OK Ug, I'm a little slow getting to it because of some other projects, but here are a few more pics. I got the heads redone at a local shop and they did a heck of a job - they look really nice. I cleaned the valley, cam shaft and lifters best I could. The pistons didn't look bad. The cylinder walls looked great for 100K+ miles. Next is to blow out the cylinders, oil them up and put the heads back on. I'm going to buy a new impact socket just for this job. From what I have heard that's about the only way to torque to yield the head bolts.

My local shop couldn't find valve seals, guides or valves in their books - so I ordered the parts for them. One of the exhaust valves had some slight scoring on it andone of the guides broke when they were working on it. I asked if they had done Land Rovers before ( since they couldn't find the parts - had me worried) but the owner said he had a 1950s rover motor in the back of the shop that he had rebuilt for a nephew in CA. Anyway they did a great job.

Marv





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You're doing the right thing. I've seen as bad or worse. Just because it's gunky doesn't mean they never changed the oil. More than likely they ran it w/o a thermostat, or stuck (open) t-stat. Running engines cool will gunk them up. When I got mine, the t-stat was stuck open for who knows how long. The only thing I'm not sure about is torquing. Wouldn't you use a torque wrench? Like I said, I honestly have seen as bad and evenworse than that whichran fine, at least from what I can see in the pictures. The older motors of the 60's-70's got gunked up like that a lot. When ya get it back together, would running something like Mobil 1dissolve the crud and clean it out over time?

Did you check oil pressure before you took it apart?

 

One of my piston head buddies at work told me that he had an engine that looked similar once. He ran Pennzoil high detergent oil in it and had the occassion to open it up a few years later and it was really clean.

When the engine ran, once in a while during a long drive it woulod get the "tickies". If I stopped for a few minutes, they would go away. Now I see why. The oil was trapped in the heads and it took a while to get back to the pan. Would be nice to have an oil pressure gauge on the dash.....

 

I most of you would be surprised to see your engine looking the same, even if you change oil and flush regulary once you pulled the heads. My engine looked similar at only 70k when I did my heads. They just run so stinkin rich.

 

Unless you run Royal Purple...[:-]

 

i had exactly the same symptoms, tappets would run dry, ticking, and oil light on dash. pulled rockers, BLACK DEATH! dissaemble and cleaned/dipped the covers, and had to scrape the crud off. reassembled. but more important is to actually remove the sump, that's the ticking fault. (on p38, raise airsprings up and slide back!)and then get your camera out again! remove the strainer and bang it on the floor to clear the screen. blocking the oilway to pump -your timing cover will still be full too. this is all due to bad breathing. Normally engines work in a negative pressure environment. ( from inlet vacuum) The piston ring blow-past smoke inside, should be drawn out of crankcase, via vacuum tubes in the rocker covers. -they have resrictors in them. remove them, and clear the pipes too. a good crankcase ventilation system will draw out the smoke, and stop it congealing on internals, gunge that leads to BLACK DEATH!
-more sobering, is the thought of your own (smokers) lungs looking like this a week before you meet your maker. oyur right of course, the crud in your valley exits, could block the route to the sump too. funny, i have a bmw with 200k on clock, looking inside the head, looks like it was built last year. only slight discolouration, original head! but then again,,rover v8 evolved 30ys before -when men had bigger hammers, flat caps, and teacups with no handles. -if they wern't on strike!

 

good work, there. I'm in the middle of doing a head job on mine. the heads are are pretty gunked up. the caked on oil is pretty crusty. It's
more solid than sludge.