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Building an engine is, mechanically speaking, fairly easy - particularly if it is a simple as the Land Rover 4-cylinder unit. In essence, you clean everything before you start, then fit (in order) the: camshaft & followers; pistons; crank; oil-pump'n'distributor drive shaft; oil pump; sump; (pre-prepared) head; flywheel & housing, and set the timing; timing cover; external components (manifolds, oil-pipes, alternator, pullies, etc); and drop it into the vehicle & test.

Of course, life is never this easy, and I can offer some advice from my experience of rebuilding my 2-ltr engine.

1. Ensure that the components you gather are ment to go go together. The block for the Rover 60 engine is the same as the one for the Land Rover late 2-ltr engine, however the flywheel; flywheel housing & starter-motor are different, and cannot be mixed.
2. Ensure that you have a parts supplier who can get things to you quickly - having a 4-day wait whilst waiting for one small part is really fristrating.
3. Ensure you have a workshop manual to hand, and a parts-book too. They are invaluable to help you see how things go together..

So, this is what I did...

(see The rebuild in pictures)

Put the inlet valves into the head [use plenty of MolySlip oil], fit the Choke-warning light sender & plate (covers the hole on the rear of the head), and put it to one side.

Clean the (new) cam-shaft bearings. This takes several hours, and a toothbrush & pipecleaners are really useful here. Spend another half-hour seperating the two halves of the bearings so that then can be put round the cam. Fit the (new) camshaft [use plenty of MolySlip oil], taking lots of time to make sure that the locating holes will line-up. Clean the (new) camshaft followers, and fit with the (old) rocker-shafts [use plenty of MolySlip oil].

Dig out the head, and remove the valves, fit valve-oil-seals, and refit the valves. Put the head to one side, again.

Assemble a con-rod and piston (b§gg¢r, no C-clips!) and test-fit into the (just cleaned) block - lovely

Wait for the C-clips to arrive.

Wait some more. (swear alot under my breath.) Fit the new core-plugs - which is not easy, as they needed to be forced in with a drift.

Go and fetch the C-clips from a local supplier

Remove the fitted piston, assemble the remaining con-rod & piston sets [use plenty of MolySlip oil], then clean the bores. Fit all four pistons [use plenty of MolySlip oil].

Flip the engine onto it's top face, and open the bottom of the con-rod only to discover that they really do not want to seperate. Use #2 persuader to push the bolts down the holes, and then spend a couple of hours cleaning the bolts and bolt-holes. Put the bolts back into the con-rods [use plenty of MolySlip oil].

Fit one half of the main rear bearing seal, complete with a run of grease. Clean and fit the main crank bearings shells [use plenty of MolySlip oil].
Clean the crank, and fit [use plenty of MolySlip oil]. Fit front and centre bearings (with their respecive shells) to hold the crank in place [use plenty of MolySlip oil].
Prepare to fit the main rear bearing. New rear oil seal fitted, and grease in the lips. Put some hylomar compound on the mating surfaces of the rear oil seal.
I don't have the special tool for fitting the cork pieces in the side of the bearing, so I resorted to the "feeler guage" method. Well, I tried to... 40 minutes later, and the d@mn thing is not in. Leave the cork in water to try to soften in whilst we have a coffee break. Try again.... Nope. Try the "beer can" method: cut some metal from a beer-can and smear in oil - the "plate" is wide enough to cover the whole width of the bearing, and thin enough to fit between the block and the bearing (with no cork)... still not going in! Tore the d@mn cork too! "Hot Dang" (or words to that effect!). Give up, and use the tdi method: fill the gap with silicon-sealer, fit, and then squirt more down the channels... Torque the bearing-bolts down.

Now fit the con-rod shells [use plenty of MolySlip oil], and assemble the con-rods around the crank. Tighten the castenated nuts down to 50ft-lb. The book says to tighten further if the nuts do not line-up with the hole, however there is a better method: If the nuts line-up with the hole (like the right-hand one in the photo), put a split-pin in. If they don't (like the left-hand one in the picture), then swap the nut with another one that doesn't line-up. If you are lucky, all the bolts will end up line-up, all at 50ft-lb. If you are unlucky, you may need to hunt out another nut-or-two until you find ones that do fit.

Fit the drive-shaft for the oil-pump & distributor. The drive shaft has an off-set slot in the top, and this has to sit at an angle across the engine, such that the wider "shoulder" is facing number 3 exhaust port (that is, the opening on the side of the block). This is critical as this sets the position of the distributor, and it the shaft is one tooth out, the distributor has to sit at funny a angle to time correctly. Fit the oil-pump [prime with MolySlip oil], which then holds the drive-shaft in the right place, vertically. Fit the sump, and you can now stand the engine upright.

Fit the exhaust valves [use plenty of MolySlip oil], as you need them to set the valve timing, by the book. I found that number 2 valve adjuster was very stiff, so I salvaged another one from a different engine.
To swap the adjuster, I had to remove the cam-follower, which ment removing one of the rocker-shafts, sorting the rocker, and then re-assembling the rocker-shaft. Remember that the shafts have a specific orientation, and have an "F" on the front end..
Also Note, the exhaust valves do not need the o-rings, as there is no oil to seep past the valve-stem (the stems point downwards, and sit clear of any oil..)

Fit the flywheel housing and the flywheel. If the flywheel has been balanced, ensure that the right bolts fo into the right holes. Fit a timing pointer to the 'housing.

Setting the valve timing - by the book

This method requires a dial-guage

To set the timing, rotate the crank to that the EP mark on the flywheel is in line with the pointer.

Fit a dial-gauge to the block in such a manner that the amount that number one exhaust valve moves into the block can be measured. Note, this has to be done with a dial-gauge as the valve spends several degrees of cmashaft rotation fully open.

Now, with the camshaft chainwheel on the chamshaft, rotate the 'shaft so that the cam follower for number one exhaust valve is full off the lobe on the cam, and adjust the gap to .010". Rotate the camshaft clockwise (in the direction of rotation until number one exhaust valve is about half open. Place a temporary mark on the chainwheel, and an aligning mark on the block. Now contine to move the chainwheel clockwise. The dial-gauge will read increasing movement, peak for a while, and then return. When the valve returns to the same postion as the previous marked point (ie, when the dial-guage reads the same figure), mark the chainwheel a second time, again - in line with the alignment mark on the block. Without moving the camshaft, mark the chainwheel at a point between the two temporary marks. This is the mid-point of the valve being fully-open. Rotate the camshaft anti-clockwise until this third mark is aligned with the mark on the block.

Now, without moving either the crankshaft (aligned to the EP mark) or the chainwheel (aligned to the third-mark), test-fit the timing chain. There should be basically no slack in the chain as it runs from the camshaft chainwheel down to the crankshaft chainwheel. If there is slack, carefully remove the camshaft chainwheel, and replace it on a differnent keyway. If you cannot get a good setting, try the Eamonn method below.

Of course, I get a setting, throw the rest of the engine together, sling it into the vehicle, re-plumb everything and try it... only to discover it's not right, so I have to redo stuff with the engine in the vehicle :(

Setting the valve timing - the Eamonn method