Evening all,

Just saying "hi" and how glad I am to be back in the land of landies. I've been unfaithful recently, a year with a Subaru and honestly, now I know speed's not everything. So now I've got myself a 110 V8 CSW off Ebay (first ever purchase) as a non-runner. I got it through its MOT yesterday after a bit of chassis work and now its fettling time.

Chassis is still a bit rough, the weller wheels are very rusty and the bodywork is matt. The seats are shredded, the carpets grow mushrooms and the engine overheats. What a smile I drive it with, though !

So, some challenging work ahead. First I think I need to sort the overheating. Cooling system seems OK and the thermostat works. Radiator's clear and there are no leaks. So I have to suspect that either the timing's way retarded (I think it's actually a Rover SD1 engine or maybe an ex-RR) or the Holley carb is seriously out of tune .

No idea what the timing should be or even where to find the crank BTDC markings. Any help would be appreciated. Hopefully I can help some of you over the coming years.

Here's to a Landie future in good company !

Cheers,
Chris, deep in the New Forest.

How do Chris deep in the New Forest. I ant a clue about the timing either, but am rather partial to mushrooms. If you hang about a while you'll find someone that'll be a bit more helpful.

A up, welcome to landy zone

Ey up Grunt, I is 'ere. OK, V8 overheating could be a lot of things. Thermo is OK, so, is radiator ok (flush system and rad out to be sure). Water pump is another to look at. After that, you're into the more serious business of timing/jetting etc. On the dizzy there is a big thing you can twist to alter the dwell angle, you can play with this to tune by ear if you're good at it, or get a strobe light and do it off the timing marks. Next, there are 2 screws (depending on year) that clamp the dizzy, slacken them off slightly and twist it each way until it just about stalls in each direction marking up with chalk/engineers scribe each time. Twist to middle of range then do it again at 2500rpm and go for somewhere between the 2 as a good starting point for ignition timing.

If you don't know where the timing marks are, speak to the pros at RPI "RPi Engineering - Specialised Rover Engines" they can tell you everything. As for jetting the Holley, they will recommend putting it on e-bay and getting a 4 barrel Weber jetted by them as they don't flood and just work without hassle

BTW Welcome to the looneyzone

See I sed so dint I.

Thank you, Take5. The RPI site is very very good - I think I'll spend a little time reading that before I go much further. Radiator is beautifully clear but I think I'll take a peek at the water pump tomorrow - no evidence of problems but I guess the rotor could be loose on the shaft or even completely eroded away.

I've got a good strobe light so I'll just point it in the general direction of the crank pulley and see what lights up from No. 1 cylinder's spark. I'll check the vacuum and mechanical advance too.

Cheers.