Honestly I don't remember if it was a bolt or a nut that I dropped down filler neck. It was just a few weeks or less until Winter Romp and I was all signed up and ready to attend. Had my hotel reservation all set and was feeling excited.... Until one day my alt died, luckily it convintly died in the parkinglot at my work. So I scrampled to find a replacement but could not afford a new one. Sourced a used one from a guy in town and after work I set out to replace the alternator. Mind you it was February in New England so snow and really cold as it got later in the day. Don't remember if I was removing the old one or fitting the replacement but I was having a hard time so I removed the filler neck cap to gain some extra room to get my hands in their. At this point I was holding a flashlight with one hand, hands are numb from the cold and I'm sitting on my afram brush bar when I dropped the dam nut or bolt down the filler neck. Man I was already passed but when that happened I wanted to torch my truck! Ran inside and grabbed a shop vac and hooked it up to the filler home and left it in there for a good 5 minutes. Put everything back together and hesitantly started the engine.... No strange clanking noises which would indicate that a nut or bolt went down into the block. Area weeks later I participated in Winter Romp and the truck remained my daily driver until April 2015 when I parked it at my mechanics shop and left for Alaska. To this day I'll still don't know what happened to that bolt or nut. Funny as hell now that I look back at it but not funny at the time.

No offense taking. I have learned a lot about my truck and how to work on it but I need a lot more experience still. It would be awesome to learn how to tear down and rebuild a Land Rover engine. I'll look at my options. If I can find a place to store it for maybe a year than I will keep it and ship it up when I have a place to put it here in AK.

 

unless your going to put another $1500-2000 into top hatting the block it is of no use to you, and what would you need another for you already have a top hatted block from turner.

 

Oh yeah I forgot about the transcontinental temperature variation. Thanks for reminding us that 180* is different in Alaska than 180* in new Jersey.

 

Valid point taken lol. Its gonna take some getting used to not worrying all the time that my engine liners might slip..... I mean isnt that the first thing drilled into every D2 owners head once he joins a LR forum? I will baby this engine with 3,000 mile oil changes no exceptions and I will make dam sure the coolant is replaced every year. I hate writing **** down or taking notes on when I did things but I guess Ill have to get into the habit of doing it once my new block is installed.

Right now I dont actually have a place of my own here in Alaska. My work provides room/board/food so Im living very cheaply. But once the season is over I have to either transfer to another processor that processes a different fish or think about a temp living situation. So the point here is I literally have no place to put a spare block at the moment and unfortunately I will have to part with many of my possessions before I embark on my road trip as space will be very limited. So maybe you are right, maybe there really is no reason to keep a spare block. if I had a place and a garage then I would certainly keep the block and educate myself on the internal components of it. Maybe Ill just give it to someone who is in need of a spare block for immediate rebuilding. Maybe a block would save them some cash so they would only have to buy the parts needed for the rebuild and they would not have to take their current engine out of their truck until the donor is complete.

I see

 

you can drop it in mass. on your way

 

I also live in fear of dropping things down holes. I've always been good at stuffing rags into holes, but I know the one time I forget.....

That nut will still be in there. Just putting a shop vac on the hole isn't going to magically suck the nut through the air. You need air 'flow' to get things moving. Lowering the pressure in the space doesn't change anything. You could apply a full vacuum, but gravity is still in effect.

Good news is that when you take the engine out, you can spin the whole thing 180 deg. Beat gravity at its own game! (Not saying that will be easy)

Better news is that if the nut is sat somewhere doing no harm, it might just sit there. A mate of mine was a bit upset one day at his ex wife, took a hand full of gravel and dropped it in her engine oil filler. This was 5 years ago, we are still waiting for any sign of problems. (Not a disco.)

 

I've never done this but it seems that you could find out of it has a slipped liner by removing the oil pan (bunch of bolts) and spark plugs then have someone manually turn the crank while you watch from underneath.

 

These slipped liner ticks only happen when hot, I believe. Would mean getting the engine up to temp, then quickly draining oil and stripping stuff to see if it's visible when turning by hand.

 

THat sounds like a misery

 

Exactly. Its a misery I don't have the budget for. As mentioned before, my truck is at my mechanics shop in New Hampshire and I'm currently in Alaska. He will be doing the engine swap job along with install a new bumper and some other **** for me. Time is moneh so to have him spend more time diahnoising my old block will dig into a already super tight budget so right now its just not worth it.