In April 2009 on a trip to the Moroccan Sahara the engine overheated badly. At the time I put it down to the higher ambient temperature, loading of the vehicle and constant ups and downs of the terrain. However further investigation now leads me to another cause.
The mechanics in Ouzzane skimmed the head and got the car back up and running in 2 days. Unfortunately (due to other factors) we never actually made it to the desert (but thats another story).
Later on the return home 2 of the rocker assembly retaining studs stripped their threads and puled away from the head. This head had already suffered an overheat and skim 2 years earlier on a trip to the west coast of Scotland. It was apparent that it had past its best and needed replacing.
I had my eye on a Turner Engineering Gas Flowed head, but before I went down this path I needed to check if the rest of the engine was up to the task. Alan advised me that a compression test, boost check and oil pressure test would give me a good indication of the integrity of the rest of the engine.
I decided that rather than buy the appropriate gauges I would take it to our local independant 4x4 garage, JSF. The oil pressure and boost were fine but the compression was well down in every cylinder. Reading 320 - 380 psi instead of 600+
. In fact we were amazed that it was still running and capable of driving anything like normally (it did feel a bit underpowered but not to that degree!).
I couldn't afford a full Turner engine. At £2300 + £1000 for fitting it was just too much for a 14 year old vehicle. In addition I wanted to replace the radiator and a few other bits which just pushed the budget too far.
To cut a long story short I eventually contacted LandyLTD of Wrexham who advertise rebuilt engines on ebay (advert here). Martin and his colleague, Frog, were extremely helpful.
I ordered my Turner head and bolt and gasket set at 16:00 and it arrived at 10:00 the next day. Turners were extremely friendly and I recommend them.
I drove the car (with fingers crossed), with the new head in the boot, over to Wrexham on the Monday and collected it a week later complete with new radiator, new genuine water pump, rebuilt 3/4 engine fitted with my new head all ready to drive home.
The 11 hour drive home involved a lot of ups and downs (due to a detour to the Brecon Beacons to pick up an impulse buy off ebay 
and a trip to Nene Overland to buy a Hannibal Awning) and 350 miles of pure joy. The engine was smooth and able to maintain speed on many of the welsh hills. Even keeping the revs below 2000, to run it in a bit, it still performed well.
Although LandyLTD may not have the appearance of a major garage and their paperwork leaves a little to be desired I can recommend them (so far).
I will keep you informed on how the engine behaves as it beds in.
During all this 2 key facts were discovered which have changed my view regarding the overheating:
Firstly, while doing the compression check we noticed that the cylinder head was date stamped 2000. I bought the car in 2001, so it would seem that it had already suffered some 'head problems'.
Secondly, the radiator was found to be 'donald ducked' when it was removed. The engine had not been cooled properly for some time. Hopefully this has now been sorted.
Top tip. The main rocker assembly retaining studs (3) are only tapped into the head by 10mm. If they fail the head can be tapped deeper as the hole is approx 25mm deep. In Morocco a mechanic solved the first failure by simply tapping the hole deeper and fitting a longer stud. This repair lasted until the engine was replaced (approx 800-1000 miles). When the second one failed in Spain, the vehicle was recovered back to the UK where I carried out the same repair in about an hour (once I had a tap set). I would recommend carrying a few metric taps and dies in your tool kit along with some stud bar or long bolts. I know I will from now on. If we had followed a slightly different path we could have found ourselves in the desert when this failure happened. A M8 tap and long bolt would have repaired it in no time otherwise it is difficult to see how you could carry out a field repair.
