Howdy...

Have engine out of my defender at the moment, doing a clutch change and am tinkering about trying to find anything else i can attend to while its out...

just as an aside.... Dont know if anyone else has had this issue but both wading plugs (the one in the flywheel housing and the one in the timing belt housing) are stuck fast,and now rounded off, absolutely sure i didnt do them over-tight, but have had them in for some time...

anyway, there's a fair accumulation of oil at both ends of the engine, which i at first thought may be leaking crankshaft seals but these dont look to be leaking, as far as i can tell the leaks are occuring around the securing bolts both on the flywheel housing and the t.belt housing. having checked the torque of these bolts i found they have loosened somewhat even though they were originally set to the correct torque.

Any suggestions how i can stop this happening? my idea would be to use thread locking on the bolts and maybe also put a bead of liquid gasket around the bolt head. Exactly why the bolts should have lossened in the first place is a bit of a mystery especially in the case of the t.belt housing since there's no real mechanical stress on it whereas the flywheel housing could be loosened due to a pivoting action between engine and box?

Would renewing the bolts be a good idea? Maybe theyre fatigued and have stretched under stress?!

I have new crank seals on the way, but as i said i'm not entirely convinved these will solve the problem.

Not sure, but all I'll say is that you should never leave your wading plugs in permanently, as you could get an accumulation of oil in their fowling your belt/clutch

LR say remove them every 6000 miles to allow any fluid to drain out.

i can't recommend irwin bolt grippers enough for getting stuck nuts and bolts out. The harder you twist, the harder they grip. they're brilliant!

I wouldn't recommend locking compound on the timing case bolts, they can be a nightmare to remove anyway, especially the ones in the top right where the water pump sends water in to the block! I have actually used liberal amounts of copper grease to make them easier to remove! I wouldn't have thought those bolts would really wear out much in terms of the threads, as long as they're not damaged? Not done anything on the flywheel myself, although I will soon when I swap my 2.5na for my 200tdi