doing that might well be altering the brake efficiency of the vehicle. A few years back a forum member 'botched' his brakes and some of his family died as a result. He's now in prison and his life is ruined. You can leave the brake shoes and slaves in factory spec position with just a minor alteration to the pipework which has no effect at all. Jeez - bent pipes and a seemingly dirty job just looks so bad. Les

I downloaded and printed off this manual - http://landroverresource.com/docs/300TDi_Overhaul_Manual.pdf It shows accurate line drawing, torque settings, how to dismantle and check various components, etc, etc. It's what I used to do the whole job. "Piston skimmed by 0.0001mm? How do you even measure that " Just out of curiosity, why did you need to have the piston skimmed? Les

On my last 109 I altered the pipework in order for the bleed nipple to be at the top. Les.

For anyone that thinks that completely rebuilding an entire engine is daunting, then the fact is it's not. You need a few specialist tools, such as dial guage, mag mount, micrometer, feeler guage, and engineer or printers ruler. I used genuine or better parts, but you can buy suitable cheaper parts that don't have to come in a blue box :). Most of the work is cleaning, checking, painting, etc. Les

Some years ago I bought a 300TDi engine that was seized and then left in the back garden under some old carpet. The only work I didn't do myself was the rebore, injectors and injector pump check. The engine looked and ran like brand new when it was finished.

Keep all the receipts and you may find that the value will increase. I have fully rebuilt a 300TDi engine. Les

Take the belt off it and spin it by hand to detect play and/or noise. It's not that easy to fix them nowadays so you may find it's had it. Les.

With the amount of work you have done it's unlikely that you'll be able to start it on the battery. A far more easier solution is to tow start it. Les.

Speedo drive sensor is on the transfer box, engine speed sensor is on the flywheel housing? I know that because I accidentally trashed Mr Burtons engine speed sensor by accidentally trashing it when taking his gearbox off. I did say sorry several times though, so that was alright Les

Before undoing the nut. make a mark on it and make a corresponding mark on the thread. Count the turns to remove the nut from the thread and do the opposite on reassembly. That way there will be no difference between the tightness prior to disassembly and assembly, so if you had other problems, that will be there. Replacing the flange nuts/bolts rather depends on the condition of the old ones. Some people replace them every time they have to be removed and others if they think they need it. Les

Every time I replace the timing belt on any car I start it and briefly rev it if it's safe to do so. If the injector pump timing is out then cranking the engine by hand won't show that up, so a quick start and rev will confirm all is ok. Les

In that case - book the MOT in advance and you can drive it there with an expired MOT and no tax, then home or to a place of repair if it fails. Les

So long as they are the same thread, length, etc, then yes. Les

The only problem you might have with driving a failed car home is construction and use regs, or some lights not working (brakes for example), bald tyres, etc. Les

If you clamp the flexi hose before the slave cylinder and then try the pedal it will be solid if the master is ok. Les.

Did you accidentally pull the piston out when you removed the slave or was it out already? Les

I wouldn't paint the inside of an axle case. Oil distribution should prevent corrosion. Les

Definitely run without the valve caps. Les

In my previous post 90deg should be 180 deg (sorry). The inside of that timing cover is the worst I've ever seen. Les

The two rocker assemblies are the same, so you can mix and match parts. Rocker shafts do tend to wear on one side of the shaft where the rockers are. A common trick is to rotate the shaft 90 deg and refit. This eliminates unwanted play in the rockers as an alternative to buying a new shaft. While the rockers can be removed with little effort, you have to knock the pillars off. You really need to learn to post pictures. I can only make a wild guess on what "the unit seems to be on the cockle" means. Pictures are a great help most of the time. Les.

If a con rod is bent, then water in the cylinder on the compression stroke. Valves may have been partly open, so inspect rocker, roll pushrod on a flat surface, etc. Small and big end shells may be damaged due to the impact. Les

Well I did. How can you fit the rocker shaft, set the tappets, and then say that the rockers are not present? I might be being a bit blonde here:)

"fit the rocker shaft and do the tappets after the shaft it torqued down. This way, the rockers are not present " Eh? Les