I found that a socket intended for the smaller sized spark plugs is a good fit on the head bolts and 6 sided too. For some reason I'd got two of those in my toolbox, a 3/8 drive and a 1/2 inch. The 1/2 inch drive one with a short 3" extension, means I'm not using anything 3/8 drive. Mind you, it could be worse. Ex used to have a Porsche 944 and to change the rear brake shoes meant taking the rear driveshaft nut off. Only problem is that it is a 36mm nut done up to something like 260 lbf/ft. The only way of shifting one of those is with a 3/4 drive impact socket and a 10 foot scaffold pole......

Looks like you've had both in there. K-Seal leaves a residue of copper powder while Steel Seal leaves white stains on everything. Both claim to not clog things up but that isn't what I've found.

Good luck with resealing the rad, I've always thought that once apart they'll never go back together properly again so haven't even attempted it.

I use the handle from my trolley jack slipped over the 1/2 inch ratchet handle so I've got about 5 feet to swing on. I've used a 3/8 socket and found that Halfords will honour the lifetime warranty on their Professional range of sockets when you shear the 3/8 to 1/2 adapter off.......

Oooh, I can moderate and edit other peoples posts!!! Changed it so the pictures appear in the post and not just the URL for the pictures.

From those pictures, it all looks no worse than I would expect to see. You had combustion gases in the coolant so they had to be getting in somewhere.

Upload photos to Photobucket or similar, click the insert image and then put the url for the image in the pop up box.

The Yanks seem to love them (but they are a nation of bodging buggers) but with all those extra connectors it's more likely if you didn't have a leak before you fitted it, you will afterwards. So it gives you the ability to bypass your way round a problem it created in the first place.........

Don't poke at all, get underneath and give them a squeeze. You'll know when they are clear as you'll get a stream of water, mud, leaves and other assorted debris run down your arm.

I don't think it will cause any faults as such, it just won't retard the timing if it does start knocking so could do damage to the engine.

Yes, as long as the sump is off so all the crap gets washed out the bottom.

If it was mine, I'd drop the sump off so you can clean that out (and the oil pickup strainer) and wash everything off with diesel and a paintbrush. I used to use paraffin but diesel is cheaper, does much the same job and gives it a second use after lighting bonfires.

1/4 drive 8mm socket and a short ratchet may work on the bolts on the heatshield, either that or a Dremel to cut the heads off. If the rockers are all black and sticky, it's been pretty well neglected in the past and you'll probably find the rest of the engine internals the same.

Now it's getting even sillier. Took the 1k resistor out so the wiring was exactly as it was before. Reversed out of the driveway, went to Flogas to fill up with LPG, reversed out of their yard, went to Halfords to pick up the DAB adapter I'd ordered to put in the company car and reversed into a parking space, drove home again and reversed into the driveway. At no time did the bloody fuse blow!!!!

Agree on 5W-40 being too thin but I used to run 15W-40 in mine and never had a death rattle from the bottom end or a flickering oil pressure light. When I had my engine reconned, the builders recommended 10W-60 fully synthetic so that's what I've been running in it since. Not cheap (although you do get the regular deals from Euro Car Parts so if you buy it at the right time you can keep the cost down) but it seems to do the job. Admittedly, that is in what is effectively a new engine though.

At 140k it isn't excessive, mine had 287k when I decided it really did need a rebuild. While you've got it apart, drop the sump off and give it, and the pickup strainer, a good clean. If it's been neglected you'll probably find a lot of sludge in there. If funds will stretch to it, a set of oil pump gears and ARP head studs instead of stretch bolts too. The problem with the stretch bolts is unless you buy genuine Land Rover ones, and they are still made to the same spec as the originals, you've no way of knowing if they will stretch too much, too little or just shear off! If it's got a Britpart oil filter, bin it and fit something like a Mahle, the Britpart ones don't have a non-return valve so the oil can drain back to the sump when left.

As for the original overheat, my money would be on a partially clogged radiator rather than a stat.

No, got back but had to go and do some work. Drove to the other side of town, reversed into a parking space, drove back again. Reversed into the drive and it's behaving itself now. After blowing 3 20A fuses in the space of driving it 20 feet backwards, I've now driven almost as far backwards as forwards and everything is fine. Which is a worry as I've no idea what caused it, haven't found anything amiss that could have caused it so have no way of knowing if it is suddenly going to start doing it again. Good job I bought a big box of fuses last time I ordered some stuff from Auto Electric Supplies......

I used to use those, or the 4 wire version anyway, but found they only last about 9 months if you get a good one. The problem with a standalone is that if there is a bit of resistance anywhere, the voltage will be slightly low (as mine was) so the controller will be setting the mixture to aim for 0.5V average. If you're losing 0.1V, ideally it wants to aim for 0.45V so will be setting the mixture permanently slightly rich.

Anyway, got to go to the other side of town now, so I'll see how it behaves itself.......

Had a quick look at the lambda sensor wiring and it's nowhere near the propshaft all neatly clipped away as it should be. Disconnected the lambda sensor wire to the LPG system. Locked the LPG stepper at the default so it would run on LPG but in open loop. So all I've changed is disconnected the one wire. Reversed out of the driveway and fuse didn't blow. Reversed up and down my lane (about 100m) a few times and the fuse didn't blow. Reconnected the lambda sensor wire but this time put a 1k resistor inline (working on the principle that it's only sniffing off the voltage so it wont alter the reading) and removed the default lock so I was running closed loop on LPG again. Tried more reversing up and down the lane, fuse still didn't blow. Went for my dental appointment, parallel parked and the fuse didn't blow.

Tonight I'm going to try measuring the current drawn on the fuse 26 circuit, although all of my 3 meters only read up to 10A, so I'll use the cheapo Maplin one just in case and put a 20A fuse in line. I'll also try tapping off the other lambda sensor as the one I'm currently connected to (RH bank) takes at least a minutes running before it starts to give an output. It'll probably be the same as they were both new when I put the rebuilt engine in a year and a half (and 30,000 miles) ago but it's worth a try.

Didn't try it on petrol as it runs like a dog and throws the fuel trims out by miles. At least one, if not two, of the petrol injectors are clogged so the air that doesn't get mixed with any petrol tells the lambda sensors that it's running very lean. That makes the trims go fully rich and it really does run rough as it's nearly drowning on petrol. I know exactly how they got clogged and have been meaning to sort it out for ages but as all it ever does is start on petrol and immediately change over to LPG, it's one of those jobs that is about as far down the list of things to do as it can get (it comes below renewing the headlining even) I'll get around to it one day. Probably around August when I'm about to set off on a 3,000 mile road trip around Europe.

No slopes in Cambrideshire to see if it does it when rolling in neutral, but I'll try putting it in reverse and holding it on the brake later. I don't think there's enough slack in any of the cables to be touching the propshaft but I'll have a quick look at that too. I've got a standard 0-1V Zirconia lambda sensor in the RH downpipe solely to drive the single point LPG controller. The reason why I was playing was that the system was giving me a lambda sensor failed error. When I drove it I found that it was switching between 0.00 and 0.7 volts rather than 0.1 - 0.9V and then when running at constant speed it would stop working so the system was reporting a constant 0.48V bias from the controller.

So I changed the sensor a couple of weeks back. At that time I was under it looking at the lambda sensor wiring but on the other side to the propshaft. The new one was still showing a low output so went through the earths to get rid of any voltage drop (I was seeing 0.2V on the earth at the sensor with respect to the battery negative). Although I got that voltage drop down, I was still never seeing the full 0.9V when rich that I should see so tried swapping the lambda input to the LPG system over to one of the GEMS 5-0V sensors. Changed it in the LPG software and it all seemed fine. Lambda switching between 1.2 and 4.3V and this matched what the Nanocom said it was doing. Car running fine except for fuse 26 blowing when reversing.

The heater for the lambda sensor takes it's power from the LPG system output so is live when switched to running on gas but the LPG system is taking the ignition switched supply from the petrol injector supply and not the fuse 26 supply so it isn't going to be connected with that. Or at least I don't think it is. But even if it was, why only when reversing? I've got an appointment at the dentist later so a fuse that blows when going backwards is going to make parallel parking an interesting experience.......

Been outside playing with the car this evening, mainly giving the LPG system a tweak. Decided to take it for a quick blast down the road with the laptop on the passenger seat so I could see what the LPG system was doing. It had been idling for a while so was up to temperature and I dropped it into reverse still at idle. Slowly reversed about 2 feet and the engine cut out. Tried to restart it and nothing. Then noticed the check engine light wasn't coming on and the LPG switch wasn't lighting up. Tried the EKA code, no different. Tried the Nanocom and it said everything was fine. Started using a bit of logic and figured that the LPG switch would be getting an ignition switched supply so no check engine light and no starter either could be down to a lack of ignition switched electric somewhere. Fuse 26 was blown. Put in a new 20A fuse, check engine light came on, LPG switch lit up, starter turned and the engine fired up. Into reverse, managed about 10 feet this time and it cut out again. Fuse 26 blown. Another 20A fuse put in, reversed out of the driveway, into drive and set off for test drive (with a box of spare fuses on the passenger seat). Drove about a mile and a half to my local test road (a bit that used to be the southbound carriageway of the A1 but now doesn't go anywhere). Tried it in normal, floored it in Sport and confirmed that the LPG system was working spot on and keeping the mixture correct no matter how much I tried to make it work (foot to the floor in Sport and it didn't change up into top until I hit 85mph!). Got to the end of the road, went to turn round and managed no more than 10 feet in reverse and it cut out again. Fuse 26 had blown.

Now Fuse 26 supplies ignition switched volts to the engine ECU (which would explain the lack of a check engine light), the ignition coils and the lambda sensor heaters. As far as I can see from the diagram, putting it into reverse would have no affect on the current draw on fuse 26. So why the hell does it blow when I put it into reverse and not when It's idling or going forwards? When reversing out of the driveway, I don't even give it any throttle, just let it creep back at idle so it isn't likely to be a torque reaction when reversing causing something to short out, so what the hell is it?

Leaving the manifolds attached is good but if you can't get the heatshields off, you'll have difficulty getting a socket on the lower head bolts. With the heatshields off, it's reasonably easy but getting them off is the hard part, those little bolts can put up quite a fight......

If you wait for Gordon, who runs (or wrote and hosts) this fine forum, he's already done it. Running through the standard stereo, it sounds bloody awesome!