These symptoms...all point to what?

hope it's nothing too serious, just had a valve go on ours and it cost the xmas fund to get it sorted,

By king lead I assume you mean the lead to the coil?

Landybird: I hope it doesn't get to that. Won't be going to a garage though thats a fact!

Did the compression test today.

Cylinder 1: 100PSI
Cylinder 2: 160PSI
Cylinder 3: 150PSI
Cylinder 4: 155PSI

Anyone know what they should run at roughly? Well quite clearly there is something a miss with cylinder 1!. I Guess 2,3,4 are within reasonable tolerance. Time to take it apart. May as well not mess about - going to take the engine out and do rear oil seal and clutch while I am at it.

ave you zapped a few drips of oil through the plug hole and re-run the tests ?

tis prolly rings, but have the head off and do the seat while it's off

Not done the wet test yet. Why do you think rings more likely than head gasket?

Fairly obvious what is causing the problems then! Ah well yesterday got the engine out, may as well do other bits and bobs while I am at it

looks like head gasket failure to me cheap enough job to fix-plus side it should go better

I think you might be right

Yeah very cheap - got a genuine Land Rover top end gasket set for £11 posted so all good

Clutch changed, front camshaft seal changed (that was interesting!) and now it's ready to go back in.

Anyone know any easy ways to get the engine back in? I tried for a little while on Sunday but was a pain getting it aligned up so gave up.

on your own or with help, methods change

Well - its in! Just need to fill up with antifreeze and give it a go. After lts of humming and harring I got it in.

For a start, I jacked up the landie and put some flat sheets of wood under to give me an easy way of sliding the engine hoist about (a lot easier than trying to do it on gravel/mud!). Used a small jack to just slightly support the gearbox as it was sitting high at the front of the gearbox. Got it aligned on the spline with a bit of jiggling by turning the engine at the front. Kept in place, made sure all the studs were aligned then used a block of wood at the front of the engine just to jolt it forwards that bit more than what the hoist or by pushing on it couldn't achieve.

Right...went to Morocco and back in the Series...was running fine for a while and then the symptoms started to come back, by the time we got to Spain we were down on top speed, but thought oh well keep going. By the time we came back through Europe, it was sounding poor as well as performing poor.

Did a compression test today, and oh dear, the cylinder nearest to the bulkehad is back to 100PSI. Oh dear. Should I have got it crack tested and skimmed? It *looked* fine but that doesn't say much does it. Or is it that my head is knackered and I should give up and get another (perhaps re-con) head?

Or could it be something I am not thinking of which could cause the head gasket to go on the same (I am assuming, won't know exactly where it is until I take the head off) place again?

Cheers

Alex

Sounds like you were lucky to get it home..

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but i def think you should have got head skimmed. A re-con head with some form of guarantee is probably best way to go now, if its the second time you've had this, would you trust it even if you got it inspected, repaired and skimmed? Sounds like you've done a lot of miles with a damaged head...

take head off again, look for damage to the top of the block, get the head skimmed and pressure tested, if its gone in the same place it cannot be straight on one end or the other.

before lifting head off have you checked your valve clearances on non 4cylinder? just a thought

Yeah, glad it made it back! Yeah we have done quite a few thousand miles on a dodgy head, perhaps refurb will be the way, will have a think on it once I know what is happening with it.

I have not checked valve clearances...that is a good point though, makes sense to do that before taking the head off.

Well...valve clearances...checked them all while I was at it...not one was right...adjsuted up...and appears to run much better. It could just be a pyscoligical effect as sometimes is the case....so I will take it for a run tomorrow and do another compression test.

Anyone know what compression bar/psi a 2.25 petrol should be....or rather what you would expect from a 47 year old engine?!

if they are all the same i would be happy mate, as you dont know what the engines had done through its life

Yeah pretty much my way of thinking too...just wondered what the norm might be

Looking forward to taking it for a spin later. Was so happy I even treated it to a genuine rear light...so hopfeully the bulb won't keep falling out like it has done on the crappy Wipac ones for the last 3 years!

Vroooooooooom....deffo an inprovement, it's not just in my head. Wahey!