New battery cables

I just collected my new battery cables from Skyllermarks. A big improvement over the standard cables, especially 25 year old standard cables. These actually bend ;-)

They are 50 mm², same as the originals, but with much finer strands. According to the guy who made them for me they are equivalent to a normal cable of 70 mm².

My hope is this will improve starting in the winter.

The viscous van spanner has arrived

Finally, the viscous fan spanner has arrived from the UK! Since ordering it I have realised that this type of spanner is not unique to Land Rover and that I could probably have gotten it here in Sweden, but thats fine, the price was right even with the shipping.

Small jobs needs to be done too...

I am a bit restless waiting for the fan spanner to arrive in the mail, I wanted something to do, so I started to clean up the cylinder head bolts. Took me almost as long as the whole disassembly of the head, about two hours so maybe not such a small job after all ;-) But of course, they don't really need to be as clean as they are now, i just wanted something to occupy me...

Sat out on my balcony enjoying the spring sun while working

Before and after picture

Did some more thinking...

Maybe it wasn't a hydrolock that bent the push rods, maybe it was bad timing so to speak :-) Maybe the the timing belt slipped, that could account for these damages too, hmm... I am very exited to look inside the timing cover but I have to wait for the new spanner to arrive :-(

Cylinder head is off

I have now completed the job of taking the cylinder head off. I am not sure what to make of it, but the head gasket has some damage. I am not sure if that damage is what caused the breakdown. I inspected the head, block and pistons but could not see any cracks or other damage. My next job will be to check the timing belt, but for that I need a special spanner to remove the fan, which I don't have. I have ordered the spanner from Ebay.co.uk and hope to get in the coming week.

Bent pushrods :-(

Last night I started the job to take the cylinder head off. I got everything off exept the actual head before it got too dark, have to continue another day. When I took the rocker cover off discovered that one pushrod was broken and a couple of the others bent. My guess is that the head gasket broke and the engine hydrolocked, but I will know more when the head comes off.

The pushrods, except the broken one which I forgot to bring home for the photo:

Starter tests OK

I have tested the starter and it seems to work fine, must be a problem with the wiring in the car.

Finally some work done!

With the spring here I have finally been able to get some work done :-) Today my plan was to remove the starter, which I believed would be a tough job but it wasn't. To remove the starter you first need to remove the exhaust downpipe. I have never before been able to remove any part of an exhaust without breaking anything as it is usually all rusted solid, but today was different :D All the bolts came of without any problems.
The downpipe:

After that it was pretty easy to get the starter out:

I also removed the engine earth strap, chassis strap and positive lead so I can measure them and have them replaced. I havent decided yet if I will replace the starter or try to repair it.