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So fail is a little strong, what I should really say is I “F..ked Up”.

OK, so that is really strong, but actually true. So this article will not be so much about the engine build, rather what happened.

Before I start, I had put in the Crankshaft, fitted the pistons, rear main oil seal and it was all looking really good. Heres a few pics of where I got too. Not much write up, will do that “again” later. But briefly, the Crankshaft main bearings, Shims, Main oil seal and new pistons.

But I had also decided to replace the Camshaft bearings. The one pictured is the front one, there are four in total, and it can clearly be seen it is quite badly scored. The others seemed better. From what I gather, its because the cam chain is this end, putting tension on the camshaft. I have read that some people only change the front one, thats supposidly the easiest to do.

So why did I struggle, becuase it is putting in the new ones that I F’d up.

There are a few reasons. There are 4 bearings, 2 right inside the engine block which are difficult to get too. Also, as can be seen above, the bearings have a hole in them. This needs to line up perectly with the hole in the block (both orientation, and amount they are pulled / knocked in)

I knew I would struggle with the normal tool to do this, as they are all knocked in. I did however find a tool I could hire, along with the bearings supplied that pulls them in. So I bit the bullet and hired the tool off a really nice and helpful guy in Doncaster.

This is the tool I hired, basicaly it is a series of mandrels, bolts and locknuts that allow you to pull the bearings in. This is important as it allows you to align the holes perfectly before pulling and also has indicators to show when they are pulled in enough. Now, while it can be used on a Series engine, I belive it was designed for later engines

Heres some pics of it in action, and all was going well, for while, and you can see the white lines added to aid in alignment.

So what was the issue. Well, when It comes to the last one, you use one of the mandrels inside the engine to keep the bar completly aligned, but because I could’nt get the right mandrel into the right location, I had to compromise, and this was “partly” part of the issue, the last bearing got completly mangled being pulled in.

OK, so after throwing my toys out of the pram, I sat down and thouhgt about it, ok I will get some new bearings from Turner Engineering, and try again with them. This time I messed up before really getting started. The Turner Bearings are split, so they compress together as they are located. Now, when I started to pull the first one in, because they are split, it rode up and over the mandrel and as a concequence, got knackered. Ohhh, FFS, I know what I should have done, I should have put a tyewrap around the bearing to hold tight on the mandrel until it’s in, and then cut it off.

Keeping it short, ordered another new set from Turners, this is getting irritating and somewhat expensive, each set of bearings is close to £50.

Not wanting to waste any more time or waste more money, I rang Turners for some advice. They were, and have been so helpful, but the conclusion was that I would take the block to them, and they would put the bearings I bought from them in, and not only that ream the bearings which, I belive should ideally be done, but certainly not something that can be done at home.

This lead to me undoing all the work on the engine, Pistons out, crankshaft out, back to a basic block. Off to Turners I go, who thankfully are only about 1 hour away. Me, Caleb and Reuben, who came with me, did get a rather nice breakfast while wating for them to be done from a local garden centre.

Anyway, thats it, going to start all over again, armed with a little more knowledge past down from the guys at Turners, and more importantly a set of Camshaft bearings properly installed and reamed.

It was booked in during my second week off from work, with the first few days of my first week spent at a spa hotel in the New Forest, where I experienced my first ever Thai massage, will have one of those again for sure. It also allowed me to crack on with some other bits and pieces, like the final bodywork painting, the oil filter and oil pump and the fuel pump.

• Oil Pump & Filter
• Fuel Pump
• Final bodywork finishing

So, now have the block back with Camshaft bearings in and some advice to give the block a good wash out, so that will be the next job on the next warm / hot day, so it dries quickly and does not rust the new bores and new bearings.

In the last post, I had just got my engine parts back from the engineers, and purchased a few new parts. Before I start putting it all together i thought the best strategy will be to ensure it is all as clean as clean can be.

Before I do that, there was something I had not don before it went off to the engineers, a fairly innocuous thing, but as it turned out quite a challenging thing. In the block, the tappets sit inside a tappet guide. I had taken everything off, except the guides.

The tappet is the top part, which sits on a roller which rides on the camshaft. The pushrods for the valves sit in the top of the tappet.

The guide, as mentioned is a push fit into the block and held in position with a special bolt.

Now when you see people put new guides in, they just slide home, so I thought, they would slide out! Nope, could not have been more wrong

To get them out needs a special tool, which is basically a slide hammer, with a bit on the bottom that can slide in, rotate and lift the tappet guide out.

So, not wanting to spend more money on another tool I will likely use 1 time, made this masterpiece.

Basically a bit of 16mm threaded rod, a small “thing” bolted to the end, further secured with a nut, and on the other end the remains of a club hammer.

It mostly worked, although did have to modify it for a couple to pull the guides out, which unfortunately resulted in one being broken, so need to replace one.

Finally got them all out and inspected. Need to replace all the tappets as quite worn, but the rollers and all but the broken guide are good to go again.

Have to be honest though, half way through I was doubting the decision to take them out. But given they are all caked in old sticky oil, with the oil ways partially blocked, think it was the right decision.

The final bit of disassembly was the front timing cover. While it didn’t go off the engineers, there was a part that I decided to replace, the Oil Seal. I didn’t really think about it when I took the cover of the engine, but realised there is a bit missing. There should be a mud excluder on top of the seal, in the left picture below, so will need one of those. The other odd thing is that this is held on with some sort of rivet. Apparently, when replacing the seal, to put the mud excluder back on requires tapping out the holes in the cover and using self tappers. Will think more about that later, might see if I can source replacement rivets.

Now I can start cleaning everything, scrapping sticky oil off, scrubbing, de-greasing and then repeat. And while I was at it cleaned up a few other bits also, including the fuel pump, which was covered in old grease and oil.

Not much else to say on this just yet, suffice to say my shopping list is growing yet again.

So onto cleaning, and masking up the engine block, head and front cover in preparation for some colour.

And finally some colour. I used Engine paint from Paintman, and should be pretty close to original Land Rover 2.25 Petrol engine colour. While it was not ideal spraying weather, bit windy, I’m happy. Will see what it looks like over the next few days.

And while I was at it, thought I would paint some of the other engine parts, this time in Shinny Black, again using engine paint, although these parts probably didn’t need it, cant imagine they get too hot.

So what have we got here, well starting from the top, Water Pump housing, engine mounts, another bracket (forgotten what thats for at the moment), cover for timing mark on bellhousing, Oil filter case, Oil Filler pipe, Front crank shaft pully, water pump pully.

Think thats about it, oh, not quite, didn’t take a picture but also got some black on the sump.

Not sure if I will be ready to start re-building next weekend, have a few bits to do first, like put in new core plugs, and paint the head (didn’t get that done, ran out of time). Also have decided to replace the camshaft bearings. so will need to hire a special tool for that job, and will write that one up as a seperate post, as I will for the main engine re-build parts, which I think will start with Crankshaft then Pistons and then, who knows? will work it out later.

More to come soon!

Its been a while since the last update, and thats for a number of reasons. Had to have a small operation, repair our swimming pool and take down a shed in the garden, due to rodents.

Anyway, back at it again now and while all of that was going on, not been entirely inactive.

In the last update, I had stripped down the engine, and was thinking about what needed to be done.

After a personal recommendation, and reading a number of superb reviews decided to give Banda Engineering a call. Banda Engineering are based in Portsmouth, right near the Navel Base main entrance which I knew well after all the times I dropped and picked up my eldest son when he went on or came back from deployments.

After a brief call, took all the engine bits down, not really knowing what exactly needed to be done. After 5 minutes of Banda taking a look, a couple of measurements later and telling me exactly what needed to be done I was more than happy.

So what was done?

The pistons that came out were original, so possibly could have gone with 020 oversize.

As it turned out, the block was cleaned up a little and re-bored to 030.

Number 4 had a bit of a score mark, probably the reason for skipping 020.

So re-bored and honed, ready for new Pistons.

Next, the head. This was again cleaned up, painted and skimmed with hardened valve seats fitted and existing valves re-ground in.

Also, there was a couple of snapped bolts from the manifolds, these were taken out also.

The crank shaft was measured and shown to be in tolerance, so was treated to a polish of the journals.

Last up was the flywheel, to me it looked beyond saving, however, this was re-skimmed back to as good as new.

Now I’m a little new to this level of detail so cant really judge the quality of work, but from what I see, the price I paid I’m super happy it all looks great and Banda, while being more used to working with people who know what the hell they are on about were super helpful.

This is when things stopped for a while, except me stocking up my store cupboard with a few new parts, ready to re-start the re-build.

What did I buy? other than some Assembly lube, some other lubricants and sealers along with some more WD40, scotch bright pads and some squirty bottles.

Most of what I bought came from Turner Engineering as I didn’t want blue box (Britpart) parts In my engine, same as when I have done all other major parts so far.

• Oversize Pistons (0.03)
• Main bearings (Standard size)
• Thrust washer for crank shaft. (Standard size)
• Connecting Rod bearings (Standard Size)
• Top end gasket set
• Bottom end gasket set
• Oil seal for rear of Crankshaft
• Timing chain
• Various lock tabs

All of this “should” be enough to complete the main engine rebuild.

Getting ready for the build, I need to do some more cleaning, mostly ready to paint the block but also so I am working with completely clean engine parts, essential as I understand.

First thing is to mask up the block, making sure the insides keep as clean as possible and free from paint.

A little tip I saw somewhere is to put the masking take on, and then gently with a small hammer, tap the edge, which creates a really nice, clean edge.

Will come back soon, after I get the casings all cleaned up and painted and also when I start putting things back together.

Because I had not planned on doing this, well not until I knew for sure I needed too, plenty of reading and watching video’s, just so I would know what to expect. Have to say, that was time well spent.

First step was to remove the rocker cover, exposing the rocker assembly.

One of the things I did learn by reading and watching was that things need to be kept in the same place from where they came off.

Using the rocker cover upside down, keeps it all together.

Off comes the flywheel. Another tip taken from videos, was to use two bolts, a selection of washers to pull the fly wheel off. That all went pretty easily.

Then removed the fly wheel cover.

Then it was a case of removing all the other ancillary parts, the oil filler pipe, distributor, heater pipe tap, engine mounting brackets, oil filter assemby and various other bits.

Once all those bits were off and safely stored, next was to tackle the head. Taking care to undo the bolts a bit at a time and in exactly the right order (reverse of the order used to tighten them).

With the cylinder head off, it was time to take off the inlet and exhaust manifolds.

Humm, even me with my little knowledge knew this would not be easy, but I was surprised! the bolts started coming out fairly easily, until that is 2 snapped.

Then there was one bolt that I could not get a socket on, and could not find a spanner with grip to undo this little bugger, which had a slightly knackered head.

So, looked for a tool that would help and found these little things, sockets with a spiral inside that grip the bolt head, and small enough to fit in the gap, just.

With the help of an extension bar, out it came.

Thats it for the cylinder head for this one, will cover the rest of that in part 2 when I have bought yet another tool, to remove the valves.

Next, the timing chain. Removed the timing chain cover, which needed 4 bolts removed from the sump.

Now, the right way to do this, is to set the engine to TDC (Top Dead centre) on cylinder 1, and mark where the gears are to maintain the timing between the crank shaft and the cam shaft.

Because the engine had locked up, I couldn’t do this so will have to re-set all the timing when it goes back together.

With the timing gear off, the cam shaft can come out. To do this, all the rocker parts need to be taken out first.

Again, all these were bagged up in separate bags to keep them in order.

So, back to the main block.

Next then, is to remove the sump, so I can get at the crank shaft, main bearings and ultimately remove the pistons.

Cant quite see it here, but in the bottom of the sump is a collection of small metal bits! Something somewhere has gone to poo!

I kind off stopped taking pictures at this point, my hands were covered in old oil, and the gloves I bought are next to useless.

Removed the top of the piston connecting rods, keeping all of them in separate plastic bags.

This should allow the pistons to come out the top of the block.

Difficult to know how much work this engine has done, but suffice to say enough to create a small lip in the piston bores to make this a bit of a challenge.

A little cleaning with some emery cloth, and got all the pistons out eventually, except number 4, which was the one that had caused the engine to lock up.

With three out, I was able to remove the crank shaft, which gave me better access to No4, which eventually came out.

There it is, an empty block, bags and bags of bits and old Oil everywhere. Didn’t mention, before I started needed to drain the oil out, which kind of worked, until I moved the container, not realising the oil was spilling onto the floor.

To finish up, cleaned up the case a little and took out three of the casting plugs.

Will re-new these during the rebuild, after the block gets a nice, original coat of paint.

Thats it for now, will do the head next time and then focus on cleaning everything up.

This brings me to the plan, what am I going to do with it all now its in bits. Well, this is where the budget will get spent. It will be going off to an engineering company, probably in Portsmouth (based on a recommendation from my Nephew Lee) to be looked at in detail, tolerances, condition etc. and come up with a plan.

My gut feel is that at a minimum I will be looking at:

• Head skimmed
• High temperature valve seats in the head, to deal with modern fuels
• Re-bore of cylinders or even sleeved, with new cylinders
• Check cam shaft and cam bearings and renew if required
• Re-skim flywheel (if tolerances allow)
• Remove broken studs from head
• Give it all a really good clean (inside and out)

And when that, plus any other issues are dealt with, will start to put it all back together, and then get it into the chassis, along with the gearbox. Now that will be exciting.

I have called this introduction, for one very important reason. I completely changed my plans for the engine, as it turns out for the good.

First of all, what have I got here, well, its a 2.25 litre Petrol, 3 main bearing engine, and while there is no guarantee, looking at the serial number looks like the same engine it came out of the factory with, some 59 years ago.

My plan was to get the engine running before even considering what needed to be done. First thing I wanted to do was to do a simple compression test, so bought a fairly cheap compression tester.

While waiting for that to arrive, I thought, lets see if it turns over on the starter motor (which I had recently re-furbished, read about that here). So connected up the battery, with the starter push button, using my new cables I bought when I bought a new wiring loom and lets see what happens.

Well, it worked, engine turned over.

BUT! after I got the compression tester, charged up the battery tried again, and….. the engine wont turn over, its locked up! SHIT! what have I done?

What I was also hoping for was to see oil on the rockers.

So, change of plan, not going to try to start it, decided I will do a complete re-build on the engine. This is going to have a massive impact on my budget and timeline. But given Isobel is highly un-likely to be on the road this year, as I had planned / hoped for, the time will not be too much of an issue, and given the amount of time and money I have spent so far, feels like it would be skimping on something so important.

So, off we go, first thing is to strip the engine down.