Thread: What happened to your Discovery 2 today?

Interesting development today.
In the last week or so when the car is really cold in cold weather ,say 10C May cold snap, she whistled like a banshee on start up for maybe 30 seconds.
Aha I thought warped exhaust manifold.
To try to avoid the obvious I stripped the belt off and checked all the pulleys and all OK.
So started the tedious job of removing the engine cover and the heat shield to see what is happening.
Bare in mind that about 40-50Kk ago I had the manifold trued, dewebbed it myself, and had it powder coated in and out. I also elongated the end holes to allow for expansion.
I imported Mercedes Benz studs from UK along with copper coated nuts. I also added Belleville washers that are sprung to keep tension.
So I found that the no5 cylinder and to a lesser extent no4 nuts were pretty loose, but actually tightened up OK so no broken studs. My hope is that the belleville washers may have lost tension or wore from sliding back and forth as the heat cycled as no 5 seems to move more than say no 1 , which is what breaks the original studs.
I then spent a happy hour refitting the heat shield as I had modified it by making a new bracket and having bolts side and back, and do you think the back one would line up? And you cannot see anything back there. I eventually used a lit mirror that I have and tapered the end of the bolt which did the trick.
BTW I try to keep under700C at all times but sometimes hit 750C momentarily on a long hill.
Regards PhilipA

10°C is "cold"???

To a Queenslander YES. Only 7 this morning in Kincumber.
Regards PhilipA

Originally Posted by PhilipA

To a Queenslander YES. Only 7 this morning in Kincumber.
Regards PhilipA

I remember going to work in Lutwyche road Windsor, back in the 80s, in July in Stubbies and a T shirt. All the "locals" were rugged up and looking at me as if I had just beamed down. It would be around 10-12°. That was at maybe 07:00. I would explain that where I came from that would be the daily maximum.

But, I get it. Fair chance I will be returning to Qld to live soon. I'll probably moan about the heat.....

I bought a single use adhesive from Autobarn. It worked.

Originally Posted by Bohica

I bought a single use adhesive from Autobarn. It worked.

You would hope so. Ford Au used it as far back as the XA Falcon.

I started slowly losing water a couple months ago and no external leaks and heater core burbling all the time.

No oil in coolant / no water in oil so I was leaning to slow head gasket compression weep. Head (used) replaced by me sometime not long after I first got the thing with Elring gasket / other gaskets and new head bolts from Bearmach.

I got the torque wrench out and set it to 70nm and just for ****s and giggles tried to turn the head bolts, well I was quite stunned when 10 out of 12 turned !

I only turned each one 10 degrees and then turned them a second time further 10 degrees with no difference in force, the 2 that wouldn't turn stayed firm and unyielding.

Considering that when I installed the head I had to use a 1 metre bar to do the angle turns (and still struggled coz I'm a wimp) I guess the bolts have lost tension.

What ****s me is AMC head bolts are only 96au on turners website but the freight is 130au bolts only or 160au freight cost for bolts and elring head gasket (65au for gasket)

So after looking locally and I see prices from 120 up to 500 for bolt sets and head gaskets 120 upwards I don't think the prices are a guide to quality only what they figure I'll part with (the lower end of the scale is me)

I ended up ordering a set of Kelpro KHB112 head bolts for 107 inc. delivery from sparesbox (on special from their normal 132 price / free delivery) on ebay, same set is currently 150 at Repco and they have 2 year manufacturers warranty.

For head gasket I got a 'Eurospares' part on clearance for 50 inc. delivery from bcionline also on ebay (got lucky with an offer on the last 3 hole one, yes I checked MLS not some composite fibre thingy)

The authorised AMC reseller (has branch here in adelaide) quoted 220 for head bolts but said I would receive EITHER AMC or Victor Reinz (had to come from their melbourne branch). I thought if I want AMC it means i get AMC ?

I have been continually ****ed off for years now at the difference in cost of exactly the same parts between here and overseas.

I am darn sure Turners don't need my business, so if I won't pay premium DHL rates well stiff ched, my issue.

Turners did respond with a good reason/explanation (I accept it 100% but don't like DHL cost) that they were losing stuff in transit on cheaper freight options so no longer offer a choice.

But the australian AMC distributer I would expect a more reasonable price as they would have stock brought in to AU in bulk with freight cost spread across all sales. Bit confronting to my cheap self.

Anyway I suspect the engine has more surprises waiting for me in due course so didn't want to spend more than necessary and at 220 for bolts and 125 for gasket just for those 2 items in 'premium' brand locally , not even considering other gaskets that may / may not need replacing, I decided to stick to cheap as I could possibly find a crack in the head or something that would only happen to me like a pin hole in the bore etc etc etc and then it would be another worn motor from my local u-pullit going in.

If I hadn't upgraded to the V8 torque converter, and I'm using the Transmission Control Unit from a V8 as well, I would have ditched it and gone to a V8 engined fuel guzzler but the change in driveability has made it worthwhile to hang in there a bit more. After all, I only have 2 diffs, a transfer case, an auto trans and the engine bottom end to deal with (Oh, forgot driveshafts, drum parking brake, interior trim, electrical stuff). Body came with scratches and dings so no crying over shopping car park incidents (only bonus).

Originally Posted by johnp38

I am darn sure Turners don't need my business, so if I won't pay premium DHL rates well stiff ched, my issue.

Rule #4 of the COA forbid me from expressing my opinion of DHL, sadly.