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have i cracked my block?


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hi, once again please excuse the lack of knowledge - this is my first landy with no prior mechanical experience but im trying

i've been having cooling problems recently which looked due to a radiator blocked up solid with mud. symptons were overheating, buring off water, and no heat from heater.

on good advice i took it down to the jet wash to start getting rid of the muck in the radiator. back home i've noticed i am loosing water (drip, drip, drip)... on a little examination i think ive found the source.....

(excuse the terrible description).... its a few inches lower and deeper than the centre of the fan at the front of the engine (just beneath where the pipes to the radiator go. it doesnt look to be coming from a pipe joint, just eaking out and dripping down. any ideas folks?

ive heard of blocks "cracking" - could it be this? if so how easy/difficult for a novice to fix and how expensive to get someone who knows what theyre doing to fix it?

many thanks in advance. dan

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The nose of the water pump (hidden by the pulley) has a small hole in it where water leaks out if the pump seal fails. Water will run back onto the casing and drip off where it can. Some makes of pump have the hole nearer to the nose, so yours might be out of sight. The best way to see if a pump is leaking from this hole is to lie under the truck and look upwards.

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Les.

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thanks les, i will look for that this morning. i have the viscous unit off now and water is deffinitely coming from behind the hub... going to try and get the hub off now.

by the way, my viscous unit is caked with mud etc - dont know much about these, what does it do (apart from being a big fan) and could it be broken?

thanks, dan

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by the way, my viscous unit is caked with mud etc - dont know much about these, what does it do (apart from being a big fan) and could it be broken?

The fan is filled with a fluid that locks up when it gets hot.

When cold, with the engine off, the fan should spin freely by hand.

When hot, again with the engine off, the fan should resist turning, as it's now locked to the top pulley.

They are expensive yokes to replace. I just fitted an electric fan when mine died.

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thanks folks. i got everything off today (including hub which was quite tight!). leak is definitely from the drain hole in the nose of the pump.

no obvious cracks in the pump itself so i'm tempted to just replace the gasket and see if that cures it. IS IT likely to be the pump itself ?? :huh:

presumably the only place to get replacement gasket is Land Rover themselves, right?

also, now all this lot is off anything else you would suggest doing at the same time?... new hoses (although mine look fine), heard some people say silicon hoses is the way to go?

anything else worth doing?

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dont bother with sealant, just take your time and get all the old gasket off the engine leaving a nice clean flat surface. if possible use something that won't scratch the surface - if you absolutely have to use a chisel or something then go real easy with it and at a shallow angle.

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when replacing do i need to glue/seal the new gasket on or just place it in and then bolt the pump on?

I use a stanley blade to carefully cut away the old gasket.

Be careful when torquing up the pump bolts. The ones on the right are prone to stripping.

If you don't know the correct torque, I can look it up for you.

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thanks all.

i've used a very mild wire wool which has cleaned up the surface quite nicely.

stupid question time... how do i measure the torque im applying to the bolts? presumably i need a new bit of kit - any idea of price / supplier?

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stupid question time... how do i measure the torque im applying to the bolts? presumably i need a new bit of kit - any idea of price / supplier?

Using a torque wrench. Expensive ones are very expensive. You can get cheapy ones from machine mart and others, or your local tool shop.

Or, you can just do it by feel. 25Nm is lightish pressure on the end of a half inch ratchet.

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thanks.

just bought a draper torque wrench, £30. had a choice of one which did 10 - 80 nM and another which did 30 - 150 nM. having looked at the torque setting tables it looked as if i'll get more use out of the lower range so went for that one.

hopefully new water pump will arrive from paddocks tomorrow.

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had a choice of one which did 10 - 80 nM and another which did 30 - 150 nM.

LR nut and bolts are usually a low torque that you have to be careful not to exceed, or they are done up VFT with a 6ft breaker bar, so a wise choice of torque wrench.

Good luck with the job

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Today the everything went back on... including new pump and gasket. Thanks for all the advice.

Ran on tickover for 30 mins no problem, temp staying where it should. Some water vapour out of the top of the radiator so put a bottle of RadWeld type stuff in.

Ran again for 30 mins on tickover and the water vapour stopped, temp still where it should be Great.

Went to drive off. 1st gear, moved forward about 5 feet then...

1) engine raced as of throttle was stuck open

2) a catching noise started (just as of the fan was catching the cowl but it definitely wasn't)

3) a LOT of white smoke from engine bay (seemed to be mainly from the passenger side)

4) engine cut out.

Inspected engine bay and nothing looked amiss.

5 minutes later she fired up just fine. any suggestions what the above might have been???... and is it anything to worry about???

>> i might need a new thread for the next bit........ :(

Ok, so then drove for about 5 miles until a vibration started from low down at the front. Quite loud, can be heard about engine, sounds like something catching or vibrating. Not there when you put the clutch in. Vibration gets faster when you put more throttle on.

Stopped in layby and a very nice gentleman in a 110 stopped behind and helped me take a look. He said prop looked fine, bit of play in the front diff but couldnt see anything too exciting underneath. Said he could hear a bit of a vibration at back of engine but didnt know what it might be, suggested some kind of plate but couldnt see anything.

Anyway, i got home but i dont like the sound of this vibration noise. Odd thing is, it certainly wasn't there when i parked it up 3 weeks ago, since then all i've done is put a new water pump on.

By the way, temperature fine throughout and no loss of power.

Wondering where do I look first? :huh:

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