ThreePointFive

This has already helped with looking at the wear on my main bearings after only a few hours of running.

Sometimes I think you'd make a good Bond villain.

Cat F. Edit: I just learnt that 'Cat F' is actually the category for fire damaged vehicles, had no idea. I didn't mean that kind of 'F'.

I don't know if anyone has seen No Time To Die but the new Defender doesn't come off at all well. In fact more JLR products get trashed than any other make, and most at the hands of a late 90's Land Cruiser. I cannot fathom why they would have signed off on it. Did the JLR marketing team stop paying their product placement bills?

If anything mine curl a bit outwards at the curve of the 'barrel'!

Well, I don't think they're coming back, chaps.

Haven't heard or seen this but I'm using genuine seals, that might answer the question in itself.

If you weren't 8,000 miles away, I'd have to think about that. But you are so I don't.

Presumably scrap metal prices are high? I think I commented on it before so don't want to repeat myself, but this vehicle says more about the owner than it does itself.

Disregard.

Their design being flat and angular looks like it would be most likely made of fibreglass or something similar (if that's not a stupid thing to say). It's just a bit surprising to hear it's all skinned metal frame but then it proves they don't just look the part. I am sticking with my car until the ban of ICE but definitely a fan of these.

I really like the look of those. What are the doors and bonnet made of? Are they suitably kit-car in their feel or a bit more substantial?

With many of the parts suppliers, if you order these rear quarter window seals you will get an alpine seal delivered that you cut to size. So yes.

My SS one was Double-S (I wasn't clear). It already looks terrible and fitting was a challenge as one branch of the manifolds was sticking out against the chassis rail and the other side is almost touching the starter. I had to dent it with a hammer just to make it fit.

Interesting to hear the differences between insurers. My insurer wants an appraisal by an independent garage/trader to state what it is worth, minus the cost of restoration. I assume that means labour, which of course is zero anyway. I know a sensible top-end price for a 33 year old car with 170k on the clock, and I know the sum total of what I've spent on it. Any valuation is going to be the lower number. I supplied the spreadsheet showing the cost in parts/upgrades, but still need someone to value it. I would love to just tell them a number.

I think I'll need to get his details from you next year. My SS one is easily the worst quality mod on the car.

It's out. I have no idea how I'm going to keep track of what bolt fits what or where the bolts even are now everything is spread around, but it's out. I am going to take a break from anything Land Rover related until I have it back, then I'll devote a weekend to building it back up. At least I have a bit of practice now.

I really don't think Bowie was serving you a Cease and Desist order! I wanted to make it to this, it looked like a realistic possibility at one point too if it wasn't for the slight snag. I don't know if I mentioned it...

The objective really wasn't to spend any more on it, but in reality I just didn't think of anyone else to go with. The nightmares don't end. Having taken everything off the front, the engine won't separate from the gearbox. I started to, but is now at an angle where it's clear on the pasenger side but as if a dowel is keeping it pinned on the starter side even though the dowell that side is not the sticking point. I don't want to get my head under with it hanging on the crane but there are no bolts holding it on. Concerned what this will be doing to the input shaft at this angle. Beating on it with a crowbar only results in damage to the castings so I am quite literally stuck.

That's a really interesting idea, I'll have to give that a look. With regards to the leaks, I have been fairly careful to deal with the known flaws while putting the body together so if it does leak, these things are truly unsealable and I won't even try to investigate.

I did consider trying to get it tuned up now and then being able to run the engine as-new with little to no tuning, but as the others have said, it just won't end up like that once everything's been apart for the same reason the standard tune is never a plug-and-play for any engine, just a 'near enough' base. Besides, for me tuning is 60% how it sounds, 40% how it vibrates, 11% how it smells and 0% maths. With this clattering I can't even get close to knowing if it's running well or not from the changes I'm making and I am sure that the misfire/rough running is linked, if not a direct symptom. When I know everything is mechanically sound I only have MS variables left. The only concern I had before was running in the cam, now that is done I don't need the engine to run first time and can spend time getting it right. I've also been able to prove a lot of what I've been trying has worked through this disassembly, such as I now know my air leak is in the filter housing itself. I also know the idle screw is not gummed up as I've had it out and cleaned up. I can also see no faults with what I did putting the engine together, which is nice. The problem is that now it's fully assembled with a bumper on, there is no room to get a crane in. I thought that if I took it apart bit by bit, I could eventually just lift the block out. What I forgot - and with 5 seconds of thought I would have realised this - is that the flywheel, clutch, etc need to come away from the gearbox before I can take them off the crank, and I can't manually lift the block with the crank in. So I've painted myself into a corner and will have to roll the car out, take off the bumper, front panel and radiator to use a strap through the cylinders to crane the block out. Also, did I mention my car doesn't fit through my current garage door? The sheer number of factors, past decisions and random chance (like the new garage door not being delivered last week, as due), is unbelievable. My decision making has been stupid but I am rushing to get it off to Turners and I thought I could save undoing all the work to get me to the MOT. No chance. I've decided I'm going with Turners as I can't mess around with it and I know they'll do a good job. I do appreciate the ideas though, but in this case I had already committed to it by the time I saw them. In a rather cruel twist, my phone is has a feature where it shows photos I took 'on this day a year ago' in my notifications. It is spamming me with the previous engine assembly and fitting after it was rebuilt. A year ago to the day. Again, I have no words. I just wish now I'd listened to Chazza back then and sent it off to Turners in the first place. I realise I have been incredibly whingey duing this process, I will be toning it down.

That does it. Started up, sounded good for a few minutes then clacky. It does sound like it's more over the cylinders than the tappets though I know these noises travel around. If I had to guess, I'd say one majorly slipped on the passenger side and one or two just about moving, with another going on the driver side. I'll be emailing Turners now. I think I can strip it down to a bare block in-situ, the issue will be getting the crank out. And reassembly of course, but I'll cross that one when motivation comes back. To think I was within an hour of heading off to the MOT. I don't have words.

My biggest complaint is the smell. It's like normal petrol mixed with ammonia or something equally unpleasant. Not the most important consideration for a fuel, I know.

Looks like you did call it over a year ago Chazza. Here's a closer-up closeup but I can't say I see the difference between that and the others.

Those are my exact symptoms. I did have a noisy tappet or four, as seen they had not fully filled with oil but on taking the valley gasket off today, all are now rock solid. On cold start, the engine now sounds really good. It was the noise getting worse when hot that has led to Turner's to suggest it might be slipped liners. It is cylinder 5 or 7 - exatly where I heard the tappet noise before rebuild, which I had blamed on the bad cam. I had the block pressure tested, cleaned, etc, etc but if they didn't look for slipped liners, they wouldn't have found it (I'm told). I've just reassembled it after replacing the tappets so tomorrow I'll start it, if it does it again, I have my answer but I am now quite sure I know. I know I have a predisposition to assuming the worst case, but at what point am I allowed to be entirely peed off with this build?