Dom's engine top-end rebuild

Hi lads,

I've decided I might as well put some pics up of me attempting to fit new cams and cylinder head to my Landy.

I pushed the boat out and got an ACR stage 2.1 head and faster cam rather than just an regular unleaded one. I also got a new water pump and tappets. I know I could have just bought a 200tdi or whatever but that is not my idea of fun.

Anyway here's the pics of what I've got so far. My mate's also donated an old Weber 32/36DGV carb that I might try and mate to this lot when I've got it running. My aim is to have the head and cams done in the next month at the latest as we're driving down to Le Mans for the 24hr race and my poor old bus is too poorly to make the journey this year.

Any advice of other things to replace or look at while I'm going gratefully accepted.....first thing is to get crank pulley off on Sunday if I can work it out...

I can be of no help what so ever, please take lots of pics if you can

John

Aargh!! BLUE gasket sealant........................hate that stuff..

whats wrong with blue gasket sealant i use hylomar its blue ,there is an issue if you use anything on head gasket though

I wasn't going to put any sealer on the head gasket - is that right? I'm going to swap the diffs back to 4.7's if the engine is more torquey, thats what the blue sealer is for. I was going to use the black silicone stuff on the sump and water pump...

yes your right ,3.5 diffs too tall ?

Cheers, just been out today for a 100 mile or so drive - 90% of the time 4.7's would be better but round here its very hilly and 3.5's are needed, but only just now I've got the carb set up right. I reckon with just a bit more torque the 4.7's will work best. I'd really like to find some 4.11's but not seen any for a sensible price.

Anyway the 3.5 diffs I got off ebay last year are quite noisy and the back one sounds like it's about to eat itself!

4.7s will be better for hills etc,4.11s not been std lr are hard to find at a reasonable price ,i wanted some to fit a defender with disco box and big tyres for someone

Sorry yes, as usual I've got me 4.7's and 3.5's mixed up....so long as I don't fit one to the back and the other to the front....

Here's the start of the striptease...a restful few hours swearing at rusted bolts followed by a frustrating hour stood in the ****ing wet cold waiting for my missus after I managed to lock myself out of the garage!

Now then. I wasn't going to, but is it going to be easier to take the whole engine out? I just want to do the cam and head but there's not a right lot of room and the battery tray/air box holder are not easily removed...advice...

Also, I've got a little hand held steam cleaner and would like to get the block clean. Should I just brush on some gunk then blast it off with the cleaner? It's inside now so don't want to make it too wet.

And for my next dumb question. There's quite a lot of copper washer type things (with a strange lip on them) in the head-gasket kit....where do they go? I'm trying to find a list of what bits I need to check/swap and which I discard otherwise I'm bound to miss something and have to do it all again!

this style Google Image Result for http://www.johnrichardssurplus.co.uk/content/images/m/076.jpg

Yes, that's them....there's lot of other o-rings and gaskets in there too that I'm not sure what to do with...

jamesmartin said:

whats wrong with blue gasket sealant i use hylomar its blue ,there is an issue if you use anything on head gasket though

Click to expand...

Ah, nothing wrong it, works at treat, I just hate the colour..really hate the colour.. I stopped using it a few years back, if I have to use the silicon stuff, I go out of my way to get black.
For most things now, I use the thick treacly stuff, "Indian head, or Wizz", it seems to get different names, but comes in a brown pot with a fuzzy brush thing inside. Brilliant stuff, never lets me down, and it's not blue.

Anyone know what the copper o-rings are? I'm off up to the garage in a bit so will hopefully find out when I get further into dismantling everything!

Only heads I've done before were on a turbo diesel Ford D-Series engine and a Mk3 Escort both of which were with scrounged head gasket only none of this fancy kit of parts stuff...

Well I've worked out what four of the copper rings are for - oil gallery feed pipe from block. Still got some bigger ones to figure.

O-rings seem to be all over the place: thermostat, fuel filler, breather, etc - bet I miss one and something leaks.

Now then I got what looks like a regular composite gasket set with the new head but on the shelf I found a set that my mate got me for Christmas (my friends are a strange as me). It looks to be a Bearmach gasket set and has thicker looking gaskets, and has a copper head gasket....Now which to use?

The gasket that is on looks to have been blowing a wee bit between cylinders, or is that muck? When I measured compression it was ok. Though the head bolts only seemed to be nipped tight rather than head-bolt tight!

Rockers all look to be nice and free will blow the holes through with squirt but not strip down I think...

I started to try and clean the block with gunk and my mates' mini steam cleaner....what a ball-ache and mess....can't be arsed with that for now. Will have to wait until I give it a strip down....

yes its has been blowing ,but not blown ,which it would have run very rough ,most gaskets go like yours black staining shows were combustion gasses have passed ,should have clean fire ring all the way round ,you allways get extra washers to take account of all variants ,temp sender ,water pipes ,leak off pipes etc ,composite gaskets are good

Right I'll go with the composite then.

Ta

Another quick question, would you guys clean those piston crowns or leave well alone?

They look reasonably clean with no loose carbon. Nice and shiney is my favourite but does it really matter ? (no)
I'd just put masking tape over the oil and water ways then use a brass brush to remove the loosest stuff.

(but just between you and me, polished Ali is best. And you can drive for al least a mile before they get all cacky again)