aljohnso

ah good, seems about right then ;-) Maybe I'll get some shock absorbers for it- pretty sure the ones I have on there have got no oil in them

just looking around it the other day after a particularly bone shaking ride down a small rough lane and I wondered if I was bottoming out. Looking at the gap between my bump stops and the plate on the leaf springs (front axle), the gap is about 2 inches or so. Is this right of have my springs subsided?? (edit, its a 1968 SIIa SWB petrol)

this is probably a stoopid question. Does anyone know if it is possible to fit a power take off and 3 point linkage to the back (or front) of a landy. I want a hefty grass cutter.

I have mine mounted magnetically on the front bumper, works well, has never fallen off which is more than can be said for my wings! whe I first got it I thought it would fall off at the 1st bump and have been proved well and truly wrong Al.

Just to let you know, I honed the cylinders, put on new standard sized rings, put new big end bearings on and refitted the tarted up cylinder head and the engine no longer smokes out of the oil filler tube, goes a lot better and seems to use less fuel. I fitted an overdrive at the same time (wish I had bought one years ago). That was a busy Saturday ;-) Took it out for a drive on Sunday and all was well - well almost I have noticed however that the oil pressure light comes on sometimes at idle when the engine is hot. I think I have caused this by using a mix of 15/40 and 10/40 oil instead of my normal 20/50. I'll drain it and bung some 20/50 in instead and hope the problem goes away. Now I know it's working ok I'll buy it some oil thanks for all the helpful advice al.

sure I saw them on paddock this morning when I was ordering bits http://www.paddockspares.com/page4/scp/SER...and_Panels.html something about not being able to post them though ;-(

Hi all, thanks for the excellent information. I finally got round to dropping the sump and removing the pistons. Looks like I may have got lucky, the rings in 4th cylinder are broken, the top is broken in about 5 places and the lower in 1. My feeling is this probably explains the blow past. In an extra stroke of luck, the cylinder bore is unscathed The cylinders do have a SLIGHT ridge at the top but as it's slight I think I'll try and hone the cylinders a bit then put standard rings on again (and replace the big end bearings which were a bit worn) Happilly all is standard size (I presume that's what STD means printed on there) At the end of the day now I've done it once I can get the head and pistons out in a couple of hours so if it doesn't work it's not much lost. Thanks for the info on removing the block above, I'll have to do that if this doesn't work I'll let you know if it fixes it Al.

yes I can feel a groove, can I not use the hone to break that groove and then fit slightly larger rings? The groove is quite small but I can feel one. Rebore means taking the engine out and I don't have the kit to do that unfortunately Al.

Hi, my landy developed a severe smoking problem from the oil filler pipe and with the new regulations it was no longer allowed in the pub. I have now removed the cylinder head on the way to replacing the rings etc. I have a couple of questions if anyone has the answers I would be very happy The head looks good, there is a moderate build up on it which is more white coloured in the outside cylinders than the centre ones (centre ones are quite black) The cylinder bores are nice and smooth - no scratches but the middle 2 pistons seem to be slightly loose in the bores (pushing the top side to side with my finger) My guess is that the rings are siezed/worn/broken on the middle 2 pistons. I will clean up the head and remove the pistons next. How do I measure the cylinder bores accurately in order to decide the size of the rings I should get? I read something mentioning 'cord' rings, do they exist, are they better, where do I get them? Are the rings ok to fit to the existing pistons or should I get new pistons with oversize rings already fitted?

well, I capped it off and installed a pipe down out of the lower of the engine bay and that worked int he sort term, however after a weekend away camping and a 40 mile drive each way with a full load in the landy the problem is now bad enough to warrant getting the head off and probably changing the rings. Having never done this before I'm a bit wary (I've done it on another car though so should be ok) couple of question that springs to mind though; there are 2 main types of cylinder head gasket, copper and fibre. Which one is best, any makes to look out for and if so where to get them from? how do I measure the cylinder diameter accurately enough to decide which rings to order should I replace the bearings on the pistons at the same time or just leave the old ones in? Al.

thanks for the replies guys, any way of telling whether the rings are broken or just worn without taking the engine to bits? the problems has got worse gradually over the last year so I'm thinking it's probably wear, just want to get it through to winter so I can take it to bits and repair it proper. If it dies I guess I buy a 2nd hand engine for 50 quid and work on one while the other is in Al.

my engine on my 1968 SIIa is smoking quite a bit from the top of the oil filler tube, the vapour is nicely rust proofing the engine bay with a layer of oil. I suspect the rings are leaking/broken. I get an even pressure on the cyclinders using a compression guage and do not get much smoke at all out of the back. Is this all consistent with rings going or am I missing something more obvious (before I take it to bits) As I only use the landy for a couple of thousand miles a year I was toying with the idea of capping off the oil filler tube and running a pipe from it down to the bottom of the engine to get rid of the vapour down there instead? Or can I even just fit a series 3 oil filler pipe and cap it off completely (I imagine not as the pressure must go somewhere)