Water In Engine? HELP!!!

Greetings all,

I have just picked up my first Landy (2a LWB) and it has an engine full of water and non in the radiator! I have not tried to start it, the farmer I got it from said I will have to change the head gasket, is this the case or is there something else I can do as that seems like a lot of work if it is just the seal from the radiator - please dont shoot me for asking stupids questions, I'm new to landy's

P

depending how long the water has been in there it will want a new engine if left too long.

HGF sounds about right

The water has been in there for about a month, what does HGF mean?

Cheers!

Take out the spark plugs and try to turn it over BY HAND ONLY Like frantic said it depends how long it's been in there.
If it turns over ok then drain the oil to see if there's any water in the sump. Refill with oil and turn it over on the starter still with no spark plugs do this for about a minute to get the fresh oil circulated around the system
Refit the plugs and see if it starts and go on from there

Thanks again for the reply,

I brought some fresh oil and I drained the sump today, a bit of water came out followed by about 4 liters of brown sludgy oil. That radiator is empty if that helps.

I'm wondering if there is a seal that has gone between the radiator and the head that I could fix rather than take the whole head off?

Nope, the head gasket will be warped/split/or maybe lifted. There is only 2 places that water and oil can contaminate each other. 1 is if the head gasket is shot and the other is if the engine itself is cracked. More likely it's the head gasket

Thanks Robbo, I will bite the bullet and do the head gasket...

Cheers everyone!

peach said:

Thanks Robbo, I will bite the bullet and do the head gasket...

Cheers everyone!

Click to expand...

the head gasket aint too much work to be honest ive just done mine and reconditioned the head ( still not sorted me smoke problem ) but has cured the oil seapage problem and breathed a lot of new life and power into the old girl

just remember you cant **** up the timing by taking the head off and all you need to do is put it back together as it came apart

if the cylinders are full of rust n stuff its highly reccomended that you take the pistons out and hone the bores out before attempting to turn it over this also gives you thr chance of checking the piston rings

if the rings are shot there wont be any water in the cylinders itll be in the bottom of the engine with the oil

glaze busters arent too expensive neither and make all the difference when used

Clarke CHT259 3-Legged Glaze Breaker - Machine Mart

I'd check your piston rings aren't knackered, fill each piston with a bit of oil/wd40/whatever and see if it runs out after a while. Sounds like they're probably ok though if the pistons are still full of water, lol!

Water in sump could have got there by leaking past head gasket into oilways or by other means, not necessarily a cause for alarm.

As you've had oil and water mixed get some cheapo diesel 15/40 oil and two filters and change oil for proper stuff after first few hundred miles or so. I'm assuming this is a petrol, diesel oil has more additives in it. Other option is to do an oil flush with ATF mixed with oil, I did it and engine runs nice and oil stays clean but some people frown on doing this....

Also probably worth giving the radiator etc a proper flush out with rad flush _after_ you've changed head but _before_ you go for a long run as the radiator may well have a lot of oil gunge in it and won't work very well.

Hopefully everything else is well but before you start for the first time give it a lot (i.e. couple of hundred) turns with ignition off and plugs out using starter handle or on starter motor to make sure there's oil and not water in all the big-end bearings...

It might be worth popping the sump off and having a look round to see how rusted up the big ends look?

PS: Get us some pictures if you can we all like a nosey!

aint there core plugs in the head on that model (under the rocker shaft ) i found all four had blown out on my 2,5 n/a, and when i came to fill up the radiator water just went straight in the sump

peter8315 said:

aint there core plugs in the head on that model (under the rocker shaft ) i found all four had blown out on my 2,5 n/a, and when i came to fill up the radiator water just went straight in the sump

Click to expand...

yep there is 4 of the buggers in there

Changed the head gasket, and the exhaust and water pump gaskets...

refilled the radiator, it peed out of the part where the pump is, maybe the small gasket goes on the bottom and the thick one on top? Does it matter which direction the pump insert valve (not sure what it is called, no haynes yet!!!) ????

I stupidly thought I better re check the valve clearances (I wish I didn't) and...
1) I could not find any marks on the pulley.
2) So I set it up statically,and I went by what was written on the head, and put the plug leads in the same order, turning it over by hand to listen for the click of the points and setting them to 0.10", 1 on the distributor wsas the rearest to the front of tghe engine, next was valve set 3, then 4 then 2...
3) It would not start...
4) I sprayed auto start (the magic yellow can that starts anything down the carb throat) still no joy...

I noticed the dizzy has 2.5 D stamped on it, does this or any of the above make sense?


What am I doing wrong?

it sounds like you've no spark at all

You canot "listen" for the points, you need a timing light or a multimeter to do it. where did you put the number one lead?

By "pump insert valve" I'm guesing you mean thermostat, it is curved side up.

Get a manual. You can download one from the internet.

Are you sure you are not confusing valve clearances and timing?

You can set valves by the 9 method, that is when no 4 rocker is open set no5, when no1 is rocking set no 8 and so on.

I know landys are surposed to be easy to work on and anybody can do them but you do still need some mechanical knolage (how ever it's spelt) so as to understand the systems and how things work