Articles - Land Rover Series 2a Restoration

PK
27/09/2025

Engine Build Completed

The last post was all about the carburettor, and while not entirely straight forward was completed, prior to that I wrote about the final engine build parts, which were not totally completed. I also mentioned that I had a bit of an issue with the manifold’s. So thats where this one pretty much starts.

Before I start with that, I decide to put the Engine into the chassis, for 2 reasons, 1 clear out the workshop a little, getting a little crowded in there, and 2, will be easier to add the other parts.

So employed a little help from Dan and Alysda, although wasn’t expecting the posing, I only wanted a simple picture.

Was very grateful for the help.

With the engine in, 1st addition was going to be the manifolds, Exhaust and Inlet. This is where things started to go a little wrong, in fact, it was a weekend of things going a little wrong. 1st up, totally my mistake and demonstrated perfectly my lack of knowledge, I put the manifold studs in wrong way round, and spent ages trying to figure out why it wasn’t working. turns out, the short threaded part goes into the head, not the long. stupid mistake. Took the studs out, and because i had messed a few up replaced them with bolts, which all went in perfectly.

I torqued up all the bolts, no issue and then went to torque up the nuts on the studs that hold the Inlet Manifold onto the exhaust Manifold. this is where it continued to go wrong, 1,2,3 all good, number 4, humm, feels a little odd, and doesnt feel like its tightening up.

SNAP…. the f’ing stud sheared off.

Oh, crap was my first thought, how the hell am I going to sort this out the next thought, and then came the bright idea. Cut them all off, drill them out and re-tap the holes and put new studs in.

So I did!

Cut them all off, drilled the old studs out on the pillar drill and re-tapped the holes.

Got some new studs and put them in.

Now they weren’t perfectly straight, but good enough to put the Inlet manifold on.

So, went to tighten them up, and 1,2 & 3 fine, number 4 however didn’t like it, it stripped the thread in the manifold..

It was at this point I was thinking, OK, so I dont have the skills or tools to do this properly, but what I can do, is spend money (like it’s going out of fashion), and bough a new Exhaust manifold and some new studs.

Long story short, got the new studs on, joined up the manifolds, put new studs (the correct way around this time) into the head and put the manifolds on, with a new gasket. torqued it all up and finally….. its done.

The next thing to go in is the Distributor.

This should be really easy, just slide it into the hole Shown in this picture ->

BUT! you can just about see it, there is a cork gasket that sits in a recess, that the distributor slides through, except it doesn’t, it is super tight and took a bit of gentle sanding, some silicone grease to finally get it in and seated properly.

Lets block up some more holes in the engine!

Spark plugs, with the gaps set according to the book to 0.8 mm.

And then finally new points and rotor arm, but forgot to order a new condenser and disti cap, so they will go on later.

Used the old cap, and fitted the HT leads.

Thats the engine in, all fitted out with the important stuff, including the starter motor. One thing left to go on, and thats the Dynamo, need to figure out exactly how the brackets fit together as its not entirely obvious. Hopefully, Mine and Kims trip to Amberly Museum, to a land Rover show will give me the opportunity to see some finished engine’s so I can take loads of reference pictures for stuff like this.

Talking of museum’s and a little side topic, took my wheels to beaulieu, Vintage Tyres who fitted some new Avon Traction Master 7.00 X 16 102/100L tyres. as close to original as I think is possible these days.

Bit taller than the 6.00’s that the Land Rover might have come out of the factury with, but still a standard size..

Tyre choice is a topic in its own right, so might write about that separately.

Back to the engine, well actually the Gearbox. Decided to put this on, now I have 4 wheels again and can move Isobel to where I can get the hoist into.

Started with the new Clutch, using a piece of dowel, exactly the right size to keep the clutch plate lined up while I bolted on the clutch plate cover.

Using the Hoist, and again some help, got the Gearbox lined up and attached to the engine. Really pleased with the way it look, just hoping it all works as good as it looks.

A couple of bits to finish off, gearbox mounts to be properly bolted up, a few more nuts and bolts to hold the gearbox in the engine, oh, and take the gearbox back off, as I forgot, in the excitement of getting it on to grease up some of the clutch mechanism. That should be relatively easy, but will need to wait for next weekend.

Getting closer to the real test of all this work, and thats seeing if I can get the engine started. Before I do that, will be building up the Bulkhead with pedals, and some other bits before that goes back on and then should have everything needed for that attempt at starting it, exciting, but something I’m extremely nervous about.

I think from now on, these posts rather than being topic based, which is what I’ve tried to do, they will be more about the process, i.e. as things happen, we’ll see.

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PK
17/09/2025

Carburettor Rebuild

Before I start, the main picture for this post, please ignore the split pins!! the ones in the new kit I used were crap, so these will get replaced with better ones.

Seems things are taking an age to get finished on this Land Rover, but things are getting done, albeit sometimes 2 or 3 times over. The last update was about the Carburettor Strip down, which was pretty simple, but resulted in a pile of tiny bits.

Putting it back together, surely would be simple. I bought a carb re-build kit, which has all the bits needed to rebuild, or so I thought. So lets get to it, and not necasseraly in the order things were done.

First off, the top and bottom parts are bolted together, with a gasket between them. One of the things everyone says is that these carbs over time warp.

First thing was to hone the faces, until they are bright and even. I used some fine (600) grit wet and dry, with a coating of light oil and gently rubbed the faces.

Importantly, the surface was a perfectly flat piece of marble, which I hope ensures the finished faces are also perfectly flat.

I had started in this picture.

These are the finished items, nice and shiny, except for 1 small mark on the bottom case, at the very bottom.

It feels very flat, and didnt want to keep going on this one mark.

The issue with them not being flat, is that they can let air in. Not good in a carb where the whole idea is to get the perfect Fuel / Air mixture.

Next was to start putting back all the new jets and bits and pieces. There are a few of these and one of them had me stumped for some time as I could’nt remember where it went.

Now you might be thinking, some of those bits look a little old. Well, they are, the kit as it happens does not have all the bits in, so ended up using some of the old bits as well as new!

Also, one of the videos I watched on rebuilding a Zenith 361V carb, suggested that the main needle valve replacement had a nylon tip, where the original was all brass. That was indeed the case, so as in the video, I chose to use the all brass version, as it didn’t look worn at all.

All jets back in, start to assemble the case, but before we get to that, I had one little problem. I managed to loose 2 pieces (circled in the images below).

The one at the top (not seen in this smaller picture) is just a simple spacer, the one at the bottom is the arm that pushes the piston for the accelorator pump.

It is this bar that is connected to the accelorator peddle, so when you press down on the peddle, hopefully this results in more fuel into the carb, leading to more speed (or not, given its a Land Rover)

Anyway, I nearly went off and bought a second carb, just for these two bits, just about to buy it off FB marketplace, when I thought, just one more look… and amazingly, it was the first bag I picked up, and there they were. Phew..

Ok, so onto assembly, pretty simple, so nothing much to say or show about that.

The next part then was to put all the the levers on, which had me turning it upside down, back to front to try and figure out how they all fit. One thing I did do was to get my Zinc plating kit out again, and this time used both Silver and Gold/Yellow passivates, with mixed success, but certianly better than putting back on crusty / rusty parts. Simple lesson if Zinc plating, Clean, Clean and Clean again, without which you wont get good results.

These three images, 1st one, before, 2nd and 3rd images are after. While not perfect, I think they look the part.

All that remains with this is to put it onto the engine. Now, that leads me to another topic, that I’ll touch on here.

I had a weekend a couple of weeks ago, where it seemed everyhting I touched turned to SH.T. Very briefly, I put new studs into the head, to hold on the manifolds. Stupidly, I tried to put them in the wrong way round, should have been short threaded end into the head, so ended up buggering those up. Replaced them with Bolts, all good, they tightened up nicely, so went on to Tighten the 4 nuts holding the inlet manifold onto the Exhaust manifold. The reason for talking about this here, is because the carb sits on top of the Inlet manifold.

Anyway, only needed 17ft lb torque, 1 OK, 2, OK, 3 OK, 4, Humm, doesnt seem to be tightening. SNAP, the f’ing stud snapped.

This pic is after I really did throw my toys out of the pram, after which I calmed down, partialy, well enough to pick up a hacksaw as I decided the only way forward would be to cut them all off, drill them out and re-tap the holes.

Did a fairly good job on the pillar drill, not 100% straight, but good enough. Put new Studs in, 1, good, 2, good, 3 good 4, bugger it stripped the new thread, Ohhhh, FFS.

The moral of the story, leave jobs like this to the pro’s. Ended up buying a new Exhaust manifold, and more new studs for this and also for the head.

So, after all that, kindoff back on track now, (certainly in terms of my thinking) with a revised plan, so will crack on with finishing off the engine in the chassis on the next dry weekend. Until then….

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PK
25/08/2025

Carburettor Strip Down

There are many things needed for an engine to run, one of the most important is the Carburettor. Now I dont know much about Carb’s (Not the food type, know lots about those), so this is totally new territory, and a slightly daunting one.

Anyway, it needs to be done, so started by stripping mine down. Land Rover Series 2A’s came with one of two types, A Solex, which was used up until Engine Suffix H inclusive, and a Zenith, used from Suffix J onwards inclusive (dont think suffix I exists). My Engine is a suffix G, so should be a Solex! but its not, its a Zenith, which apparently is a better one, but odd never the less.

That brings me to something else that confused me slightly. The parts manual often refers to Early type Engines and Later type engines, and some parts differ between the two. Mine “seems” to be a bit of a mixture in various places which either means its not totally original, or came out of the factory like it is and is a bit of a cross over from Early to Late.

Anyway, not too much to say about the strip down, other than to say was very careful to document everything with pictures, so rather that me rant on, here is a selection of them, showing it in various states of being taken apart. I did actually buy a Service Kit for my Carb type, which has all sorts of new bits that I’m yet to understand what they are and where they go.

To Finish up, here’s a picture of all the bits and pieces. I do have one issue possibly, there is one bit that I think needs to come out, but seems to be stuck. I need to check i have a replacement in the service kit before I try various methods to get it out.

Now, I dont plan on buying more parts than the service kit, but some of the levers are a bit crusty. I have done some Zinc plating before, with a silver finish but these parts need to be / should be yellow’ish / gold ‘ish / blue’ish. I have the solution to do this, so bought some more Distilled water, and will be spending some time seeing if I can get them back to looking brand new. Will come back to that, if (No WHEN) it works.

Engine Rebuild – Fuel Pump, Oil filler, Head and Rocker

Was a couple of weeks ago, I last wrote about progress, and thats for two reasons. firstly, I was procrastinating over whether the engine was a little tight, when turning over by hand, and secondly went away to a lovely part of he country, Devon, for a week’s holiday with the entire family, Wife, Kids, almost Step Grandchildren (Son and his partner not married just yet) and the dogs (yes, Dogs plural, we have another dog).

Back to the first point. when turning over by hand, it needs a spanner on the starting dog to turn it, it’s a little too tight to turn it by hand. With the spanner, it turns nice and smoothly, but was unsure if it was a little too tight. My Nephew has said he will pop round to see it for himself and give me his opinion, but he and family are on holiday this week, and we were away last week, so cant look just yet.

Before my Hol’s I had almost made up my mind what I would do, so ordered a second set of bottom end gaskets, just in-case I do need to / decide to strip it down a little. My main concern was the T seals in the rear main bearing housing, they need a special tool to put them in normally, which helps to compress them before they are pushed into the block, but I didn’t use one, I used a thin fealer guage, which was not ideal.

So first thing was to make something similar, cut two strips of 2mm sheet steel and bent them just over 90 degrees, and drilled two hols to bolt them to the block.

With the two pieces bolted in place, when the bearing cap with the T seals are inserted, they compress and slide in much easier.

So, job done I think.

Re-cleaned everything, applied some assembly lube and put it all back together. The crank is still a little tight, but its smooth, and doesn’t take huge amounts of effort to turn, and have to consider, It has all new bearings, new pistons and rings, new cam chain, new camshaft bearings and loads of assembly lube, so have taken the view it is good to proceed. Will get Lee to come have give me his opinion at some point, and if needs be, will strip it and do it all again, but dont think that will ne necessary, jut need the piece of mind.

Right, so onto the stuff I’ve done.

First up is the Oil Filler. First part to go in in a plate that clearly is designed to divert the oil (technical name is baffle). Now, I had a set of gaskets, but only had one to fit, so luckily, have bought another set, had the two that were needed.

All that goes on next is the long black tube, with a filler cap on top.

Finished off with some new bolts and spring washers, as I will be doing with all visible bolts.

moving on, on goes the oil filter. Pretty straight forward, gasket first, then bolted on.

Just as a note, all gaskets are coated both sides with Hylomar Blue. There are lots of discussions online as to what is best, I dont really know and everyone has an opinion, so sticking with this for now, until its all together and leaking like a sieve.

Fitting the Fuel pump, like the oil Filler is two parts. The backing plate, which is bolted to the block, and the pump which is attached to the backing plate. I did this twice, as the first time I put the plate on then the pump, but realised that the arm of the pump, was not sitting on the camshaft lobe responsible for creating the pumping action. Took it off, attached the pump to the backing plate and put them both on together, making sure the arm of the pump was sitting on the camshaft lobe.

I perhaps should have done this before the other bits, but, didn’t. First on the Head Gasket, which is simply laid on the block. the Head, which sits on this is heavy, so lining up the bolt holes without pushing and pulling the head around is not easy. Some people use old head bolts with the end cut off to act as a guide. I dont have any spare, so called upon Reuben to give me a hand.

I held the head over the top, while he located two of the bolts to ligned it up perfectly, before placing the head down.

To bolt the head down, the rocker also needs to be put on (I did clean this up again, and lube’ d it up with assembly lube and some oil).

All 18 Bolts were located in their respective holes and tightened finger tight.

To fully torque them up, to 65 lb ft, with the smaller bolts on the rocker to 12 lb ft (Actually in the book I used, this was quoted as 18 lb ft, which is what I did them too).

To tighten the bolts, there is a specific order to do them in.

The order is shown here. each one was dont little by little, until hitting the torque setting, and then all were checked again.

Finally, torqued down the rocker bolts to finish this part off.

I didn’t do this straight after, got distracted by some other bits, but the next step is to set the gaps between the rockers and the valves. What I didn’t mention above, before putting the rocker assembly on, the push rods needed to be inserted, which were done, coated in assembly lube and made sure each one was properly seated in the tappet.

As with the head bolts, there is a specific order these need to be done in. I have seen other methods, but decided to stick to the book’s method.

Basically, you rotate the crank until one of the valves is fully open (down) and then set a corresponding gap.

To find when the required valve is fully open, I used a dial gauge, which required the crank to be turned over slowly until fully open. Once set, the corresponding gap between the rocker and valve can be set to 0.010 in (.25mm). Once set, tighten the locking nut, and re-check after it is fully tight. Fairly straight forward, if not a little laborious.

Last bit, is the Flywheel. Fairly simple, but one thing needed to be changed, the bonze bush in the middle. Now this is funny (well I found it funny) since i stripped down the engine, there has been a bronze bush floating around the workshop, and it had no idea where it came from, until this point! It had fallen out of the flywheel.

First, apparently the new one needs to be soaked in oil for 24 Hours, so did it, cant do any harm. Also, I recently bought a new clutch from LOF, which I didn’t realise also has one of these in the box. Hey Ho, have a spare now.

To put it in, simply used a bearing tool and carefully, but firmly knocked it home.

A bit out of sequence now, but wanted to get the flywheel on the engine, but to do this it needs to come of the engine stand. Also, the engine is getting rather heavy, and I dont want to leave it dangling for too long. When I took the engine out, I hired a Engine Hoist, and was planning on doing the same to put it back in. But I thought about it, and while I could put the engine and gearbox in with the Bulkhead in-place, it would be much easier with it out of the way.

Knwoing full well I wouldn’t be able to get it all done within a sensible hire time, bought myself a engine hoist.

Not expensive, in-fact no more than two days hire costs. So, put it to use and took the bulkhead off, steering box and all.

Using my new toy, I was finally able to get the Engine of the Engine Stand, and settled down on a pallet, sat on top of the engine hoist legs.

All ready for when it goes into the chassis, which I thought would be today, but ran into a bit of a problem!

I dont have the right size bolts for the engine and gearbox mounts, so yet another order of bolts to be made.

Back to the flywheel, put the flywheel case on, and using some new Fly Wheel bolts and locker tabs put the flywheel on, torqued it up and bent over the locker tabs.

One of the tings I got distracted with, was the Air Filter. Its been sat on the shelf since I took it off, so decided to clean it up and paint it. I couldn’t decide if it should be black or silver. Decided on spray on Galv. Few pictures of it, but nothing much else to say.

Actually didn’t take a picture of the finished item!

I did do a couple of other bits over the last couple of weeks. totally out of context with the Engine.

But bought the bolts to secure the door hinges, and put them together.

A bought these from a company called Emberton Imperial they do some really nice stuff. Now I mention that because the pack was missing a couple of items, one being really key, a brass ball. Emberton sorted it without fuss, and quickly.

Thats it for now, I was going to put the clutch on, and hoped to get the engine in the chassis, but didn’t manage both, so back to it, probably next weekend, although I have some more decorating to do, so that might take precedence.

On a final note, our “nearly” step grandchildren bought me a Kim (my wife) a pressie for taking them on holiday. Mines in pride of place, above the workshop doors 🙂

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PK
11/08/2025

Engine rebuild – Oil Pump, Front cover and Water Pump and Sump

Straight back to it then. Started the day off by checking the torque on the Main Bearing caps (85lb ft) and Piston Connecting rods (Big ends), supprisingly low torque (25 lb ft).

The goal for tody, was to get a few ancillary parts onto the engine.

First, was the Oil Pump, this needs to go in before the suimp goes on. No pictures of my stupid error!

The filter part (to the right), I put it on facing the wrong way! Stupid mistake, so had to ease out the locking tab, undo the nut, move it and re-tighten it all back up.

I hav’nt checked that the pump actually works, although did check it out and it looked fine, wrote about that here, so will have to keep a close eye on oil pressure when I do start the engine for the first time.

Next was to put the front cover on. This took me an age to figure out the bolt sizes for each of the holes, there are 4 different sizes, mostly 5/16 U.N.F., but on the water pump, which I test fitted that at the same time, there are some 1/4″ U.N.F. and two I could’nt figure out. Turns out they are 1/4″ U.N.C., which is a little odd, as it didnt change to U.N.C. untiul after the suffux on my engine, mines a Suffix G, and it changed to UNC from suffix H, hey ho, need to but 1 bolt for that 🙁

Just for info, UNF means United National Fine (Fine being the thread pitch) and UNC United National Course, again course being the thread pitch.

Before I went ahead and put gasket seal on the gaskets, and try to bolt it on, I re-tapped all of the holes in the engine block to make sure it bolted up nicely.

I also re-tapped the holes for the rear cam shaft cover, which was duely fitted with a dry cork gasket. Hope thats right, it was the only gasket in the gasket set that was the right shape.

Front cover on, and all new BZP (Bright Zinc Plated) bolts and spring washers.

Continued at the front and bolted the water Pump on. I was going to service the old pump, but broke it while trying to take it apart, so bought a brand spanking new one some time ago, looks good.

If you look carefully in the background, you can see some new (to me) shelves, with all (most) of the engine parts ready to be fitted.

Turned the engine upside down again, for the last time hopefully, and put the sump on.

Something like 21 bolts and 1 Nut that needed gently tightening all the way around so as to not distort the sump, which is a relativly thin material, so could easily buckle.

Finished the day with a test fit of the engine mounting brackets.

Need to get some new bolts for these, so these will come off again later.

Need to check I have these on the right sides.

So what next, well thats a good question. I could continue adding parts to the engine, The Head, Fuel Pump, Distributor, Oil Filler, Oil level stick and some other bits, but have decided to stop there for now, as I think I will put it into the chassis before adding some of those parts, will make the lift and moving it a little easier.

I planned to hire an engine hoist, but cant be sure I will get it all done in the time I have it for, so bitten the bullet and ordered myself one, a relativly cheap one, and once i’m done with it can sell it on.

Also, this will allow me some time to place yet another order for things like clutch, some more bolts, some special bolts for the fly wheel. when i’ve got them all, I can then put the gearbox and engine in, in one go, apparently thats easier than doing them seperatly.

Only down side is that he bulkhead will have to come off. Not too much of a big deal, will have an engine hoist in a couple of days to lift it off.

So what will i spend my time doing, well, I might finish off some of the body work, still have the dynamo to service, might start bolting engine mounts onto the chassis, might put the handbrake mechanisum on, who knows, but what ever I do, I will write about it here.

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PK
10/08/2025

Engine rebuild – Camshaft and Timing Gear

After the main bottom end bits were in, started on the camshaft. If you remember, I had Turner Engineering put my new Camshaft bearings in, so time to make sure my camshaft actually fits 🙂

Putting the camshaft in is a very simple process, clean it and the bearings, lube it up and gently, without hitting the bearings, slide the camshaft home, front to back.

The retaining plate was a new one, and even that needed a good clean before being put on.

Plenty of Lube, both sides this time.

This is quite important, as it sets the end float of the camshaft.

Thats the easy part done, the next part is to fit the Cam Chain Wheel, and the Cam Chain. Now this has to be done right, as it connects the Crankshaft to the Camshaft. the crankshaft moves the pistons up and down, the camshaft opens and closes the valves, but the timing of those two things need to be bang on.

I had to take the engine off the engine stand to do this, as I needed to temporarily fit the flywheel housing and the flywheel.

On my Engine, the timing marks are on the flywheel,not on the front pully, as it is on some.

Step 1, after doing that, is to rotate the engine, in the correct direction until the EP mark is lined up with the pointer. EP stands for Exhaust Peak.

Thats the Crankshaft, and Pistons in the right place

So now I need to make sure the camshaft is in the correct position. Now to do this, exhaust valve 1 needs to be fully open (at its peak). Normally this is done with the head and rocker on, but my head is not on, so I put in the tappet assembly into Exhaust valve 1, so I could put a dial gauge on it to ascertain when it is at peak (fully open).

There is a routine for this, where you mark the chain wheel and the case when Exhaust Valve 1 is nearly at peak, then rotate the camshaft until you read the same on the dial Gauge, and then split the lines, aligning it with the first line on the case. Phew, simples…

When its all lined up, new chain goes on, making sure it is tight down the right hand side.

Cam Chain wheel on, new chain and the chain tensioner all fitted.

You can also see a new Vibration Damper, which also needs to be lined up correctly, i.e. no more than (cant find it again in the manual, but think is 1thou”) away from the chain.

Now that wasn’t too difficult, I just hope I’ve got it right. I am going to re-check the cam timing when the head and rocker gear is on, to be sure.

The other part of the timing, is the Distributor, i.e. the things that creates the spark, on the right cylinder, at the right time. I cleaned up the Disti a while ago, so set about installing the distributor assembly. Humm, easy yes, well actually not, took me hours.

First thing is to line up the flywheel with some other marks, in this case it is 6 degrees before Top Dead Center. this refers to when piston 1 is at the absolute top of its stroke, and the point at which the ignition is fired. 6 Degrees before TDC, is to cater for todays fuel (according to the book).

Before I did this, as you can see I fitted the rest of the tappet guides, rollers and tappets, all fairly straight forward, except getting the bolts into a retaining hole in the slider case. These bolts need wiring togther at some point.

The thing sitting on the block, is the distributor drive gear, and this is what caused me some issues.

It has to go into a hole, and the gears connect up with the gearing on the camshaft. But as you can see they are a spiral gear, so when it goes in, it twists, and this causes two problems.

First problem, the spline in the centre (it has 1 larger spline on one side) has to point to 20 degrees form the engine centre line. You can see my poor attempts to mark it here.

Challenge one. As the gear goes in, it rotates, so it takes a few attempts to get it in, and end up pointing in the right general direction.

This is the second and more trying challenge. Simply put, the little grub screw (2), needs to go though the Green hole, and locate in the brass sleeves hole (1), it stops the brass sleeve rotating as the distributor spins.

Easy hu, well no, the brass sleeve rotates on the shaft, so as the gear goes in, you have to account for it rotating on the camshaft gear, at the same time the brass sleeve rotating, and also, as I found out, if it goes in a little too far and needs to be lifted a little, changes the orientation and alignment, but also makes it really hard to find the hole.

Anyway, got it in the end after many, many attempts…. I think.

Next is to put a little drive coupling on the top, which changes the orientation of the slots to take the distributor.

The coupling is shown on here, with the slot riunning in a different direction, actually pointing at cylinder one, as this is the one that needs to be firing at this time in the timing.

I did put the distributor on temporarily and it seems to align correctly, i.e. firing on cylinder 1.

Thats it, camshaft in, cam chain on, Distributor drive gear in and hopefully in the right place, but we’ll see, when I come to start it. I’m not so worried about this part, if its wrong it just wont run, or run very well. the cam chain on the other hand, if I have that badly wrong, it could be the end of my engine.

On Hols for a couple of weeks, so hopefully will get to, or close to putting the engine back in the chassis, I can then seriously start to think about getting it running. Oh, thats when I have done some of the electrics, sorted out the carburettor and probably a load of other jobs I’ve not even thought about yet.

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PK
10/08/2025

Engine re-build – Bottom end

It was sometime ago I wrote about a failed attempt at re-building my Land Rover Series 2.25 engine, more precisely the Camshaft Bearings. I mentioned I was taking the block to Turner Engineering for them to do it. I also mentioned it needed a good wash inside and out, as recommended, so that was done.

To the re-build, but first, a quick look at all the new parts.

CRANKSHAFT

1st job was to make sure the bearings and everything else was in spec. For info, the Crankshaft has 3 Main Bearings, some engines are 5 bearings, but mines a 3.

First thing is to make sure all the bearing caps fit correctly, which means putting them on, tightening to the correct torque, and then loosening one side. A feeler guage is then used to measure the gap on the loosened side. No Pictures of this, but did do something similar with the piston connecting rods, which is shown later.

Next is to make sure that the gap between the bearings and the journals are within spec. To do this, the lower (or when the engine is up the right way, top bearing) is put in-place and carefully locate the crankshaft onto the bearings.

This is the front bearing journal, and you can just see the bearing sitting underneath it.

A small piece of Plastiguage is placed onto the journal and then the cap and bearing located and torqued to the right setting.

The image here, is after the bearing cap was removed, allowing the expanded Plastiguage to be measured, checking the tolerance, which should be .001″ to .0025″. Did this on all three journals, all within spec.

After it was all checked, time to put the crankshaft in properly, which simply meant remove it, clean the journals and bearings with brake cleaner and then apply liberal amounts of Assembly Lube, and re-fit the bearing caps.

Assembly lube is a very sticky oil, that does not run off, which means it can be left a while before getting oil circulating the engine when its running.

All the time during fitting, tested to make sure that the crankshaft didn’t lock up and felt smooth in rotation.

Bearings 1 & 2 are relativly straight forward, however the rear bearing cap incorporates some oil seals.

There are 2 seals and a seal retainer that all need to be put on.

This is the rear seal, which comes in two parts, the seal itself, which is split to allow it to be located over the crankshaft journal, and a spring.

The seal is opened up gently, and placed over the Crankshaft. The sprint is then connected together and gently inserted into the back of the seal.

This is the rear bearing housing, and you can see the top of the T seals poking out ( a real challenge to get the bearing housing in, with these seals in-place). Attached to the bearing cap, you can see the Oil Seal retainer.

I have to be honest, I had a couple of goes at doing this. the first attempt, I used rubber T seals, which didn’t go well, it locked up the crankshaft. Removed them, and put in cork T seals instead, which went much better.

Thats the crankshaft in and turning nicely.

Couple of things I didnt mention above, was that Bearing 2 (middle one) has two shims, one either side, this is to manage end float of the crakshaft, which must be measured and shown to be in tolerance. (the image measuring it, is not the actual method!!! )

PISTONS

The engine block was re-bored to 30 thou, so new pistons needed. I mentioned earlier measuring the gat between bearing caps.

This is the basic principal, to make sure that the housings join up correctly.

The new pistons come with new Gudgeon pins (the pin that holds the piston onto the connecting rod, often referred to as the small end), and are already fitted with piston rings, so no need to worry about them.

I used the existing connecting rods, after checking them as above.

Stricly speaking there are a couple more checks that should be done, 1st is to fit the piston rings in the bores and check gaps, the 2nd is to check that the connecting rods are not twisted at all.

Didn’t do either of these, 1 because they are new pistons and rings, and has had a proper re-bore (so they should be OK) and 2, because I dont have the equipment to test the straightness.

Same procedure as before, clean and put the bearing in, and generously cover in assembly lube. Also, taped up the ends of the bolts, to stop the bolts marking the crankshaft.

Each piston done in turn with a ring compressor, and gently tapping the piston into the piston bores from the top. Caps fitted as I went, until all 4 pistons were fitted.

Again, checking rotation of the crankshaft as I went.

Thats it, Crankshaft fitted, Pistons in, new bearings and plenty of Assembly Lube.

A closing note, totally un-related to this post. I wrote about the last bit of painting, where I had, had the wheels blasted before I painted them. This has left Isobel stuck on two spare wheels and a couple of axle stands, so need to get those wheels back on sooner rather than later. So, need some tyres.

I like to mention people that have helped me out, and the picture over is a new business just started by one of my closest friends Son, Matty who has sourced some new rubber for me. Just need to get them down from Yorkshire now.

The colour, and name of his Business is very special, so here’s wishing Matty all the very best with his new venture.

Cant link to his web site, he doesn’t have one, yet!! working on that for him, but here’s his Facebook Page.

Thats it, next up Camshaft and Timing gear.

Leave a comment InPart 9 - Engine

PK
20/07/2025

Door Tops

The final job before my holiday concludes, and am back to work Monday, and as I dont yet have what I need to wash the block I decided to clean up and fit the glass into the door tops that I painted last week.

The door tops were new from Paintman Panels. Same company I bought all of the paint from, and seem to have a pretty good reputation. Why change them, well heres why!

When I bought the new door tops from Paintman Panels, I also bought a glazing kit for each side. did’nt need the glass as I was happy with the glass that I took out. On the glass, there is some details etched into the glass, both sides are different, and one side is dated, 1967, which is two years later than Isobel. I am wondering if that is also why they had the window catch in the body of the frame, rather than the earlier version that sites at the top of the frame. Anyway, I ordered the earlier type, without the holes for the window locks. On the left, the early type and on the right the later type.

So to start the glazing. The kit comes with very easy to read instructions, so much so, there are none!

I did find a video, where one of my goto youtunbe channels shows how to fit the kit.

Its all pretty straight forward, and the kit comes with everything needed. The glass runners, aluminium spacers, window seal, screws, nuts and washers.

First job is to fit 3 strips of sealer for the front window to sit on, bottom, side and top. Need to pay attention as this sealer can be seen from the outside of the door frame, so care needed.

I did get some a little out of position, its very sticky, but cut the excess off after all was fitted.

After the sealer is positioned, time to put the front glass panel in, gently, but firmly pusing the glass into the sealer.

Once the glass is seated, time to put in the bottom runner, with one of the spacers. This is for the rear pane of glass to allow it to slide foward. The Runner is secured with 2/3 screws.

No electric windows this this thing!

Same for the side frame, both a spacer and runner are positioned and screwed into place.

Cant do the top one until last, as the rear glass panel needs to be in first.

Also, before putting the rear glass in, a rubber seal and aluminium strip needs to be attached to the end of the glass. This proved a bit of a challenge to keep in-place.

Might come back to this latter and use some adhesive to hold them in-place

So with the rear glass located in the bottom runner, the top runner can be put onto the glass and along with another spacer located in the top of the frame. Again, securing with 3 screws, making sure that the screws are tight enough not to interfere with the glass as it is sliding.

Final part is a aluminium strip secured with screws down the front of the frame, further sealing and securing the front glass panel.

Simpe job, bit of care needed, but the results are nice.

The rubber strip along the bottom shoud be riveted into the frame and trimmed. I will do this later when the door bottoms are ready with the galv cappings.

As with most things on this project, door tops now put away for later!

Fuel Pump

This engine has a mechanical fuel pump. I dont know if it worked or not, so decided to take it apart and check it all out.

Having never done one of these before, assume the important parts are the diaphragm, seals and two little valves. I invested in a service kit, which included the diaphragm, seals and 2 new valves.

… but was missing what I thought was a really important part.

And that is a seal that sits in a metal cup and where the diaphragm goes through. This is important as it keeps the oil in the right part of the pump.

I could’nt find one anywhere, no kits have them, there is not a part number and my seal was loose on the shaft, so needs sorting.

I did watch a couple of videos of people serving these, but no one hardly mentioned this seal, infact more often that not suggest just buying a new pump, which are to be fair, are relativly cheap. But, me being me wanted the original.

So off I went to the Series 2 club forum again, just on the off chance someone would know if and where these are available. As always, what a result. This is the important part of the message I got back from a chap in the USA. “I ended up getting the Tractor REPAIR KIT, FUEL PUMP, 1896401M91 Part Number S41634”

What a gem, this kit is actaully available in the UK, and becuase it’s for a tractor 🙂 not too expensive. And, the seal and metal cap was a perfect fit.

Finally got it all back together, after some fiddling around loacting the diaphragm end into its locators.

Oh, my wife did ask me, “whats that glass thing in the dishwasher?” Oh, that, that will be…. “quickly changing subject”

Thats it, another thing ready to onto the engine, just as soon as I re-build it “Again”.

Oil Pump & Filter

After the problems I had with the Camshaft bearings and not wanting to be idle, started work on the oil pump.

Started by dis-assembling the pump and inspecting and measuring the tollerences. I had already bought some new bits I knew that I would need, hoping that everything else was going to be ok.

Clean up took a bit of effort, but got all the old oil off, ready for inspection.

Here’s a diagram of whats inside, with the replacement parts highlighted in yellow.

Measured the tollerences of the two gears, both between the gears and the case and also, using a straight edge across the top.

Everything was then re-assembled, and stored for later.

While at it, also cleaned up the Oil filter, and fitted new seals and new filter.