It runs!

First turn of the wheels since starting the Turner cylinder head upgrade.

It's only been round the houses to try and push out any air from the coolant - and is still waiting to receive my rebuilt Zenith - but it seems fine.

I had some fun and games with the old Weber - spent much of the day unable to get it to run or idle without some choke. I cleaned the Weber out but suspect the culprit was air leaks as the base of the Weber doesn't seem perfectly flat.

Interestingly, my vacuum gauge now gives a steady reading instead of the old flicker - and the Distributor Doctor 25D4 (with Pertronix) is giving a much steadier strobe trigger than I ever got with the old head and Powerspark.

Remember to give the distributor an occasional drop of oil under the rotor arm and down the gaps on the baseplate. Just a few drops are enough.

Your carbatooter bung is in the post. Gone First Class, so it should be with you tomorrow one would hope...

No luck yesterday - hopefully today!

Lets hope it hasn't gone to the great sorting office in the sky like the first carburettor I sent you... That is definitely missing in action.

Took this lot to the tip this morning (Wednesday 6th March). The Land Rover is registered with the county council and no problems encountered.

Quote from: diffwhine on Mar 06, 2024, 09:18 AMLets hope it hasn't gone to the great sorting office in the sky like the first carburettor I sent you... That is definitely missing in action.

I'm crossing my fingers but... Nothing today! I'm just checking with our neighbours if we actually had normal mail today (there was a parcel van later on). Just found out our long-serving postie is retiring this month - explains the recent new faces - just hoping it's not ended up in the wrong place.

Back to the 'what did you do' theme - took the 88 for a short errand run and found at the end of it evidence of a coolant leak that looks as if it either originated from the new rad and then hit the fan - or maybe from the lower rad hose. Ikve cleaned up, checked all the (new) hose clips and added a second one to the lower hose.

Took it out for fuel and another quick check - and it was running badly (kangarooing). And the replacement speedo that was working so well stopped (cable issue I'm guessing).

I had put 10l of fuel from my spare can in halfway through the first errand - I've two inline filters so I doubt crud has got through but I can't remember when I last changed the spare can. Months rather than years, but it might partly explain the issues. I don't really want to waste time on that now if I'm (hopefully) swapping the carb out 'soon' though.

Used my landrover to tow a horsebox with 0.7 tonne of scraps steel to local scrap yard raising cash for Scout campsite funds,half filled with more scrap on our return.
£102.50 raised.
Will have to pressure wash underneath thursday as loads of mud off my tyres from pulling it off site.

I received the final piece of the Zenith 36 IV puzzle today so set about fitting it in place of the Weber.

Put all my tools away again as the Zenith has a 1/4" fuel spigot and the Weber has a 5/16" (I think - 8mm anyway)...

Grabbed the last 1/4" fuel hose in Halfords...

I've moved the inline fuel filter from above the manifolds to the other side of the engine - should be safe(r) there.

Took a bit of fiddling to get the engine to run up to temp - it seemed to object to choke to start with and quickly wanted to run without.

Took it out for a 20 mile run - it seems pretty happy and is a whole different experience to the 7:1 on a Weber with Powerspark dizzy...!

Hopefully, a bit more fine tuning and it will be right there!

Thanks for everyone that has provided help.

Finally got my rebuilt 2lt diesel engine running (for the first time in 10+ years) on my test rig with a "control desk" in front of it.

It sort of went OK, but the oil pressure took a long time to rise above 12psi, both on a Land Rover oil/water gauge and then on a proper test gauge.

It was rebuilt by an S2C member friend who came over for the first start-up. As the engine warmed up, the pressure slowly rose and was at about 30psi when he left. I ran it again this afternoon and when hot, the pressure got up to nearly 50psi (not of course running it too fast).

I have not experienced such a slow rise in oil pressure (which took several separate 10 minute sessions of running) and do not know why it only rose when hot.

Took out the dipstick and the oil was emulsified - which caused a temporary increase in heart rate!
It took us a while to realise it was air in the oil and not water! Haven't experienced that before either, but it eventually cleared and the oil returned to looking normal.

Any ideas about the glacier- slow rise in oil pressure?


Oh, and the water pump, believed to be good, spewed water the whole time the engine was running - so that's a rebuild to do next.....

Quote from: Exile on Mar 07, 2024, 06:52 PMFinally got my rebuilt 2lt diesel engine running (for the first time in 10+ years) on my test rig with a "control desk" in front of it.

It sort of went OK, but the oil pressure took a long time to rise above 12psi, both on a Land Rover oil/water gauge and then on a proper test gauge.

It was rebuilt by an S2C member friend who came over for the first start-up. As the engine warmed up, the pressure slowly rose and was at about 30psi when he left. I ran it again this afternoon and when hot, the pressure got up to nearly 50psi (not of course running it too fast).


Could there be something up with the oil pick up pipe? Causing the pump the sick air as well as oil, would explain the low pressure and frothy oil? Just a guess mind you.

Good luck.


I have not experienced such a slow rise in oil pressure (which took several separate 10 minute sessions of running) and do not know why it only rose when hot.

Took out the dipstick and the oil was emulsified - which caused a temporary increase in heart rate!
It took us a while to realise it was air in the oil and not water! Haven't experienced that before either, but it eventually cleared and the oil returned to looking normal.

Any ideas about the glacier- slow rise in oil pressure?


Oh, and the water pump, believed to be good, spewed water the whole time the engine was running - so that's a rebuild to do next.....

Dunno how I typed into the middle of that mate... it's still to early for my eyes to work properly.

Vacuumed all the debris from the tip visit and dog hairs from the back of the Land Rover then exercised the 4WD system on the dog walking byway then dog walk.

Today I have mostly been enjoying the literal fall-out of food poisoning.
But... I did manage to shuffle to the shed to stick a replica of the original dealer plaque on the dash.
I didn't have and tiny proper rivets so two brass machine screws will have to do for a while.
I can't find out much about steels garage, other than it existed for decades and they had a cool S1 107 tow truck.

Went to our monthly meet, 12 cars there! Workshop meet considering what to do with a car.

When I got home, the road tax was due for renewal, I braced myself for the bill - Zero - a nice feeling.