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S3 Landie....


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Richard,

 

Rule was a standard 1m Engineers laid across the manifold faces in line with the engine. All appeared to be OK.

 

Gasket that came off - and thus was presumably fitted by the engines previous owner - was part no 274171 - this is what I replaced it with. Craddocks label it for the 2.25 petrol engine - is this incorrect??

I haven't looked at what the scrap engine has, maybe I will take that manifold set up off tomorrow - from memory though it looks the same with a line of material running full length. If it's not I can order a pair of the tin ones and maybe fit the scrap engine manifolds to the running engine.

 

Still struggling to work out/understand how I am getting exhaust gases out of an inlet port! If it were an exhaust port or the junction between the inlet and exhaust manifold I could understand it - as it is though I am baffled. No doubt it will turn out to be something stupidly simple - it is a Landrover after all - but its giving me major headaches right now.

 

On the run back she behaved herself - I actually made good time even with a meal stop at Fleet services averaging about 55 mph according to the GPS speedo on my phone and it was not until I was in the Dartford tunnel that I heard this problem begin - quietly at first -so much so I thought it was the gearbox rattle echoing but then it rapidly got louder until it echoed through the tunnel. So I limped home at about 30 mph. Cruising, no acceleration, it is a muted burble but as soon as you touch the accelerator its a loud banging sound. You can hear it in this clip:

 

th_Engine_problem_zpsce55ab1a.jpg

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Ah well - that plan is shot down - got the tester out and found a towing coupling had fallen on it breaking it. Can afford to replace the gauge OR get a head gasket right now.....

Will get the manifolds off the scrap engine and see how they go but I'm not holding my breath. :-(

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Will dig out the compression tester. If it were the head gasket, would it not do it all the time, not kick in after a few hundred yards??

 

Blowing between cylinders, will run reasonable until under load, fits what you say. Exhaust blow from inlet manifold due to one cylinder blowing through to adjacent one with open inlet valve.

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Thanks Richard - better order a gasket kit then. Swapped the manifolds today - sliced a finger on a jubilee clip, nice and deep of course. Only diffetence was the exhaust manifold on the engine had bolts whilst the one from the scrap engine has studs! Just as well really as two of the bolts sheared....... :-(

Need to get 3 exhaust nuts now but if the head has to come off thats not a priority...

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Thanks Richard - better order a gasket kit then. Swapped the manifolds today - sliced a finger on a jubilee clip, nice and deep of course. Only diffetence was the exhaust manifold on the engine had bolts whilst the one from the scrap engine has studs! Just as well really as two of the bolts sheared....... :-(

Need to get 3 exhaust nuts now but if the head has to come off thats not a priority...

 

Neil,

As I said before, a compression test will prove this before stripping, can't you borrow one? Ten minutes and the job is done. Without actually witnessing these signs it is not guaranteed that I am correct, but a quick test will prove whether the head should come off.

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If I am right - and the engine has to be getting up to operating temp before the signs reveal themselves it will mean trying to remove screened plugs and their connectors that are both too hot to touch in order to carry out the compression test.

Not a problem getting one out - getting it back in without screwing (no pun intended) the threads up could prove to be "entertaining....... What I will do is reconnect the exhaust as the nuts from Namrick should, I hope, be here before the gasket set and take it for a test run. If fitting the other manifold is the cure then all well and good.

I suspect it will not be though and after 1/4 mile the signes will return. At that point I feel its going to be a head off job no matter what. Simplest solution is a blown gasket between two cylinders as you say. Worst of all will be a cracked head.

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If I am right - and the engine has to be getting up to operating temp before the signs reveal themselves it will mean trying to remove screened plugs and their connectors that are both too hot to touch in order to carry out the compression test.

Not a problem getting one out - getting it back in without screwing (no pun intended) the threads up could prove to be "entertaining....... .

 

Crikey Neil, you make hard work of things. I don't know why people tighten the HT gland nuts so tight, never known one vibrate loose, a spot of copper grease on plug threads, make sure the nuts and plugs loosen before warming engine. Leather glove is handy for this, save burning your digits. ;)

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Well the manifold nuts from Namrick arrived today (excellent service!!) So I thought - what the hell. Crawled under in the pouring rain much to the neighbours amusement and fitted the exhaust back on.

Then fired her up, gave it a couple of minutes to warm up and then set the hand throttle to about the equivalent RPM of 30 mph.

After 10 minutes at this engine speed there were no sign of blowing noises at all. Can't road test her for the minute as the N/S rear is too soft and I am not going to get soaked using a footpump to inflate it. Fingers crossed for now.

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Ah well - as ever the path of life is beset with steaming cowpats from the Devils own satanic horde... :cry:

 

Rain stopped a little while ago so I popped out, get the foot pump out and pumped the back tyre up to 30 again then took her for a spin around the block - and at exactly the same spot as before I get the blowing noise from under the bonnet!!!

 

This is really peeing me off right now - left her running for over 10 minutes at well above fast idle so the engine was at operating temp and she was as good as gold. Take her on to the road - and bang... :cry: Measured it on the sat nav program and it is exactly 1/4 mile and give or take a couple of feet it occurs in the same spot.

So - looks like the head is coming off after all. I can start stripping her down tomorrow morning and then - if the gasket set arrives in time - refit on Tursday. Provided it's not a stuffed valve or a crack in the head.

 

Confuses the hell out of me though - why won't it happen when the vehicle is stationary - and why does it take a 1/4 mile to kick in when running - either something is blowing when hot or it isn't.... :nut: :nut:

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Running stationary and running under load are very different.

 

True - and that I understand - but why one earth does it take exactly 1/4 mile to manifest itself?? At this point it is cruising on a flat level road in 4th. I understand it's a case of loading - there is little other explanation - but why does it not happen as I leave my road going up through the gears and over the user unfriendly council speed humps when there is a serious load applied??

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If you've got access to a compressor, recon it might be worth doing this first:

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/116_0406_cylinder_leakdown_tester/?__federated=1

 

I made mine for about £30. You can find videos on YouTube to help you or buy one on eBay for not much more.

It would certainly help you to get an idea where there may be trouble.....

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  • 3 weeks later...

Right. Stripped the head down and finally got it removed today. What a truly god-awful job it is getting the lump of cast iron out on ones own!!!! Daughter Mk1 has been press ganged into the refit on Sunday.

 

During the strip-down I hit the panic button when a bolt sheared off in the thermostat housing, Turned out the bolt was a short one and was too short to meet the mating face. I got the top housing for the thermostat off (needs a new stat now) and will have to try removing the housing on the scrap engine as the sheared bolt don't want to be drifted out of the lower body. As you can see from the photos below the cause for the blowing noise is immediately obvious. So now I have to clean up the mating surface of the cylinder head then refit it and rebuild the engine. Debating whether to wash the block down whilst I wait for parts to be delivered and give it a coat of paint.

 

Head stripped ready for removal

cylinderheadreadyforremoval_zpsc0ce9f49.jpg

 

Sheared housing bolt

shearedboltinthermostathousing_zps6c6d30a8.jpg

 

Head off the vehicle

IMG_7184_zps54686acc.jpg

 

Spot the damage

IMG_7185_zps26281ee9.jpg

 

Block awaiting cleaning too

IMG_7187_zpsa43c2199.jpg

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I guess a new head is needed... Never seen a hole where there is one in your picture...

tomorrow i plan to pull my S3 head as the bangs getting worse and i expect a hole in a valve.

 

Looks like I might be lucky - spent today carefully cleaning off the old gasket material and cleaning the surfaces up and there does not seem to seem any damage to the head itself. Time will tell. It gets refitted Sunday hopefully (daughter is working tomorrow) so - allowing for parts deliveries of a 'stat and hoses I should know by Weds if all is well or not. Assuming of course the thunderstorms pass away again. :D

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got the head back in just prior to Damyns Hall - what a performance. With the TUUAM boxws it was virtually impossible for a single person to lift in and I found there was no way to secure the head gasket in place whilst positioning the head that way. So after a bit of out-of-the-box thinking that involved the daughter Mk1, a scaffold pole, some wooden kitchen steps and para-cord we fudged a way of lifting the head into place accurately enough that the bolts could be dropped in then screwed in a few threads so as to locate the gasket.

Once that was done the head was progressively tightened down to the figure given in the conversion chart for the torque wrench to 65 lb/ft. All the ancillaries were replaced and I took her for a test run. Disappointed was an understatement - the banging was cured but she was spitting and popping with no power at all. Went back over the procedure i my mind and could see nothing we had missed so on the off chance I Googled the Kg/M figure equivalent to 65 lb/ft - and found it differed from that given in the conversion chart. So the head was re-torqued to the new figure and tested again. This time on the test drive power was back but it was still not running right. By now it was 21:00 on the Thursday so I left it on the basis anything else could be fixed at Damyns hall.

On the way there for the first half of the Journey it sill lacked something, it was running a bit rough and sluggish. I stopped at a set of lights which was a 4-way that rotated through each axis in turn. As I pulled away I hit the accelerator to compensate for the lack of power - only to find the problem had cleared itself and power was back to normal. Surprised me - but possibly not as much as the guy on the outside who thought he was passing a slow old banger only to find it pulling away from him.......

Rest of the run to Damyns was uneventful but after being there a few hours I noted both rear tyres slowly going down. Yep - a puncture in both!! reinflated they were taking some 8 hours to go flat again so I was OK for the journey home. When I got back I ran them down to the tyre fitters who took the tyres off to repair the tubes only to find the problem was the rust on the inner rims. It was flaking again and abrading the tubes. So - next plan is to whip both wheels over to Maldon tomorrow and get them blasted and powder coated. The firm there reckon they can match the colour and texture on the NATO Green I used.

 

As a plus to all this I took the opportunity to fit the temp senders (capillary) for both water and oil. Oil was easy but the water was a pain until I had the thermostat housing off. I also replace the adapter and fitted a Series 3 heater valve, replacing the tap at the rear of the cylinder head with the straight in tapping. So I now have all the gauges working correctly!!!

 

Next steps are to remove the heater matrix once the rear wheels are back on so I can fit the blower motor, pull the dash face off completely :

(a) to locate the missing thumb wheel from the speedo that I dropped in the dark on the Thursday night and

(b) to run a feed wire in from the sidelight circuit so that night I can see all the working gauges.

and fit the new heater control cable from the sliders to the new heater valve.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wheels came back from the powder coaters on Tuesday - they have done what I think is an excellent job and a very good match to the paint colour on the vehicle.

 

Powdercoatedwheels_zps6f63ce71.jpg

 

Popped down to the tyre fitters on Thursday and had the tyres and tube + one new tube fitted and the assemblies balanced. I did ask about stick-on weights rather than conventional ones but there was some discussion amongst the fitters as to whether the ones they had would stick to the powder coating. So I took the safe option and had the normal weight fitted. Then it was straight back home and get the got the wheels onto the vehicle. Finished job looks really good and hopefully means the end of rust flake induced punctures for a good few years. As soon as funds permit I will have the two fronts and the spare done too.

 

20140829_174858_zpsddkrxdtw.jpg

 

20140829_174846_zpshf3qthil.jpg

 

Before I do any more on the Landie I need to sort out the appearance of the UAZ to keep the neighbours happy. Once that is done it will be a case of remove the heater matrix box, fit the blower fan, refit the matrix and hook it all up. Then have the dash off to find the missing thumb screw for one of the speedo clamps and laying a new red supply cable to the panel lights switch. That will complete the works required on the vehicle side of things. and I can revert back to the radio side - need to relocate the shunt box to it's original location in the back and fit the supply feed to the radio batteries. Then wire in a 24v in, 12v out step down transformer to allow things like a sat nav or phone charger to be used whilst travelling. Probably do the UAZ brakes before moving onto the radio side though.

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