ThreePointFive

Oh I see - clearance would mean the cam had lost height... I understand that. Does that lack of clearance cause a problem to be addressed and need shimming, though? I've pulled out the lifters on one side and aside from circular swirl marks they're not scratched as such. Rocker disassembled and cleaned out, some very small swarf was in the rocker shaft itself but no visible issues. The 'tower' parts of the assembly are very tight on the shaft, I think when knocking them into position they might have caught on the bolt holes and shaved particles off. It's a theory, anyway. While everything is out I also want to check if the valves are opening and closing the correct amount, I have a DTI I can use. Is there an easy way to work it out based on the cam spec? I can probably google this. Sorry for all the questions.

The biggest cause of wear has to be the 20-ish start/stop/start/stop and the low RPMs while trying to get it running up at 3,000 from cold and then stopping the exhausts from melting. I've poked around with the poking sticks and I can't get the 20 thou poking stick under any tappet clip. I might be thinking this through wrongly, but surely the minimum preload should always be present, full or empty of oil, no matter where the cam is in its cycle - otherwise what is the point of the preload? I know the answer to this will be "the correct preload" but is it better to have too much or too little preload? I can add the smallest of the shims to the existing medium ones to put it in some middle setting but I won't know exact numbers.

Apex, Zenith.. Superior? Peak/Summit? Sort of has adventurey-connotations.

I'm going to give it a go as I have nothing to lose by knowing my current settings, I can always use a vice to press out the oil. Running in the cam while trying to still sort out my MS was the biggest mistake of this build. I might as well have kept going with the old engine to get it running right and then rebuilt it knowing the map was good. Changing two completely separate variables at the same time is not good science.

It has been run above that whenever I can, but it's had multiple starts where it would have been initially below that or cut out due to being cold/bad map etc.

I've been re-familiarising myself with setting the preload and all advice says to do it with them empty, which of course they are not. I'll have to skip that step and just check the wear. Thanks for the help as always.

It is certainly less shiny/smooth than it was, not rough but definitely not new. Yeah I thought that might be the case, can't imagine many people do things this way.... I'll think one of the rocker arms is very tight on the shaft, I'm going to take the assembly off to see why and check them all while it's off. I'll pull the lifters and take a look at the bottoms to see how they've worn. Will basting it in assembly lube while it's all exposed do any harm or has that horse already bolted?

I'm no expert (as we established) but this isn't what I thought a cam with less than 20 minutes on it would look like. It's like this on every lobe near enough.

I completely get why it's so popular here, it's the vehicle aimed at the average user of this forum. But for me, I've seen a lot of reasons not to like it and they're not all based on where it's made or the way Ineos has conducted itself throughout the bizarre way they've marketted this car. The new Defender is a bit like a meat-free burger. It doesn't matter how much better it might taste, how much better for you and the planet, etc. It's not beef and it seems that's enough for some.

I think the one thing we would all agree on is that they will only be fitted to garage queens.

Camouflage might go out the window the minute you switch it on.

I knew I would be firmly alone in my opinions so don't feel you have to hedge your views on my account! Even I don't agree with everything I say... Fact is, most of these things are disgustingly tacky. I think this is all just a result of a wider shift in society towards the surface appearance of "authenticity", simplicity and honesty without any tolerance for the downsides that come with that - everything has to look good on Instagram and practicality is secondary. I hadn't looked at the prices before I commented, so I'm filing this in the saw-them-coming pile of Defender upgrades. But if it was a choice of a dark stained top pad and gear knobs vs the baggy leather covered offerings seen on the fake special editions... Sign me up for some splinters. For the most part I think standard is better, I guess I am just so used to seeing terrible upgrades that I have a tolerance for the less-terrible end of that scale. Soon in my build thread, for the judgement of all.

That's a great idea Dicky, I was looking at them yesterday and the mounting wouldn't have been right with cable ties. I even have a pair of medium ones that will do the job perfectly, just need to buy the large ones. I've got some nylon webbing strap that I'm going to use to secure a disklok to the rear of the cubby, thanks for the inspiration Mr Snagger. I will still end up buying a seat organiser just for all the stuff I'll carry when using the car, but not at all for the purposes I originally started this thread.

I've got to say, as a replacement for cracking top dash pad, I can see a nicely finished (so not this), oiled/stained bit of wood as an interesting alternative. Maybe I have gone completely off the rails but I can see a wooden door handle being a lot nicer than the plastic offerings, too... On the other hand, I priced up a 90's worth of billet aluminum anodised hinges/handles/fuel caps a few days ago. I stopped when I hit £4k and I'm sure I left off a good few. Bearing in mind you can only wash them in the milk of a golden eagle while facing South and screaming the Bulgarian national anthem, lest the finish shall become dust, suddenly a bit of wood seems 'heavy duty'. I might have turned into a habitual Defender polisher without even knowing. I won't say what my new wheels are, then....😮

I'm not sure it came across but I really am very grateful for the offers of help. I'll not buy any parts for now and see what I find with the covers and valley gasket off.

I would have to agree but they seem quite keen to be thought of as proper west country around here so you'd be very unpopular for saying that! I am looking at moving back to the Shire though, potentially very close to you, in fact. Not that that was a motivation! I appreciate the offers, and I will bear that in mind but I think first and foremost I need to take it apart and see what it's doing mechanically. For the cost of new head bolts, head gasksets, a front crank seal, injector seals and a weekend, I think there is a minimum level of effort required of me before asking people to travel to help. If I discover a mangled mess then I suspect my chipperness will soon change. Ordering the parts this weekend so they'll be with me for next weekend. I'm just keen to avoid taking the engine out again as that'll mean stripping so much of the front end.

With the amount of beer I owe you, you'd be in a coma anyway...

I'm in Wiltshire, near to Chippenham. Your last point is one I'm really thinking about, particularly if the preload is wrong too. I'm still running in the cam, so that photo was at 3,000 rpm not idle! It definitely seems less MS-related and more mechanical now.

Fired it up again for the first time in months. I've made multiple little tweaks over that time to try to eliminate any reason for it running lean, mostly around air leaks and reinstating the original tune (thanks Nige). It seems that a couple of changes have resulted: It runs like a pile of carp and sounds terrible - it at least sounded nice last time Only one of the exhaust manifold pipes is now glowing The front crank seal is now p!ssing oil Just to prove I'm not exagerating just how red it gets: The desire to give up is unreal at the moment, when the rest of the car is pretty much done I cannot start disassembling everything yet again. I want to put it on a trailer and send it off to someone else to deal with at this point, but there's no one who would do that. Also having taken another look at the oil, I've come to a decision. I am going to take the heads off and have a look, something is not happy so I want to check my work. I think there are some potential issues causing the redness but as I'm now only getting one cylinder glowing, that does change things from before. I think the most likely culprit is something to do with fuel pressure/volume being supplied to the injector. It only got hot when going from 2,500 to 3,000+ RPM so I'm wondering if being the last cylinder on the rail means there just isn't enough fuel by the time it's gone round the rail at high demand. As I mentioned a good while back, I took that regulator thing off the return line (not the one that sits under the plenum that you take the vacuum feed off), so I wonder if the flow is too free back to the tank. My other guess is that there's an air leak on the injector seal as I haven't replaced those and it might be ruining the mixture. These are all just guesses by someone who doesn't know a huge amount about engines. Having looked at the oil, I need to take a look for damage as there are some very small shavings and they have to be caused by something. I've seen the bottom end when I did the conrod bolts, I think it's top end. I will use the opportunity to whip the timing cover off again and check the timing is correct and renew the crank seal. The oil leak is just bizarre, I must have caught the seal when I last fitted the crank pulley as it's never had a problem before. I'll also check the lifter preload as I am not confident I was as thorough with that as I could have been. I intend to strip it down to the block in the car, I think access is good enough and there's no reason to take it out of the car but if this is just laziness and going to make things difficult, I am hoping someone will pipe up. Long winded and boring post, but perhaps that's fitting for how I feel about this build.

My roof won't be painted until the second week of July or I would have been very much up for this. Drats.

The only way I can see to do it (on a later style door, anyway) would be to extend the six bolts through the door card from the spare wheel mounting, otherwise you're still reliant on those trim clips. I'm not doing that, so you've confirmed that as a no-go. I've had a look at it tonight and the best place is behind the cubby box on the bulkhead replacement bar.

Coupled with a desire for a low tailgate for access (compared to the taller rear cross member on a Defender) and a flat floor, I can see how they ended up in that configuration. I just don't understand why they couldn't design themselves out of that corner when you're starting with a blank sheet. It looks like an aftermarket add-on to me.

Exactly my concern.

All good ideas - is the tunnel metal or plastic in yours, Jeremy? Someone wanted extra leg room Mo, so the bulkhead and it's useful mountings is gone but I can use the bulkhead replacement bar to mount quick fists using some substantial cable ties. I can't fit it to the driver's side seatbox as the X-End pedal lock flips down, might be able to go into the passenger side but my monster battery cut off switch is likely going to get in the way - I'll take a look later. Passenger side tunnel sounds good but will need some hefty washers as it's plastic - albeit thick. Like me. What have people got for actually mounting it? As Mr. Landroversforever says, there's a vast array but not sure what to go for.

I know these things get a lot of love on here and I completely understand why. But that rear bumper structure is so low. 🤥