Heads done! Whoop Whoop

Thanks you to all who offered advice and help - finished doing the heads earlier today, fired up first time with only a little adjustment required to the throttle cable (idling at 3000rpm is maybe a little fast)

so back to loving it! and i'd say to anyone facing a head gasket job that its not as bad as you think - as everyone else has said, be methodical and its grand

Hopefully won't hear from me for a while! at least until Monday anyway

well done. hope you have a bit longer to enjoy than monday

raise:

Good Man!!!
Can you post the details of the machine shop that did the work on the head(s) etc. as some members fairly local to you may need them in the future.
Did you finish up getting the heads skimmed or were they ok?.
At least only having to buy one plug saved you a few bob :hysterically_laughi any Scottish or Cavan blood in your veins !!!!

Good Luck..your result is what we likes to hear on here..

hi irish, its great to have the job done & thanks for all your help, couldn't have done it without it!

the machine shop is T.Hobbs precision engineering in Carryduff - all of half a mile from my house! i ended up having both of the heads skimmed, where the gasket had gone (blowing compression straight out the side of the cylinder) he showed me a mark/cut/ding in the face which possibly caused the failure?? in the end it was skimmed twice to get that out, which thankfully got rid of it completely - didn't want anymore to come off it!

ended up just replacing all plugs. all in the bill probably came in around £150, not counting my new torque wrench, finally a great excuse to buy one!!

was amazed that out of five different mechanics / garages i spoke to at different stages of it, not one of them would have taken the job on, including land rover specialists only up the road!!

Just goes to show that if it cannot be sorted by a new part, the Stealers don't want to know.
Whatever happened to straightforward ingenuity and engineering procedures...Oh, I forgot, they are not Mechanics..they are "Technicians"...just go to the stores, swap the suspect part over...doesn't work, back to the stores, get a different part out etc. etc.
:5bbeatdeadhorse5:

Well done. Just gt my gasket set delivered from island 4x4 plus new serpentine belt and head bolts. have purchased a 16mm deep impact socket and a 600mm breaker bar from good advise given here. Did you have the Rangie on ramps whilst doing it as the exhaust has to be split between the manifold and exhaust on boh sides so the heads can come off. I dont fancyy all the fuss with the heat sheilds as I'm sure i will end up a days job on these. Spoken to my local machine shop who quoted me £40 for a head skim if needed and nothig if its flat. Is this a good price ?

hi willos, definitely worth the tools, and a torque wrench if you haven't got one. great piece of mind knowing everything is as tight as it should be!

my heads cost me £30 each, plus the same again to get the sheared spark plug out. £40 is grand i reckon.

i didn't have it on ramps, just on my drive and cause i sheared the plug and didn't start it again it was on the bump stops. had lowered it to help my short legged wife out! i had very little room to undo the manifold to exhaust bolts but they were easy enough.

the heat shields had to come off though, along with the manifold (i just bent the heatshields out of the way) cause the heatshield blocks the manifold bolts and the manifold blocks the head bolts! all came off ok. putting it back on was fiddly!

all in, definitely the hardest part was the stubborn head bolts, but a good impact socket solves that from the start.

good luck

Well done mate. It is definately a satisfying feeling when you put it all back together and it works

Did a similar job on my '99 P38A 4.0 late last year and posted the "adventure" here Engine Refresh (top end) « PaulP38A.com as a guide (or warning) to others.

Cheers, Paul.

Regarding the heatshields....If you have access to a Rivnut gun and M5 rivnuts, the old seized screws can be cut off the heatshields, rivnuts fitted together with new M5 Stainless screws. I did this on mine and when I had to replace the RH manifold because of a crack in the flexible joint, the heatshield came apart easy.
As an alternative to stainless screws, you could also use Brass.