Thread: My Series 3 Project

Originally Posted by whitehillbilly64

Hi Bacicat,
Having never seen one, is that the 2.5 motor ????

whitehillbilly

As Lee said - 2.6 6 cylinder. They are a very smooth running engine, but not everyone's cup of tea and got a bad reputation in the civilian Landies for burning exhaust valves. Many were replaced by Holden red motors over the years. It was never an issue for the Military variants as their maintenance was done properly and on time. I'm happy to go with this engine after the research I've done and talked to those that know these engines, rather than 'I've heard about these engines'.

With a set of Cookies extractors and some mild head work, this engine will be very nice and punt the vehicle along easily at 100 with the high speed transfer case and 750/16 tyres.

Once I start the rebuild of it, I'll post plenty of pics of what it looks like inside - they are similar in design to the very early 4 cylinders - an F head design with only the inlet valves in the head and the exhaust valves in the block.

Thanks.
could only make out 5 plugs and leads.

whitehillbilly

Originally Posted by whitehillbilly64

Thanks.
could only make out 5 plugs and leads.

whitehillbilly

That would make it the even rarer 5 cylinder Rolls Royce conversion

Got the engine on the engine stand and had a quick look inside it, seems to be quite clean.

Yeah, very encouraging what I have seen so far. The valve springs, pushrods and, well everything is very clean, with no sign of carbon or gunk build up at all. I've seen modern engines with 100,000 on them with more crud.

I think we will whip the sump and head off in the morning for a bit more of a peek...

Well, we spent the morning cleaning up the garage around the car so we could start back on it. This afternoon I decided to pull the head off the new engine and take a peak. All looks good - a slight lip in the bores, but nothing a good hone won't fix.





Then I couldn't help but have a look at the bottom end, so off with the sump, a main bearing cap and a piston out. The mains seem to be in good condition, and in reality I could reuse these, but I might lash out on a new set anyway.



The big ends show a bit of wear and need replacing.



The Pistons appear to be in good condition with only light scuffing. These will be reused with new rings.



And what I've pulled off so far - all laid out and marked on the bench.



So, looks like a simple rebuild - new bearings, rings, gaskets. The valves all look good and there is no sign of any recessing. I will ring around to see if anyone can put hardened seats in for the exhaust valves. I'll call Cookey this week and have a chat to see if he wants to do some head work on this to tweak a few more ponies out of it too.

So, time to dig up some part numbers and work out where I can get the bits from.

Nice work guys, makes me want to get another motor and build up a "summernats" version too
Lee

It already has hardened exhaust valve seats - do they need replacing? The proceeding outlined in the manual does not appear too difficult if they do.

John