F

feckedfreelander

New Member
hi all

were do i start, well i bought my wife a really nice looking freelander on a T plate from a work collegue, its been his wifes daily drive for the last 8 years, its has had the obligetry head gasket failure but has been well looked after 95000 miles with some history nice black paintwork with front and side chrome bull bars lights ect and a nice grey leather interior with aircon and a LR / harmon Kardon stereo.
well it started running a bit rough and overheated so i thought HGF so i have spent the day in the garage getting it all apart only to find that a piston has cracked acroos the top with a small hole in the centre:eek: totally fecked:mad:
can i replace the piston by removing the sump with the engine in? or should i be looking for a replacment engine and if so were should i start?

totally ****ed off.....just couldn't believe what i found, gutted

what do you think?
 
You could always stick a piston in, using the old big end shells and rings but at the same time source a second hand motor to rebuild and fit at your leisure.
Or... stick a second hand motor in there and rebuild yours ready to fit if the second hand engine lunches itself. I'd probably do the latter if it was my car to be honest. Sticking just a piston in is probably not getting to the root cause of why it cracked in the first place.
Al.
 
Cheers Al

can you fit a new piston with the engine still fitted?

also can anyone recommend a engine recon company for a replacment or would it be better to try and sorce a second hand engine from maybe a breakers or a rear end write off?
 
If I remember correctly (it's been 10 years since I left Rover) the piston can be removed with the engine in situ but it is a bit of a fiddle to do. You must be very careful when removing it not to dislodge the cylinder liner. You do know not to turn the crank with the head removed don't you? Rover made special tools that clamped the liners in place using the head bolts but something similar could easily be made up to do the same job.
Al.
 
look for reasonwhy piston cracked, was hg letting drops of coolant into bore, is the head cracked on that cylinder letting coolant drop on piston,was the horrible inlet gasket letting coolant in, is the injector faulty and overfuelling,, if you fetch the sump off you should be able to get to any big end you need to.
 
you can always put the head back on with the old bolts and gasket to turn the crank, remove sump first to identify where you need the crank to be to undo .
 
good info chaps, thanks

cracked / holed piston could be coolant in the bore? i hope that if its rebuilt well it should be ok...we'll see

so...a new piston could be a way forward along with the new oil rail, skimmed head,mls gasket,new bolts ect

so were should i start trying to souce a piston? LR or partco or similar?

having just checked the block another point is that the liners are only just proud of the block, i think that could be bad?
 
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220 turbo.....sounds good

would it be a fairly straight swop or is there a fair amount of modification required ?
i only ask as i'm new to the K series engines and don't know what my options are
 
The piston probably got most of the damage when the head gasket went first time around. It is common on the K series engine if itoverheats badly and isnt checked properly when repaired.
 
it looks like a replacment engine then, oh well:(

where would be the best place to start looking for another engine?

if anyone point me in the right direction it would be greatly appriciated, thanks :)
 
Theres a few on e-blag, but unless it has a warranty, be very wary. The engine is a poor design and is likely to cause problems in future, however if yu change for a different type of engine its not a simple swap. It is also very easy for liners to move on a 1.8 which will make it unuseable.
 
Try here

Block, Crankshaft, Con Rods, Pistons at www.rimmerbros.co.uk

Listed under Rover-MG, same engine as the Freelander.

Pistons aren't cheap and normally bottom ends on k-series are bomb proof, it's the top end you need to worry about,

As above, sounds like it ran out of oil/coolant and overheated, I'd check cylinder diameters as well, and internal micrometers arent cheap.

Personally, I'd spend no more than £300 on a running k-series possibly £100 on a hgf, but that's not before a compression test by rotating the crank pulley a few times by hand, should read 9bar cold readings.

Plenty of chancers (ebayers and local scrappers) will charge £450-600 for an engine to the unsuspecting housewife and her beloved MGF. Hopefully all thats about to change and arse will drop right out of the market :D

Whatever you decide to do, (Replacement engine being the quickest option.... approx a days work if you do the old NI drop engine trick)

plus you'll get enough free advice to get you motoring again,
 
thanks for the advise chaps :)

i have located a posible replacment engine so i will take a compression tester and crank pulley socket with me and see if its a good un......is there anything else i should check before purchasing?

also has anyone any tips on removing the old engine that i should know about?

thanks :D
 
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