Well it has been a long while since the last update, but quite a lot has happened since then so I'll have to be brief to catch up. I will probably try to do several updates to cover the events of the last few months so as not to create a monster post.

On the 25th of May I hired a van and moved the engine taken out by the garage over to my Uncle's house. The van was a Vauxhall Vivaro which was actually quite easy to drive, apart from when exiting first gear (of six) and was easily big enough for our purposes.

Once the engine was installed into my Uncle's garage he proceded to strip it down over the next few weeks such that every surface was covered with bits of engine. The engine stayed in this state until mid-September until after my trip to Le Mans and wasted preparation time spent on the Scally Rally that I ended up not being able to do.

No updates here because there's been very little activity. However I took delivery of a 1 tonne engine hoist this week, so hopefully some progress very soon.

Happy New Year!

There's have been no posts for ages because simply there's been no news for ages. Rob took ages fitting the new engine, it didn't go in until December and then it turned out to be junk. The "new" engine was venting burned oil, and as we later found out losing oil out of the bottom. The latter we suspect is a failed bearing. Rob also did all the necessary welding, fitted a new fuel tank, and got it an MOT somehow, I'm assuming it passed the emissions test because all the smoke was coming out of the front, not out of the exhaust!

Uncle and I brought the Land Rover back to my house last Saturday, with the original engine in the back, which was a bit of fun in a vehicle with bad rear springs, stuck in 4wd and dropping oil in the wet! :) The current plan is to rebuild the original engine and get it rebored, and then put it back into the vehicle, using the new bits Rob put on the "new" engine when he fitted it. Uncle has offered his garage for the rebuild, so once we have a method of getting it over to his house safely and securely we'll make a start. When we refit the old engine I also plan to fit new inner wings, get the grill panel rebuilt at the bottom and replace the drivers footwell, and get the gearbox ovehauled and the over drive fitted, plus and other jobs that are easier while we have good access.

Hero was not brought home on Friday as Rob at RJ's had to spend the day repairing his yard after a burst pipe flooded it. Since he was going on holiday until the 26th, he said he was happy for the vehicle to stay there until then.

Thanks to a colleague at work who has a friend who owns several Land Rovers, I have managed to locate a replacement diesel engine for Hero. If things go well it will be delivered direct to RJs at the weekend, who had already agreed to fit an engine if I could find one. I'll need to get the welding done at the same time as well as having a new fuel tank fitted but then we should be all ready to go, fingers crossed.

Hero never made it's MOT..it broke down about 10mins into the journey. We had been making some progress at a top speed of 38mph, when it suddenly lost power and the radiator started to boil. The AA were called out and diagnosed a failed cylinder head gasket (which it wasn't) and told me to park the vehicle up in a nearby roadside cafe from where it could be recovered later by a flat bed truck. It couldn't be towed because it's currently stuck in 4wd mode and so couldn't be lifted by the front wheels. Hero was taken to RJs in Sawtry later, who quickly concluded that one of the pistons had broken in the engine, and said there was no point doing any work on the engine to fix it. I've had other advice that says the engine could be dismantled and a new piston fitted, but I'm not sure how practical such an undertaking would be. This leaves me in a situation of either scrapping the Landy or getting another engine, and at the moment I'm not sure which route to go. If I scrap it I really have to break the vehicle up to get some money back, but then I'd feel all my time was wasted. RJs are currently going to try to find me another engine, but aren't hopeful, and my own calls have not yielded anything. As the situation stands the vehicle will be brought back home on Friday and then I will decide whether to start taking it to bits.

In a little over 36 hours Hero will be off for it's MOT, so I spent some time today do a few jobs to get parts out of my shed. As well as tightening up the wheel nuts and running the engine for a bit (which made the customary blue smoke cloud - I hope my injector cleaner sorts that) I added the mud flaps. Since I don't have the require rivnut tool I made one...how igenious of me! In fairness I copied the idea from someone else on the web, and once I managed to get a decent nut and bolt and a piece of steel rather than aluminium it worked really well. Suffice to say the first flap took about 3 hours to fit, with about 4 remakes of my rivnut tool, whereas the second took about 30 mins with the definitive version.

Here's a slightly fuzzy shot of the flaps, (I was too tired after fitting the bits to swap the camera lens over from the 300mm).



I'll post an update on monday with the results of the MOT.

The MOT Date is set, Hero will be going in on the 16th of October at 9:30 AM. I expect it to fail though, but I want to see what the garage spot that I may have missed.

As intended I did get the rear light guards fitted, and these should protect the lenses whilst offroading.


I also now have some rear mudflaps to fit, but the recent bad weather and lack of a tool for attaching rivnuts has stopped me from getting them fitted. If the weather is good on Saturday I have plans to make a rivnut fitting tool, and using it, fingers crossed.

Here's a photo of the fuel tank cap, since it was hard to describe.


This coming Sunday I have plans to watch the ASCAR Racing at Rockingham, lets hope the weather's good for that too.