hattymender

I tried. But I got bored. The way it's raining I think the bit about tidal influence may be more relevant................................

For no particular reason other than I was bored while shopping I've bought a compass. Don't know why as I have a perfectly good sat-nav. Just a cheap thing but it's driving me mad. It works perfectly well 'hand held'. It works perfectly well in a Ford Escort. In a Land Rover everywhere is North. Unless it's on the middle seat when it will concede that not every direction is North. Just. If you're moving. It will work near the back door. But I'm not rigging up CCTV to see it. I'm assuming 1/2 ton of cast iron under the bonnet + iron oxide bulkhead may have some bearing. Putting it on middle seat has a large ferrite mass rotating below it, handbrake drum, which may be damping the engine's influence? Has anybody successfully fitted a compass? What's the trick? Bit of steel (e.g. a nut) strapped to it to balance the engine? Chucking it is the easy option but it's the principle. I've paid for it. It will be made to work. Could be another excuse to get a (aluminum) V8 though? Rich

Sneezing. And looking for the little spring loaded brass bit from the wiper stalk. Don't take one apart to clean when you have a cold Also cleaning inside of windscreen. Must get a tissue. Merry Christmas Rich

Now I suppose the real question should be: "What's the biggest difference between what you planned against what you actually did?" Some of my past efforts include: list]Ambition: Fit V8. Actual: Search internet for advice. Get depressed at level of effort. Postpone (indefinitely) Ambition: Fit new bulkhead. Actual: Filler/weld/paint old one Ambition: Fit intermittent wash wipe Actual: burn fingers on soldering iron. blow up maplins kit Ambition: New rear cross member. Actual: Fit cross member (Yipee!). But spend twice as long refitting petrol tank. Ambition: Fix leaking output shaft seals. Actual: Fit new seals. Leaked same as always. (this happens to all new seals) Ambition: Fix spare wheel mounting on back door. Actual: Take one look at pile of rust inside door, fit wheel on bonnet. That's covered the last couple of Christmas breaks. Actual would, no doubt, have been much more impressive had friends not forced me to stop working for drink/cig/just gassing breaks

Cheers! I'll have a look on Amazon. Local library not much use. Shelves and shelves of Mills & Boon, books on WW2 and biographies. One small shelf devoted to 'technical'. Guess it's a sign of the times that most of the users are elderly. Bit worried I'm heading that way though. As for searches, fine. But just copying somebody else's ideas is cheating ; anyway they frustrate (depress?) me when my lack of knowledge becomes apparent. They said owning a Land Rover would be educational..... well it's taught me a lesson.. Rich

Shootings coming up on my list, bit closer to home though. Doesn't pay to stray too far from Yorkshire. There's strange folk in foreign parts, mind you there's some strange folk here too. Me for one. This thread's working. I now have a plan! Board across the wheel arches and put a couple of long draws underneath. One for junk, the other for guns. I can justify this with some waffle about it being better for her labradors with a flat surface to sleep/fart/bark on, the enemy resents time spent on Hatty but if it's for her dogs that's ok. and should get me out of being 'nice' to her family

Can anybody recommend a good book or web site on auto electrics? I've got several ideas for projects but it's becoming obvious that my ideas outstrip my ability/knowledge. I've had a look around but can't find much 'in the middle ground'. The books I've seen are either "electricity is a magic thing understood by grownups" (think this is for the Corsa boom box brigade) or 300 pages of resistance calculations leading to...nothing as far as I can see. So something not too basic but understandable. Cheers Rich

I suppose the real question is "What's the most ambitious project you planned but didn't do?" 'Cos is was: Cold Raining Shops shut so couldn't get parts Not enough day light (especially when you get into habit of lie-ins. This takes 1 day to get into, 6 weeks to cure). Snowing. (Snowings a long shot. It only ever snows when I'm at work or Hatty's in bits). Can't be arsed. or all of the above..........

Ah! The cooking's great, in fact too good. It attracts her family. And therein lies the problem! Does give opportunity to get in workshop though as Christmas roast pan generally needs sorting with angle grinder followed by pressure wash.

Being socially dysfunctional I'm dreading the usual round of Christmas visits so I'm working on a list of jobs which must (?) be done while I'm off for the week. The most ambitious I've got to so far is to re-fit the split charge system (long story involving a blown fuse diagnosed as failing battery, failing split charge, etc...) So I was wondering; what's the most ambitious project being planned for Christmas? Rich

Capping strip behind passenger door is starting to go. Noticed a blister and like a fool gave it a prod, finger went straight through! rotten for about 3" on outer section. Apart from the cost I'm reluctant to break roof seal to remove side panel, it leaks enough as it is. Does anybody do a repair section I could weld in? Or am I going to have to get creative and weld in some plate and disguise it as a deliberate feature; accessory hook?, ladder rack? machine gun mounting? Etc.................. Cheers Rich

Just a quick follow up. After 1500 miles since skimming head I'm averaging 17.5mpg on LPG from the previous 16mpg. Not done enough on petrol to make meaningful measurement. Performance is a bit more subjective but it's 'better', pulled 2.5 tons today without embarrassment. I was worried that I'd loose some tractability from low revs but if anything it's improved and smoother. As an aside benefit replacing the stem seals has improved oil consumption. Was it worth it? At the time I was doubtful but a month after all the agro (and bill) the pain has dimmed and I'm pleased I did it. rslandys3; Did you get running?

Have lost the sums but should be 9:1 or near enough. To be honest I haven't tried it on pertrol as 99.9% of my running is on LPG. Did a longer run today and things are much better at higher (well, relatively higher) speeds. I can now keep speed up into wind uphill. I should have been a bit more scientific and timed my 40-60mph before and after. Should be interesting to do a fuel consumption comparison. I'm painfully aware of the 'before' figure for that one.

Encouraged by the fact that there are others out there daft enough to muck about with a perfectly good, if incontinent, engine I went for it and had .080" skimmed (Hatty's a 2.5 so .080" should be enough). Wednesday morning we picked up the head complete with re-ground valves and seats. The valves had cleaned up beautifully, wife and daughters slightly disturbed by sight of middle aged man drooling over box full of valves. After limbering up with a couple of fags and a bout of coughing brother in-law and self got started on the rebuild. He won the 'how far can you fire a collet?' competition. He also won the swearing competition. Point of note. Rocker shaft. Very, very annoying if you forget to align the peg hole before torquing down the bolts and setting valves. We left the timing standard. Not had chance to go very far yet but she does seem much the same at low throttle and some modest improvement (nothing startling) when you put your foot down. Which is pretty much in line with expectations. I have a nagging feeling that just re-grinding the valves may have given much of the improvement. The doubt reinforced by the fact that when I looked at the bill the valve re-grind was £28+VAT whereas the skim was £80+VAT. But it did look nice.

Would this be the head you just took 2.75mm off? Have the bolts bottomed out before they pull down the head? Not seen a copper gasket in some time, the ones I've used tend to be a composite with steel inserts around the bore. Sounds very much like a gasket leak especially in conjunction with your compression being all over the place but the oil and water could just be normal disassembly leakage? I've been following your progress, Hatty's head came off this afternoon with a view to a valve grind and skim tomorrow. I took all possible care to drain as much as possible but there was still quite a spill as it came off. Did you get a high pitched 'twittering' when you ran it? Going back a lot of years but it was always a sign of gasket leakage on old British bikes with copper gaskets. The combustion pressure would push past the gasket until the head warmed up and sealed. A cure was to heat them up to about 300 degrees C and let them cool slowly to soften them up.

Now come on, not fair! You've got me interested but there's no punch line! How does it run?

Did you keep the standard push rods? Any problem with setting the valves?

A quick, and probably inaccurate, check showed 3.620" from rocker cover face to top of block. Standard? Guess the .020" is the gasket so 3.60" for head. Any other way of telling? Minor Monthly has just run a series of atricles on tuning the A Series head, they're all different so the only way to be sure was to measure from the low point (oil inlet below rocker shaft cap) and subtract from overall thickness. Where's the low point on a LR head?

Now you've worried me. How thick is my head? (very, if you ask the wife ). Guess you measure from the rocker cover face to gasket face, but how thick should it be as standard?

I think she's now more comfortable than I am! Top speed isn't the issue but given the power limits of a 2.5 I'm often in 3rd (or 2nd!) going up hills. It was never an issue before, always fairly clear when a gear change was needed but things have smoothed out so much that I'm worried about over revving, or even going anywhere near the rev limit.

Easter project finished! (I strayed a little in my estimate of how long it would take). Head off, valves ground, new engine and gear box mounts, electronic ignition and she's transformed. Miles better and smoother. Now the silly question, in the years I've owned the old lass I've never had a driver's handbook, and never felt the need for one either. I've always changed up quite early recognizing that this is a 20 year old engine, 40 in third was the absolute limit (and never above 65 in 4th and 5th) but she still seems to want to go. I don't want to push a point so what's the recommended max speed through the gears an a 2.5 petrol 110? Rich