Landy Land!
Home Me and my clan The Lads Avalon
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Piglet
There she is, my pride and joy. Piglet.
Named partly for the PGT in her number plate but mostly for her love of mud Piglet is a 27 year old Series 3 landrover. Her last owners lived near Ely and only used her to get them the 200 yards down a track to their horse paddocks and back. Bought for £500 in full working order all she lacked was MOT, tax and full working order... When I got her home we went straight to nearest garage and paid for an hours labour to tell me what needed doing for an MOT. Looking back not too much really... She had one of her sidelights out and needed two new indicators where the orange had faded. Unfortunately besides the small jobs was the big one. In a four cylinder engine only three were firing... Also I'd asked the previous owners if there were any problems they knew of. Leaking petrol tank, easily fixed. Well, technically...
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The Job...
Easiest things first, it was time for a wash and a strip down. Off came everything for a good clean! This picture shows the fading of the right-side indicator lense and the removed left-hand sidelight is sitting on it's respective wing. You can just about make out the PGT on the number plate. I left it off after this... The new lights and lenses went on now and the electrics were all sorted out.
The drivers window channel was extremely corroded and had to be replaced with a metal strip, a rusty nail and a severed bolt! It's now been replaced with a whole new door top.
Herby goes Landrover...
DIY window
Another job that needed to be done soon after I'd got my hands on her was to replace the mudflaps. The one in this picture actually fell off while I was driving it down a nearby track! Luckily I turned around and spotted it so I was able to pick it up. Not wanting to buy new flaps I just cut off about 2cm of rubber (shown in the pic) and reattached the originals.
RRP £44.95
The interior has since recieved new mats, pedal rubbers and a new interior mirror. I've also fitted a mat to the rear well for when it can finally carry passengers!
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The Tank...
Then I came to the petrol tank which I knew had a leak. When a vehicle is only going to do 22mpg you need to keep as much in the tank as possible so I went about replacing it. Easy enough I thought. Even with all six bolts rusted the old tank was drained and lowered in less than 30 minutes. But that was just the beginning...
The front petrol tank outrigger had rusted right through and once I got rid of the mud and flaking metal the damage was even more extensive than the picture shows. There was no way it could support a full tank of petrol for more than a few bumps and dips. So now I needed a welder...
Simple enough...
So the new petrol tank appeared for about £45. Now that's not a bad price for a brand new petrol tank but I can't help but wonder how they'd transported this one... It was already dented! I had to flatten out the bolt rails before it would even vaguely fit and the filler pipe leant to one side... That's genuine all right!
The petrol tank still lies dormant at the moment as does the replacement outrigger. I'm expecting a phonecall from a welder even as I write this so hopefully tomorrow it will be fixed!
Landrover genuine parts means dented...
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The Engine...
Even if the petrol tank was perfect I still wasn't going to go anywhere fast. Running on three cylinders and dragging the fourth gave this girl an embarrassing top speed of 45mph! I clearly needed to fix it but I'd never even looked at an engine before. Now, the engine is running again and I have a career in royal engineering! It's strange the way the world works...
This is how it all went down...
The rocker cover is off! Even I could figure out how to do that. Just because I've never dismantled an engine before doesn't mean I can't use a spanner! Unfortunately the rocker was all properly adjusted, no seizures, nothing. That meant the problem was lower down... On I went!
Dirty but working!
The cylinder head had to come off still attached to the manifolds due to badly seized bolts but what I found underneath was a pleasant if not slightly dirty sight. Cylinder block was fine so I could stop going down and the engine could stay in the vehicle!
Looks fine... dammit...
Good a cheap problem!
The underside of the cylinder head was a sight for sore eyes. There was the cracked valve that was preventing compression in the second cylinder. It's easy enough to replace that then isn't it? Well techically yes... But not in this case.
Who needs a workshop?
Almost everything that came off or out of the landrover went straight into the back! Here's the new tank, the thermostat, the rocker, the cylinder head still with manifolds attatched and many many bolts!
So off came the cylinder head and there was the problem staring me right in the face. After a quick lesson in valve compression I soon had all eight out. Unfortunately once again it turned out to be a much bigger job than it seemed. Every time the second cylinder was forced upwards it exerted a massive pressure on the already cracked exhaust valve. The end result of this repeated action was massive pitting of the cylinder head and the valve seat was a small crater.

I considered for a long while having the original cylinder head remilled and converted to unleaded at the same time. For £150 I would've saved money in the long run. Thankfully though another offer happened to be passing just as I was considering it...
Ignore the hampster cage, this is the replacement engine that I picked up for £20! It was complete before I removed the cylinder head and it came with a virtually brand new Zenith carburettor to replace my good old Weber one! Everything was in good condition except the bottom end which had seized at some point and was now full of water! Thankfully the cylinder head I recovered was perfect and I quickly set about cleaning it up.
No landrover is complete without it's own pile of spares...
Here's both of my cylinder heads before the valves went back in. The lower of the two is the original pitted head. That's why it isn't as clean as the top one! To the left of the cylinder heads is the manifold still together. I seperated the inlet and exhaust manifolds to clean them up properly before I reassembled the engine. Just visible is the dipped black replacement outrigger behind the manifolds.
Ever seen a landrover shine before?
Look a reflection!
Wonky but working...
That's the replacement head and the four new valves alongside the old. On the far left it is just possible to make out the crack in the old exhaust valve.
The new cylinder head with all of the new valves installed. The inlet valves were all in good condition and the best four of the eight have been selected, cleaned and grinded into place.
Before...
After!
Ok so the difference doesn't exactly hit you in the face but it actually took quite a while to do! Look around the edges of the cylinder block in the first picture and the gasket material between the cylinders. It doesn't actually look as clean as it is because of the light but believe me it's a lot better than it was!
If I did this again Id probably put in a couple of temporary studs to hold the gasket in place while I lower the cylinder head... I know there must be a way to do it easily but I couldn't find it! I just lined it up one bolt at a time!
My landy turned ginger...
The cylinder head finally back in place. Once the gasket was lined up it was as easy as anything! All looks nice enough at this stage though... The spark plugs went in next then the thermostat went back on after a very thorough clean. The next picture would suggest everything was fairly straight forward from here on out but it wasn't...
Success!!!
With a new top end gasket set sitting in the workshop I thought I might as well strip down the manifolds. It'll make future maintenance easier. Little did I know it would take five attempts and almost a full day to do it! The carburettor base and the block it stands on both came off easily and cleaned up well enough. The joint between the inlet and exhaust manifold was impossible though. It took hours to part them and clean up both surfaces. I fitted the new gasket, tightened the manifolds and reattatched them to the cylinder head... Five times... The joint wasn't snug so I had to go back to it repeatedly until both manifolds sat flush against the gasket. Finally though all was well and the result was this picture!
Almost there...
The last job to do was to refit the rocker assembly which I had no idea how to do it. Thankfully the landrover service and repair manual did! Another quick lesson later and the job took less than 30 minutes. The engine now turns over better than it has in a long time and as soon as the welding's done we're ready for the MOT! It's been hard and it's taken a long time but it's been well worth doing... I've learnt so much and I now know an engine inside out.

        But what about my
            petrol tank??
Now how about that petrol tank then...