Header Tanks Twice.
The 110 Posted by Nicky Smith Thu, January 05, 2017 13:51:40
It felt like I was slipping backwards, all of the hard work putting things back together seemed to be coming back off The 110 in droves. One step forward seemed to lead to four steps back.
This though it would seem is all part of the fun of Land Rover ownership.

After the initial run up of the engine and the modification of the radiator brackets I had to actually mount the Header Tank in a proper permanent position. Now this should be a straight forward affair really but the 300tdi header tank I had bought fouled the suspension cone turret. "Not to worry" I thought to myself "I am a resourceful fellow, I shall make a bracket up"
So that is exactly what I did. I dug out some metal and made up a bracket. This fitted easily and before I knew it I had the header tank fixed into place.


A little later I got talking to a friend about the turbo issues that were going on when, after I had sent a picture of the days work, he pointed out that the header tank was probably far too low to work properly.
Hmm...back to the drawing board then. I set to seeing what could be done I mean I am not that daft to only come up with one solution to a problem so I sat back with a brew and pondered the issue.
A new bracket then but I only had the metal that was already used but not to stress a bit of bending here in the vice and there with a hammer along with some gentle persuasion soon saw it all remoulded for a higher mounting.


Now that header will sit above the radiator and the coolant can now circulate around nicely.
As the tools were out I quickly popped the rad and front panel back into place so The 110 will finally once again start to look like a Land Rover.


One thing I am not looking forward to doing is wiring those lights back up.
I hate Land Rover wiring...


nickysmith.me

Smoke & Bangs.
The 110 Posted by Nicky Smith Mon, January 16, 2017 15:25:02
You can actually get past saturation point you know. I did not think that that would be possible but it turns out that it is!

But before anymore of that let us head back to the beginning. Our last instalment showed that the turbo was knackered so I had to try and figure out how on earth I was going to afford a new one. Well a kind friend gifted me a 300tdi turbo so all I had to do was do a few modifications and Bob's your Uncle. Sod's law being what it is a few days later another friend called telling me he had a 200tdi turbo that could be mine for a very reasonable price. Skint as I am this month I could not refuse this as it would safe a great deal of messing around so I bought it.

Yesterday was the day to get the old replaced with the new and all went really well for a while.
The old unit came off nice and easily leaving just the old gasket to remove and the face there to clean up. A nice new exhaust manifold gasket was then popped into place.


My luck held as I installed the replacement turbo then less the ninety minutes after starting the hole shebang was all back together.


Happy Days!! I thought to myself as I was putting the tools away. All I had to do now was start it up, admire the not blue exhaust smoke and enjoy the whistling sound of the new turbo as it spun in.
I connected the battery and turned the key. The engine coughed quickly into life and I reversed it up to the top of the driveway to stop the exhaust fumes building up under the car port gassing anyone unfortunate enough to enter.
It was still a bit smokey but not too bad at the moment. I figured it would be burning off the oil that had got into the exhaust system so not to worry.
As it got warmer the smoke did not subside. If I gave the engine some rev's it got a great deal worse...and blue.

My heart sank. Everything I seem to do on this motor leads to more issues. It does not seem to make any of it any better. Still not to panic, I let it run up to temperature before driving it back to it's semi permanent spot under the car port.
After a bit of online chatting with friends and folks on forums I decided to remove the exhaust to make sure that it was not full of oil....it was not.
I then ran the engine again to make sure the turbo I fitted was in good working order with no major oil leaks...it was fine, there was still blue smoke.
The bloody power steering box wasn't happy though.
It took this opportunity to dump every last drop of fluid it had in the power steering system all over my driveway as I backed the 110 up it...I could have cried.


A bottle of Fairy liquid later saw the driveway usable once more while I popped a drip tray under the steering box to catch the remnants of what was held in the system.


I left the engine a few hours to cool then checked the valve clearances. These are all good and still the engine smokes badly in blue. There is no evidence of the head gasket being the culprit but that of course doesn't mean that it is not.
A friend is popping over later in the week for a quick nose at it and another has hinted it could be the valve oil seals.

A diagnosis will be gladly welcomed but if I am honest here I am now sick to death of it. Today has cost another wad of cash I do not have and before anything else there is the added cost of a power steering box along with an alternator. I don't think I mentioned the alternator is shot as well. No output at all there...

Unless it is going to be a cheap fix on the smokey side of things The 110 is getting parked up. Mothballed. I may even be tempted to sell the damned thing but I will give myself a few weeks before making any sort of rash decision there.
All I wanted was a Land Rover to do some Overlanding in, a bit of camping in nice places. I should have gone with my first idea of doing this with a more modern Discovery and I have to admit that this idea is once again becoming more and more tempting.
Lets see what Thursday brings but I expect to park it up for a while in anycase because once you get to this verge of hatred point it is best to just walk away.
My other hobbies are calling and I have a week off so from tomorrow morning I will be focusing on those a little more so as to get out and about.
Not a great ending to this post folks and I am sorry for that but I could not be any more fed up with this without taking a large hammer to it....

nickysmith.me

I am really sorry to hear of your woes
I agree that it sounds like the time has come to chuck a tarp over it and forget it for a while.
When the warmer weather arrives (along with a generally better sense of well being), take another look at it.
Alternatively, check all breathers are clear and all the valve stem oil seals are present and in tact.
In fact, although I've never done one, I don't believe it's too taxing to change the head gasket.
While the heads off, replace the valve stem seals and check the cylinder bores etc.

Rich

Hey Rich,
Thanks for the heads up and thankfully I have done a few head gaskets on other motors so no worries there. It was just the culmination of all the little bits going wrong that set me off.
There is another update which I will pop on shortly but the site seems to have been down so there is still news to come...

Sulk Over.
The 110 Posted by Nicky Smith Thu, January 19, 2017 10:19:29
Yes, yes I know my last post had me throwing a tantrum. You saw me throwing all of my toys out of the pram. I spat my dummy out as far as it could go and I was stamping my feet shouting "It's my toy and I don't wanna play anymore"
But the sulk is now over.
I have stood still wondering where in the hell I went wrong in the Land Rover life when a friend gave me a bit of a talking to.
After reading my last post he simply messaged "Ring me".
I didn't want to because I kinda knew he was going to have some cunning solution to what was going on engine smoke wise and it turned out that he did. That and I am an "Arfur Job" fool.

The first question was "Have you plumbed it all in correctly?" which with a roll of my eyes I answered "Of course I have, I am not that stupid."
"But have you plumbed it ALL in?" he asked.
"Bugger" I thought to myself "Here we go I am going to feel stupid in a minute" was the closely following thought.
"Well not all of it. I mean I have not piped up the turbo to the intercooler yet" I replied.
"That will probably make it smoke a bit" he told me in a calm manner "Not a great deal but enough from unburnt fuel etc. It isnt the be all and end all but it would probably help. It's been stood for years and then your knackered turbo will have dumped oil around in places so give that a go because the engine will really need a good run out as well. Oh and while you are at it stick some fuel cleaner through it and an engine flush probably wouldn't do any harm either. Nick stop panicking and start plodding through the bits I've said."

So I did. I ordered the bits I needed to make up the bottom intercooler feed and popped the fuel cleaner in. The postman brought me the parts yesterday morning so I set to seeing if my friend was right....again.

He was.

After making it all up and fitting the turbo out I fired up the engine and there still some smoke but nothing like what had been before...it was at this point I started to feel a bit stupid along with daring to feel a little bit hopeful.
I let the engine run through for about for about half an hour systematically revving up and holding them to get the heat all of the way through the solid metal lump. I wanted to get the coolant nice and hot as well.

As it ran and revved getting up to and holding its temperature the smoke more or less disappeared. I could not believe it! After all of that feeling a bit sick with disappointment thinking the whole thing would be better burning here I was looking at a much improved picture. Yes the power steering box was still shot but that is a doddle of a job compared to pulling the engine apart. An expensive job but an easier one non the less.
So thank you my friend, you know who you are, you have yet again advised me well and there a couple of beers with your name on when we next meet up again!

Happy as I am that it is all heading back in the right direction I am changing tack and walking away from the mechanical side for a little while. What I am going to do is put the bugger back together wiring up the lights then prepping the bodywork for painting. I want to get the old boy looking like I want him to. It's looked like scrap since it turned up all of that time ago so I am heading down the "Make it look nice" route. This will show me what I am working towards and I do have this nice car port that I can put it under and seal off to do the job.

My biggest problem now is I had decided months ago what colours I wanted to paint it but know I am not quite so sure!
Best to start with the primer then. The rest can sort itself out from there...



nickysmith.me

Great news!! Seems obvious now eh?
Really pleased the smoke thing has cleared up.
I just wanna know what colour and how you are going to apply it as I need to do mine really....after washing it yesterday and losing a great deal of paint, along with the mud and moss
Looking forward to more updates

Rich

It will probably be black and green if I am honest but I am tempted to go white or sand as well....

I'm toying with either black and green or green and brown (just to be different!!)
Not til summer though

Keep your chin up mate, frustrating at times but it'll be worth it in the end.

I shall keep plodding on green and brown, theres an idea...

Still keeping military colours or more domestic?

The top one looks sound!!
Not sure about the bottom one......

Rich

I think they both look good! I won't be doing camo style though...

Styling.
The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Thu, January 26, 2017 18:48:33
Well the paints ordered.
The 110 wont be driving anywhere soon but at least it will look good not doing that!

In all seriousness it will be nice to have a change of direction with it for a little while...

Please tell us more!!
I need to at least know the colour !!

Well i could say the colour s but that would spoil the surprise!

But the suspense is killing us!!
Can't wait to see where this is going!!
Rich

Nope keeping shtum for the time being lol

min200 said:

Nope keeping shtum for the time being lol

Click to expand...

Spoilsport

Maybe just a little bit