Shame about the piston rings, still at least it was easy / cheap to get alternatives.
Liking the brake progress Being able to stop is always handy....
Edit.... you've made more progress in the minute it took me to reply! It's that custard cream power... lightning speed working on the car!
Hopefully gapping the rings isn't too much of a chore, my v8 was the first car engine I've done, and the amount of time repeating task, like gapping 16 rings, kinda took me by surprise compared to the 1/2 cylinder bike engines I've done before!
I Know , i'm am sure they are not good for me , but a quick binge on custard creams works wonders , its like healthy living crack lol.
rings ,because they are meant for a 90.47mm bore , on the land rovers , and mine is a 90mm bore , overlap , so do take a while to wear down with a smoothing stone , but i want to be a very carefull with doing it , and getting the gap spot on , its taking about 20 minutes a ring , and i now have 3 more cylinders done , so one more to go and we are ringed up .
A freind dropped by while i was doing it yesterday in 8c with a 10 mph easterly wind , he said i looked like an old fisherman on the dock fixing my nets ,and wanted to take a picture , so here i am in 3 pairs of trousers etc filing away ...
I really like your approach to this. I think, when faced with missing/kippered brakes and hubs, especially for such an unusual car, that most people would have been trying to work out what else could be fitted, or else a different axle and front stub axles maybe. But you just work your way through it, seeing what can be fixed up and here we are - the brakes are close to being all good again. I hope you have as much luck with the motor too.
I fitted the two front hoses just now , and found it really hard to bleed the backs , fronts now flowed fluid like a good un , so yup , i got underneath ,and had a lovely brake fluid drippy time trying to get the super rusted rear flexible hose off . MOLE GRIPS WERE UTILISED !
got er done after a struggle , and now all 4 slaves gush like a pharaohs wedding. #inappropriate.
then i quickly did the last two rings , so thats all 6 cylinders rings prepped .
Can I request an idiots guide to converting to LPG injection please when you get to that stage, I really should do something better than the BLOS on the pinto.
Can’t help but imagine the Armstrong Siddley bonnet prop for use in their workshops would be a couple of lengths of proper 4x2 seasoned chestnut rather than an off cut of 95 x 38. They do look like factory overalls and woolly cap though. Love this build.
well i am sure you're all fed up with looking at my ugly mug so here's a better picture to peruse ..
,And , just in case you think i simply plopped them in and then went down the (socially distancing) pub ...
here's a vidette..
maybe get the head on tomorrow.
regards robert
EDIT: here's a good question , doe anyone have experience of not re using locking tabs on the big end 3/8th bsf bolts? i really don't like the idea of a bit of metal soft enough to bend being part of the torqued down assembly . I'm sure i read somewhere about removing them for performance use , maybe on a mini? any input welcome.
The idea of tab washers under bolts is an old idea, nobody uses such things nowadays for very good reasons. Basically what holds a joint together is friction, this is a function of the thread properties and tensile load. So the modern thinking is to design the joint to keep a consistent tension in the bolt for the operating life, as you say anything which softens the joint is bad news. The reality is the joint is far more likely to fail if there is anything soft in the joint, when it does the tab may stop it falling appart for a while but because the bolt is loose it will soon shake it's self to pieces eventually anyway. ( eventually not being very long at 2000 cycles per minute!)
because this means the big ends are torqued down ,and the windage tray and sump are back on !
getting the three front sump bolts in , over the crossmember , was very difficult ..bad photo incoming...
yup that's those three there .if they are remotely visible , i keep finishing work at dusk , so the pics are even more diabolically bad than normal .
tomorrow may just be head time.
and yes after being under there all day , taking off each big end bolt ,cleaning it , loctite threadlock then torqued to 35 lbs ft ,then on to the next one , then splathering gasket goo on the sump and block, then realising i had forgotten the windage tray , then jacking up the engine enough again the get the sump in , the millions of small bolts and finally those 3 barstard ones at the front , i DEFINITELY have a stiff neck !
Hi Robert, nice manful progress wrestling bits of recalcelent metal back into where they belong. Read your latest update wondering where you lie on the "knowing when to quit" (and avoid doing yourself an injury) Vs the "being bloody minded" and getting it finished now scale. Both approaches have merits but the recovery times are longer now ! Fingers crossed this results in a purring kitten of an engine. (before turbo !) James
The mission was to get the head bolted down ,and see whatever i could do from there .
The concern about this is that the head block interface may leak water ,due to old gasket and cracked block face.
My plan of action sealing wise was two fold .I cleaned the block face and head face with alcohol. Then called my freind who was going to help me lift the 115 lb head onto the engine ,once he txted me he was on his way , i quickly mixed up more jb weld , and started coating the gasket with the blue hylomar , on both sides . I left the crack interface area of the gasket clear , and then i coated that area with a thin layer of jb weld .
The idea being the super clean grease free faces on the block and head would facilitate the gluenosity of the faces with the hylomar , and the jb weld would glue to the jb weld allready in the crack , and create the best chance of total maxigluesealingtotalfoldnostasticness ...or as they say in high german...
"zesplattedfriktioncaputennixtkumenapparteneffah"...so i am told.
I had just finished coating the gasket when helper turned up , and, having carried the head out earlier and put it on an office chair beside the bay , we trotted out and i popped the gasket on the block .
Martin then got onto the o/s wing , and i picked up the head and balanced it, end on, on his foot in front of the engine .
I then got into the engine bay and could stand on the ground inside , and we then manhandled the head into place above the studs , and started trying to line it all up .
so we have spotlessly clean pistons/bores/head/block ..and super sticky gasket .......
At this point , approx 1/2 pounds of assorted rusty detritus poured out of the head cooling holes into the bores/and onto the gasket ...oh and down the cam follower holes.
I tried to brush and pick it away ,but it was no use .
We took the head off again by reversing the process , including balancing it on martins foot ...again.
Martin ,picked at the bores with a magnet , and i carried the head back to cave ,and blew it out with the air line ,lots of rust came out ...so slightly hopeful , i carried it back to the car , and we propped it up again , lots more stuff fell out , so we abandoned this try ,and martin hobbled off to bathe his foot .
I then carried the head another 100ft ,down the garden to the hose pipe ,and washed it out ,then another 100ft back to the car ....did i mention it weighs 115 lbs?
Then i set too,cleaning the gasket of the hylomar , the only thing that seemed to slightly move it was wire wool and evo3 cleaner ,toluene i think it is ...doing this for a while created a bit of an out of body experience with the fumes , but by now i was beyond feeling much of anything .
the jb weld came off the block and the head pretty easily.
next was to clean the bores and cam follower holes of the metal grit and dust.
To do this i greased the bores ,then turned the engine over , and the bits stuck in the grease and i could wipe off the greasy ring at the top of each bore ..the follower holes i used a magnet ,and rag with a probe .
now it was all ready to try again , but i got no txt response until it was too dark to work or see if anything fell in again .
i carried the head 50ft back to the cave.
tomorrow i may have another go if its not raining ,and my friend is still talking to me .
Being able to stop is always handy.... 
