Betsy

My 2.25 was fitted with hardened valve seats a few years ago, and the engine bottom end rebuilt 3 yrs ago. It has been running perfectly on unleaded until now. I just did a 3500 mile trip to Morocco and back, a lot of it was spent on motorways at 55mph. The car seemed to cope easily. Towards the end of the trip, I was aware of more fumes than normal from the engine, especially when the engine was on over-run. She also seemed to be idling on 3 cylinders, but once up to speed drove pretty well, but down on power slightly. I did a compression test, and 1, 3 and 4 were 145 psi, 2 was 60 psi. So yesterday I lifted the head off. The composite gasket showed no signs of leakage, the exhaust flange gasket had a slight leak on 1 and 4 cylinders. I turned the head upside down, and filled the combustion chambers with petrol. 1, 3 and 4 were perfect and held the petrol with no leakage. Number 2 just peed out through the exhaust port. The exhaust valve was obviously not round and is 100% sure to be the cause of the rough idle. However, what can cause this to happen? do hardened seats have a detrimental affect on the valves themselves? why only 1 cylinder? the others are perfect with no pitting at all. Its an easy fix, but I am just wondering if there are any other experiences of prolonged use at motorway speeds with unleaded fuel in an engine with hardened seats fitted, and is there something I am missing that could have caused this. It may of course just be old age.

Its a metallic dark blue. Its a Discovery 3 colour.

I reckon for a Series Land Rover, the best looking, and performing tyre in mud and off road conditions, is the good old General SAG in 750 x 16. Looks really good on the vehicle, fits perfectly, speedo will be correct (on a LWB), and they are great in mud. OK, so road manners leave a bit to be desired, but they do produce the classic 'Land Rover Howl' at at anything over 30 Here is a piccy of mine on the SAGS

Morocco is a fantastic adventure. Its something that I have wanted to do for years, and this year I was lucky to have the time, the vehicle and the money to do it. I did it as part of a team competing in Desert Storm, run by Pro Trax. We won the the tourist team class, purely on reliability. All the other teams in our class were using newer vehicles, D3's and new Defenders. They all had break downs which resulted in time penaties. We had no break downs and whilst we were not the fastest or the most daring off road driver, we scored and kept our points. The Moroccans are generally a freindly lot, but begging is endemic in there society. They are not starving, but beging is a way of life to many. The children will run out in front of you, and are very upfront with their attempts to get 'bon bon' (sweets). We took pens and paper, and gave them out to those who were not pushy. We also took a suitcase full of my sons out-grown clothes and football kits. Many vehicles in the storm did this, and we donated them to a respected local citizen in Merzouga for distribution amongst local children. I am still coming down from the whole adventure, but I am already trying to think of a way to earn enough brownie points to do it again.

Just to let you know, my 2a got to Morocco and back, 3500 miles in 3 weeks, and she did not miss a beat. No more broken springs, and 3 leaf fronts are much better than 2 leaf versions.

Just remember this - If you think you ever see a light at the end of the tunnel, then run like hell, because its probably a train coming towards you

Have now got and fitted the 3 leaf paras. They are much better, and the car now sits very level. They are firm, but still miles better than the old iron leafs.

Thanks for all the advice chaps. CPC have been very helpful indeed, and are express delivering a set of 3 leaf para's and new U bolts to me, they will be with me tomorrow. Also agreed to do the swap for £50 if I return the broken spring and the remaining good un'. They are confident that 3 leaf version will work, although it will obviously be firmer.

David, Good point about the weighbridge, something I perhaps should do if I get time. With regard to the threads, I too was concerned about this. I did talk to CPC and asked them if they were the correct U bolts, they told me they were all the same and cater for 2 and 3 leaf springs. I do have a spare set of axle U bolts in the spares kit. One problem I have had with the parabolics is they have needed a regular check and retorque on the U bolts. 58lbft is the torque I have been using.

Does anyone on here have 3 leaf fronts? and can comment on their suitability for a 109 soft top with a very heavy winch and spare on the bonnet? I am thinking that I have 2 choices given the very short time I have to departure. 1. Get a set of 3 leaf fronts, and risk the ride being too hard, or the ride height too high and the front prop fouling (I previously had extended shackles and they were too much for the prop - she is now on standard shackles) 2. Get another set of 2 leaf versions, risk another failure in Morocco, but take my 1 remaining good spring as a spare. Also, because I was previously running the car with the 2 leaf springs, and extended shackles, could this have overstressed the springs? I switched to standard shackles because the front prop got damaged at full articulation. I'll be on the phone to CP in the morning, just after any experiences from members on here.

Cheers Ole. That makes good sense. There is no chance of fitting an anti-wrap system before Morocco, so I will hope that 3 leaf versions will be stiffer and less prone to axle wrap.

I fitted some CP Components Paras back in April, and have been very pleased with them so far. They have done about 5000 miles, and several off-road trips. I have been preparing the vehicle to go to Morocco A WEEK ON THURSDAY!! and thought everyhting was ready. So, this morning set off for a last shake down in the Peaks before packing my bags. I was going down Pindale, which is a mild descent over rocks. Everything was perfect then two very loud bangs, and the car obviously felt wrong. I stopped and looked underneath to see the front left spring broken in two places. I have the 2 leaf version on the front, and the 3 leaf on the rear. I have looked at the CP Components website, and it would seem the 3 leaf fronts are for forward controls and ambulances. 2 leaf is recommended for normal and heavy duty 109. My car is heavy, with a lot of kit in the back, and a weighty Mayflower Mechanical winch on the front. The AT2 spare on the bonnet also weighs a lot. I will probably need to get some 3 leaf HD parabolics quickly. Has anyone got any comments? could it be faulty? Seen this before? Its not a big job to change, but its a damn good job it broke now and not in the middle of the Atlas mountains!

I am off to Morocco in 2 weeks time to take part in Desert Storm Challenge. I am geared up to use Fugawi, and a handheld Garmin for challenge navigation. I have a setup in the car that uses a 7 inch Lilliput touch screen. If you want me to try this software out, let me know.

If you have a D3 or RRS, and accidentally misfuel it, then hopefully you will notice BEFORE you turn the key. Turn the key and you will start the fuel pump in the tank which will contaminate the system. If you have not turned the key, then you will get away with a tank drain and flush if you can get it recovered to a garage. Problem is, they have electronic park brakes, and you need to make sure the recovery driver knows how to release the EPB without turning the key. If you remove the panel behind the park brake switch, there is a cable with a loop end, put the jack handle in and pull VERY hard. It will release the park brake and allow the vehicle to be winched onto the recovery truck. Don't turn the key !

£6500 is about right if you have run it on petrol until it stops. Land Rover have issued dealers with a fixed program of works in these cases. To retain full warranty this has to be carried out. You could probably get it running with a flush out, but loose the warranty. The good news is that most D3's that I've heard of this happening too, have been paid for by insurance. Its accidental damage. If it was a BP garage, and Ultimate Petrol was mistaken for Ultimate Deisel, then you could sue them because the logos are very similar. I have heard of sucessful cases. I know this is cheeky, but there are some very good specialised disco3 forums on the web, with lots of tales like this.

Parabolics are the way to go. Mine is transformed, and even rolls in corners now!!

Mine a Series, but using a Defender light bar mounted outside the gutters instead of inside. I ran the wiring down the back of the snorkel. I have two switches, one operates the outside pair, the other the inner pair. Both switches obviously operate all 4. The inners are focussed for distance spot lamps, the outers are spread low and wide. I hope this helps.

Needs a login to view.

Good answers guys, its what I wanted to hear. It is also true that the rear crank seal leaked a bit with GTX, and does not seem to leak on 20w 50.

I have a 1966 2a, 109 petrol 2.25. The engine is in perfect condition, after I rebuilt it 8000 miles ago. I am taking her to Morocco in 2 weeks, and will be driving her all the way there and hopefully back again. Currently she is running with Halfords 20w 50 classic motor oil, its traditional low detergent 'green lube' and is advertised as being particularly suitable for older design engines. I have also tried Castrol GTX 10w 40 in the past. The only difference I can report is that the GTX oil pressure is lower when the engine is hot at 3000 rpm, showing about 50psi on the guage. On the Halfords 20w 50 it shows 58 psi Considering that she will be doing about 4500 miles in the next month, much of it in the desert, which oil would you use?

I had a head gasket fail, between 3 and 4 cylinders shortly after my engine rebuild. Everything was skimmed and faced during the rebuild, and the engine had been carefully assembled on the bench. Mine is a petrol, but the same theory applies. The diagnosis at the time of my head gasket failure was that a copper gasket caused the problem. After the failure I replaced it with a composite head gasket. I did not get the head or block reskimmed again, but I did give them a good clean and made sure as far as possible that there were no obvious imperfections. 5000 miles on, she seems to be fine. I think that the deisel has a different gasket to petrol? so make sure you get the right one.

Cheers all, found some. Only need to replace 2 of them. I notice a complete 109 rear tub on ebay, but I have not got time or space to swap that yet, maybe next year!

Has anyone replaced the stiffeners that run across the rear tub, under the floor that rest on the chassis supports? they look pretty easy to replace, but are they available as spares?

Mine are powder coated black, and looking a bit scabby now. First rock or tree will have the coating off and the rust soon sets in.

I already have a Lucas alternator on my 2a. I think its a 15 acr, although not sure. I have a voltmeter in the system which shows 14.5 volts when the engine is running, the batteries are charged, and no extra loads. There are a few modifications to know about, like 4 x 55w Lightforce spots on the roof, a 2.5 a fridge, and a few other electrics in the cab. The vehicle has an extra leisure battery wired in parallel with the vehicle battery, via a heavy duty switch to disconnect if required. All the additional lights and electrics take their feeds from the auxilliary circuit. I normally leave the disconnect switch connected, unless I run lights or fridge and phone/laptop chargers with the engine off, in which case I isolate the aux battery. I have used a standard battery master switch for this, I did not use a HD auto split charge system, mainly for cost reasons. As I said, when things are charged and the accesories are off, there is no problem and the batteries keep their charge. However, when I use the vehicle lights, and the fridge etc, the volts drop to less than 12. To my mind this means that the demands of the vehicle are exceeding the alternator capacity. The Alternator also whistles quite loudly at higher revs when all this load is on. If I discharge the auxilliary battery (keep the fridge going overnight for example), then the system volts remain at about 13 for a considerable time until its charge is replenished. If I have to use lights during this charging, the volts are again back at around 12. I have replaced most of the charge circuit wiring over the years, so there should not be any bad connections. The question is, what is the most powerful alternator that will fit the standard mounts. I have a series 3 alternator mount fitted to the left of the engine.