I’ve never pretended to be an expert on old Land Rovers. Or new. I’m just a guy who’s muddling through owning an old Landy.
I may have always fixed my own cars, but I don’t always get it right.
Most of the time it’s completely harmless.
Other times, not so much.
Like the time I did the head gasket on my Mk1 Golf. After getting it most of the way back together, Dick said “whassat?” and pointed to a corner of the head.
Turns out a vacuum pipe had got caught between the engine block and head when we’d (I?) tightened the head bolts down and wasn’t spotted until the engine was almost back together.
At least I can confidently strip the head off a 1.5 Mk1 Golf now, I’ve done it more than once.
And it turns out, some decades later, I’m still ballsing stuff up (and I’m not just talking about having a box of ‘spare parts’ left over after doing a job).
I sent out an email the other day, talking about Dorothy being the World’s Fastest Series 3 Land Rover.
And I’m sure she probably still is. That’s not the issue.
The issue was…
I got a call from Dick who said (and I paraphrase)…
“Yeah, fun times in Poland. Shame about the engine failure. By the way, it wasn’t a con-rod end cap that went it was the main bearing cap. Con rod end caps are interchangeable, but the main bearing end cap’s aren’t as they’re bored inline”.
That’s me schooled. And that’s why Dick’s the OLR OG and I’m still the proverbial apprentice.
To be fair, it was a long time ago and it wasn’t me that did the fix – it was Dick.
But, talking about keyboard warriors who’ll troll me about the non-interchangeable end caps, it’s no excuse to get it wrong.
I stand corrected, and now so do you.
The lesson here is, unless your a pro who works on Landys for a living, you’re gonna get it wrong sometimes. Don’t sweat it. Sort it, and move on.
Old Landys Rule!
Phil.