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Cracked block.....

animal7

animal7

In Third Gear
Right - big problem. I have a 1981 Series 3 softop, 2.25 petrol, 97k miles, good bulkhead with galvanised chassis that has just been diagnosed with not only a cracked head but a cracked block. So, in need of a new engine. Has been a reliable motor for the past 4 1/2 years. The problem is even if I can get hold of a new engine I'm not capable of fitting (& just don't have the time even if I had the skills & tools) it so will have to pay my LR man to do it for me. 2 days labour is going to be around a grand. That's also assuming whatever engine I manage to lay my hands on is a decent one. I know it's sacrilige, but without being able to shell out that sort of cash on it, my mind turns to the fact I could probably make more money by stripping the landie down and selling off the parts. (New Weber carb, new hood, hood sticks, etc). I'm just after some advice please guys and would really appreciate your input......
 
shame to break it up. to change an engine is a days job really, not 2. a used engine is cheap enough, 50 quid - 200 quid.
 
supose it depends on what you need, the landy or the cash. if the body work is in good order, and simply needs a new engine selling the whole motor may be worth while and alot seaser than stripping the vehicle.

as zollaf says the engine, if like for like, is a fairly easy and quite a few are avalable, due to TDI conversions. if you don't have time to swap the engine i doubt you will have time to strip the landy to component parts.

front bumper off, bonnet off, rad pannel off, floor out, engine out - reverse (could write haynes:D)
 
It looks like you may have to spend close to £1000 to get a replacement engine fitted unless you have help, and if you don't have the time for this then you will definitely not have time to strip & sell for parts which is a lot of listing, photographing & struggling with rusty bits. You would also loose the identity anyway, and probably get left with a lot of stuff unsold.

My best advice would be to sell it as it is to someone who can swap engines, and drop the price by £800 for the new engine hassle. It might be possible to drive with a bit of radweld in there - at least enough to get them home with it.

Mine had a huge crack in it, but was still drivable, and lasted until I replaced the engine in a day. I hired the engine lift from HSS for £35, and they collected it when I'd finished.
100_5176.jpg
 
holly76 said:
has anyone tried brazing a cracked water jacket?
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Never tried it and never seen it done either. My theory is that it woud be difficult to get the surrounding metal hot enough to get a decent union and even if you managed it I think it would be prone to crack with expansion. I remember the days when cracked blocks were "stitched" together with little steel "stitches" which were shaped like an elongated "I". The process involved milling appropriate slots across the crack and the insert was well... inserted(!). It would never be cost effective these days and as far as I know the practice died out decades ago.
Thinking more about it, I wonder how they stopped the crack from leaking, the stitches wouldn't have made it waterproof? Perhaps they brazed it after all...??? The stitches would stop the crack from moving too much.
 
Are you a member of a local Landy club? Maybe a day of engine swapping could sort your problem, as a group. Or a few local forum members even.

Ive seen a block with a lead plate stitched on, with lead in the crack. Dont know how successful it would be doing it nowadays, but that engine was running when I saw it.

I think stitching a block together used to be quite common, it was a tractor I saw it on. I guess they didnt have access to antifreeze, and didnt drain it down overnight. Easy to get caught out by a hard frost...it WAS colder in them days....
 
CCKW353A1 said:
Metal stitching is still done, there is a firm up at Coventry that does it, they stitched a Perkins 6 pot block for me many years ago when they were up at Burton upon Trent and it did not leak afterwards and no brazing involved.
http://www.metalock.co.uk/Typical_O...itching.aspx?gclid=CODQz6KM_LwCFagKwwodgRUAFg
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, still doing it eh? The stitches are not as I described but my memory is bad and getting worse. I'm still left wondering how it doesn't leak though...
 
Is this truck your daily drive? If not why not give an engine swap a bash? Although it seems daunting its actually really quite easy, especially with old engines like our landy engines. All that you really need to do is disconnect the exhaust, fuel and a few wires, then unbolt the gearbox, mounts and radiator and pull it out. Obviously I'm simplifying a bit, but if you dont need the truck, you could spend a few hours here and there whenever you have a spare minute, getting everything disconnected and ready and hire a crane for the day, pull the old engine out shove the new one in then spend as long as you want putting it back together again. An

other thought is that stuff like radweld but meant for repairing cracked blocks. Unfortunately I cant remember the name. Ive used it before and it worked well enough. Another thought is belzona chemical metal to fill the crack. not sure how well it would work but should be ok. Might need to replace the head still but that is a really easy job with the camshaft down in the bowels of the engine.

gill
 
erubus said:
Is this truck your daily drive? If not why not give an engine swap a bash? Although it seems daunting its actually really quite easy, especially with old engines like our landy engines. All that you really need to do is disconnect the exhaust, fuel and a few wires, then unbolt the gearbox, mounts and radiator and pull it out. Obviously I'm simplifying a bit, but if you dont need the truck, you could spend a few hours here and there whenever you have a spare minute, getting everything disconnected and ready and hire a crane for the day, pull the old engine out shove the new one in then spend as long as you want putting it back together again. An

other thought is that stuff like radweld but meant for repairing cracked blocks. Unfortunately I cant remember the name. Ive used it before and it worked well enough. Another thought is belzona chemical metal to fill the crack. not sure how well it would work but should be ok. Might need to replace the head still but that is a really easy job with the camshaft down in the bowels of the engine.

gill
Click to expand...

im thinking WONDERWELD ? had some good success with wonderweld myself in the early years before I could negotiate spanners
 
We are all assuming that the block is cracked along the bottom of the water jacket on the left side where they always go, but as the OP has said he has a cracked head as well its possible that this is actually on the top face of the block from being run with a blown head gasket. I saw this on a LWT, both head and block were cracked between pots 2 & 3.
 
I'd be looking for a different ''landrover man'', a grand labour for swapping out a series engine? And 2 days work?
A fully equiped workshop would have that done in half a day.
 
well, the floor does have to come out, and that can take a while if nothing comes undone easily. but yes, its a realistic days work. 2 days is taking the proverbial.
 
zollaf said:
well, the floor does have to come out, and that can take a while if nothing comes undone easily. but yes, its a realistic days work. 2 days is taking the proverbial.
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I suppose and old series could be a bit of a ball ache with chocolate nuts and bolts but drills, grinders and air tools do speed things up a bit. Do the floors really come out? I've never done a series but to remove the motor on my Ninety I just take the diaphragm and tunnel out to get at the gearbox bolts.
 
in a series the floor plates go over the tunnel, so they have to come out to get the tunnel out . they also use nuts and bolts rather than screws into plastic things.
 
zollaf said:
in a series the floor plates go over the tunnel, so they have to come out to get the tunnel out . they also use nuts and bolts rather than screws into plastic things.
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My floor also uses nuts and bolts, that makes it a right pain to get the floors up, but its a 45 min job tops with a fair bit of stretching and swearing. It never bothers me that much really as it's not something I do very often.
 
no, not the end of the world. much easier on a 90 300 though, no need to remove it at all as you can get to everything with it in place.
 
zollaf said:
no, not the end of the world. much easier on a 90 300 though, no need to remove it at all as you can get to everything with it in place.
Click to expand...

I've heard the same with the TD5's but never had to do it, not yet anyway. We did have one in a few weeks ago with a grumbling flywheel but the owner decided he didnt want to go ahead with fixing it.
 
If you can acess / hire a crane. Just a few tools will get your engine out. You will need to invest the time... Say one full day, once you have all the stuff. Get some mates around to help too. Find a new engine first and get ready for the day. Go for it.
 
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