Thread: OK so it's a cracked head

My TD5 Defender head developed a crack/pinhole in the intake port of #1.
Sortof made it water(coolant) injection into that cylinder, but only when hot.
Still ran fine then too.

In a way We were lucky it happened in Melbourne at the time, not halfway home where no Landy repair/service experts exist!

Was told that the new LR heads cost $4500, workshop sourced a 2nd hand unit for less that $2000, and had it crack tested, etc.
Plus I had the chip done while it was being repaired, plus it was due for its 120k service.
So all up, an unexpected week stay in Melbourne, and just under $5k of work done!!!

Was near spot on 7 years old to the month from when I bought it new.


Oh and someone mentioned Fiat's,
I heard ages ago that a quad valve 4cylinder head for either a Fiat or Lancia (forget which) - the older ones around 1980's?
was about $8500 - and that was BARE, still needed all the valves, cams etc.

Isuzu rover
Yep can be done,not usually done,I would couldnt imagine what they charge ontop of the weld job.
And wouldnt think too many people in Perth are able to do the job.Specialists like Veem but BIG$$$$$
Andrew

Dunno sandtoys, its just a regular 2v sohc, Fiat has made more than 20 million of them since the late sixties and are still going via Russia.

In the X1/9 (F128) a very nice 1300 which revs to 9000 easily.

The trick heads would've come from a specialist, like Abarth, Dallara, Ferrari and others.... and would be rich (and richer to fix!)

The 2v twin cam vers of that bottom end is no more fiddly than the sohc. Been there.

They made nice donks, Fiat.....

GQ

Oh and someone mentioned Fiat's,
I heard ages ago that a quad valve 4cylinder head for either a Fiat or Lancia (forget which) - the older ones around 1980's?
was about $8500 - and that was BARE, still needed all the valves, cams etc.

Have two put my two cents worth in here. That's crap, mayby for a full Arbath spec head for rally competition, not for a normal 2v head either Sohc or Dohc. Fiat and Lancia engine parts are also quite cheap and easy to find. As well as that the vehicles are extremley reliable and amazingley capable to drive, the engines are vertually bullet proof.
Sorry if i sound crankey it's just i get this all the time, as a Lancia owner and a Land rover owner, What have you got that for Bloody italian piece of #$%$ or Bloody English piece of #%^#. Because of ill informed "i heard from a mate" crap, untruths become popular opinion, for example have you heard the one about Toyotas being better 4wd's than Land Rovers.
Lancia isn't here anymore to defend their reputation (However there is a rumor they might be coming back cause they're set to make RHD again)
Land rover is here, why arn't they doing somthing about the crap that gets printed by certain types of media to ultimatley be regurgetated as carbadge later by the general public cause thats there percieved view of it all.

Accurate Welding Works, Trade St., Lytton, in Brisbane have been doing this work since 1946 and have a hard earned excellent reputation for quality workmanship. Their motto on their letterhead is " If it's metal, we can weld it".

I have seen a number of apparently hopeless cases, and jobs buggered up by others, in their shop over the years. One was a 6cyl. head from a 1950's - 1960's Maserati road car that looked to me beyond repair. They were told by the restorer that the only used head he could find ( it was in Italy) was worse & priced at A$3500 "as is, where is." Also a Bentley head from early 1950's. They had quoted on it and were " far too expensive". The owner took it elsewhere, who buggered it up, and it was back at Accurate to be re-done. This was going to cost a goodly amount more than their original quote.

You could also try Kevin Parker, South Brisbane Welding, Colmslie. Kev was a partner in Accurate Welding, and actually worked therefor about 35 years and went off on his own a few years ago.

Ok, I think I'll be going the bare head from the UK, another advantage is that it will come in well under $1500 so I should get away without having to pay duty.

Apologies to all for the negative comments over the last couple of weeks but this has been a very frustrating experience for me. I really thought that if I bought a new vehicle and looked after it I would get 10 years of relatively trouble free use.

However, after much research and exploring all the options I have come to the conclusion that whatever you buy these days has a much shorter life span than we have been used to (as commented on in the other thread), and being more complex there's obviously more that can go wrong. You may be lucky and get 200,000km+ without major repairs but I think it's more realistic to bank on 150,000km. This means that to keep a vehicle long term you need to budget for significant repair costs once it reaches this mileage, maybe $5k a year, and factor that into the normal running expenses. Either that or turn them over every 3 years and always have a vehicle under warranty.

The upside is that you get more for your money than you used to. When the Td5 is running well I love it, certainly a better driving experience than an old, asthmatic but reliable diesel.

So I'll be keeping the old girl, at least in the short term.

Make sure you get the invoice to clearly state that it is a 4wd part, you don't have to pay one of the taxes, can't recall which, because it is 4wd. When I had injection pump shipped in they didn't, although bought from a company called 4x4 or such, and, of course, to go on a marque that only makes 4wds.

Also, invoice under $1000 doesn't incur other tax.

Cheers
Simon

Originally Posted by Quiggers

Dunno sandtoys, its just a regular 2v sohc, Fiat has made more than 20 million of them since the late sixties and are still going via Russia.

In the X1/9 (F128) a very nice 1300 which revs to 9000 easily.

The trick heads would've come from a specialist, like Abarth, Dallara, Ferrari and others.... and would be rich (and richer to fix!)

The 2v twin cam vers of that bottom end is no more fiddly than the sohc. Been there.

They made nice donks, Fiat.....

GQ

I once worked for the distributors of Fiat-Allis mining and construction equipment. Fiat made good diesel engines, pretty good mobile plant in particular the dozers, brilliant farm tractors, and bloody awful motor cars and trucks. The guys at Fiat-Allis small Australian office refused to drive Fiat cars as they said they could never complete a country trip. Like most Euro/Brit passenger car stuff, they did not like heat, dust, long distances, and bad roads. Country reps. routinely travel up to 200,000k's per annum. Marelli electrical systems were designed by someone who was sacked by Lucas for incompetence. Their company cars were Commodores. My personal opinion is that the one good thing you could say about Fiat cars is that they are marginally better than Renaults. I will stand by this opinion until the cows come home. Most used car yards would rather not have a Fiat or Renault on the premises.