Steve's unexpected Series 3 rebuild.

LincolnSteve · Aug 7, 2018

After all the trouble with the timing cover it still wasn't finished. I wanted the rivets replacing with screws. I love tapping threads, I'm such an anorak. It did work really well. Those are just temporary test bolts. I put stainless cap bolts in the finished job.

LincolnSteve · Aug 7, 2018

Finally ready for painting. I love the duck egg blue colour so was excited to get started. After a while it was clear that it wasn't covering well. The first coat was pretty see-through and loads of little high points of the casting kept showing through black. I had a word with the manufacturers of the paint and they said that old castings are just sometimes porous and absorb a little oil. This gets released when the paint goes on and it takes a few coats to get a deep colour. True enough it worked in the end. New seal fitted and the nice little cap bolts in place. I really do faff about too much. Nobody will ever see these.

boguing · Aug 7, 2018

OK, you've got me convinced - I was just going to leave as is when I do the rebuild but can't now 'cos that's lovely. Whose paint is it, and brushed/sprayed?

LincolnSteve · Aug 7, 2018

All pretty clean inside. I didn't take the crank out or the camshaft or touch the timing. There just didn't seem to be too much wear. Cylinder bores were honed by Mark from the local garage who kindly came to the house one night after work.

LincolnSteve · Aug 7, 2018

boguing said:
OK, you've got me convinced - I was just going to leave as is when I do the rebuild but can't now 'cos that's lovely. Whose paint is it, and brushed/sprayed?

It is fairly delicious looking. Came from www.militaryvehiclepaint.co.uk via ebay. Can be brushed or sprayed. I brushed it on, spraying would be better. So far one 250ml can has done the timing cover (many coats), the block (3 coats) and the head (3 coats). The head should actually be black but I just am so carried away with the colour that I can't help myself.

LincolnSteve · Aug 7, 2018

Next I started to get some of the bits and bobs tidied up ready to go back on. The pulley is a new one but the finish wasn't so good so I still had to paint it (can anyone guess why it's taking me years to get this done). I'm really happy with the dipstick. I'm going to paint the fan that colour as well. Anything that pretty must work better. The oil filter housing ought to be blue I think. I couldn't really justify another can of paint just to do that so black it is.

LincolnSteve · Aug 7, 2018

Flywheel next. I decided to keep the original one but get a new ring gear and spigot bearing. Quite chuffed with myself getting the ring gear off. Followed the workshop manual and everything went well. Hardly a mark left behind. Mark at the garage fitted the new one as I have no way to get it hot enough.

LincolnSteve · Aug 7, 2018

Existing standard pistons cleaned up well. New rings fitted. Everything seems to measure to within what the book says it should (to my untrained eye anyway)

LincolnSteve · Aug 9, 2018

LincolnSteve · Aug 9, 2018

Rear crank oil seal. I have been panicking about this since the day I bought the landy. I knew the old seal was a goner because even on day one there was oil running out of the flywheel housing. You hear stories about these seals being absolute cows to replace. As the engine was upside down on the engine stand I figured that it should be a lot easier than trying to do it from underneath. I didn't really understand what the seal retainers were like until I got them off for a good look. In the meantime I had ordered a pair of Britpart retainers. These were staggeringly poor quality. They were very cheap but it really showed. Where they seal against the block there was a defect in the rubber part that would have had them leaking in no time. I had already decided that I was going to get a really good seal from Turner engineering so I bit the bullet and ordered the retainers from there as well. These were bloody expensive but they claim to be genuine Land Rover stock and proper matched pairs. When they arrived they certainly seemed to be really good. I really don't want to be doing this again any time soon so I spent an entire morning faffing and tweaking to try and get it as perfect as I could. Time will tell.

Stretch · Aug 10, 2018

I too had little trouble with fitting the rear crankshaft seal - I just followed the instructions in the green book apply the silicone grease and Hylomar as directed and it went smoothly.

Leak testing hasn't happened just yet of course (!)

As a matter of interest - your engine paint - does it by any chance have any references to HMG on the outside of the tin? It would be good to know if your paint is the same or different from the other sources I've found so far (the other sources all seem to come from HMG)

LincolnSteve · Aug 10, 2018

Stretch said:
I too had little trouble with fitting the rear crankshaft seal - I just followed the instructions in the green book apply the silicone grease and Hylomar as directed and it went smoothly.

Leak testing hasn't happened just yet of course (!)

As a matter of interest - your engine paint - does it by any chance have any references to HMG on the outside of the tin? It would be good to know if your paint is the same or different from the other sources I've found so far (the other sources all seem to come from HMG)

I can't see HMG mentioned on the can or the invoice. It does seem like there are only a few actual manufacturers of parts and products and a lot of suppliers putting their own stickers on things.

jamesmartin · Aug 10, 2018

LincolnSteve said:
View attachment 155269 View attachment 155270 View attachment 155271 View attachment 155272 View attachment 155273 View attachment 155274 View attachment 155275 Rear crank oil seal. I have been panicking about this since the day I bought the landy. I knew the old seal was a goner because even on day one there was oil running out of the flywheel housing. You hear stories about these seals being absolute cows to replace. As the engine was upside down on the engine stand I figured that it should be a lot easier than trying to do it from underneath. I didn't really understand what the seal retainers were like until I got them off for a good look. In the meantime I had ordered a pair of Britpart retainers. These were staggeringly poor quality. They were very cheap but it really showed. Where they seal against the block there was a defect in the rubber part that would have had them leaking in no time. I had already decided that I was going to get a really good seal from Turner engineering so I bit the bullet and ordered the retainers from there as well. These were bloody expensive but they claim to be genuine Land Rover stock and proper matched pairs. When they arrived they certainly seemed to be really good. I really don't want to be doing this again any time soon so I spent an entire morning faffing and tweaking to try and get it as perfect as I could. Time will tell.

i reuse the old retainers and use rtv silicone sealant to seat them,they are a non wearing part unlike the seal, the skill is getting the joint at the top the garter spring on and seal sitting square

LincolnSteve · Aug 10, 2018

jamesmartin said:
i reuse the old retainers and use rtv silicone sealant to seat them,they are a non wearing part unlike the seal, the skill is getting the joint at the top the garter spring on and seal sitting square

I could have maybe saved a chunk of cash there then. A tube of rtv would have been a good bit cheaper than the new retainers.
That spring is a right fiddle to get in. You should have seen the way I was beggering about with it and the seal. I'm so glad the engine was out and upside down. They must be an absolute swine to do with the engine in.

Stretch · Aug 11, 2018

LincolnSteve said:
I could have maybe saved a chunk of cash there then. A tube of rtv would have been a good bit cheaper than the new retainers.
That spring is a right fiddle to get in. You should have seen the way I was beggering about with it and the seal. I'm so glad the engine was out and upside down. They must be an absolute swine to do with the engine in.

Well I guess that's why those seals have such a bad reputation - if so it is a bit unfair there aren't many vehicles that have easy access to a rear crankshaft seal with the engine fitted in-situ...

...Oh I forgot to say that start ring job: Well done! My series 2a flywheels were really not going to give that bad boy up. I drilled and drilled and smacked the heck out of the ring at several places (thinking the book must be right) but got nowhere. The starter rings fitted to my flywheels seemed to be way too malleable to snap like yours did. I ended up sourcing a complete new old stock flywheel with the ring fitted.

LincolnSteve · Aug 12, 2018

Stretch said:
Well I guess that's why those seals have such a bad reputation - if so it is a bit unfair there aren't many vehicles that have easy access to a rear crankshaft seal with the engine fitted in-situ...

...Oh I forgot to say that start ring job: Well done! My series 2a flywheels were really not going to give that bad boy up. I drilled and drilled and smacked the heck out of the ring at several places (thinking the book must be right) but got nowhere. The starter rings fitted to my flywheels seemed to be way too malleable to snap like yours did. I ended up sourcing a complete new old stock flywheel with the ring fitted.

Thanks for that. It was one of the very few times that I can remember real life turning out like the instruction book says it should.

GATSO · Aug 15, 2018

great work

LincolnSteve · Aug 15, 2018

Time for the sump to go on. I got a touch of paranoia about whether I had finished everything inside so I went over all the torque settings and triple checked the lot. I don't mind taking my time over a job but I really can't stand having to go back and do something again. Let's hope I did a good job.
I really would like to keep some of the oil on the inside if possible. I know a leak free land rover is a bit far fetched but I'm still going to try hard to stop it being too dribbly. I've run a bead of RTV silicone round the joint between the sump and the bottom of the block as you can see in the second photo. I don't know if this will do any good but it's worth a go.

LincolnSteve · Aug 15, 2018

This was a nice job. Minimum effort, maximum result. In the sunshine and mostly done with just soap and water. Thank heavens for an occasional easy bit. The inlet manifold is much the same. Can't wait.

LincolnSteve · Aug 15, 2018

The engine has been on the stand for a long time now and it's been a brilliant bit of kit. It has been so handy to be able to just flip the engine over in seconds when needed. Definitely one of the best bits of kit I've got. The downside is that you can't get at the back of the engine because that's where it's bolted on. I had reached the stage where I needed to get on with the flywheel and clutch so I bodged together a little trolley to support the engine but let me get to the back. I quickly put the head back on to lift it but it does look very tatty on top of that pretty engine.

Steve's unexpected Series 3 rebuild.

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