I bought a Land Rover (1966, 88 model) that the owner said the shop failed to put oil back in after a oil change. He says he made it about .5 mile and the engine quit.
I’ve wondered if the float bowl ran out of oil and stalled the engine and here is why:
I stopped at a parts store in Lovelock Nevada to ask the helpful lady there where to get a room for the night and we ended up talking about Land Rovers. It turns out she had prev owned this very one i found later that day in a closed old gas station!
the guy that bought it the very day I saw it in the shop had it towed to his favorite shop to get it road ready … I’ve subsequently learned they didn’t know a Land Rover from a Land Cruiser!
so it sat for quite some time (maybe years) so the old gas may of caused the needle valve to stick … thus it may of run out of gas before doing the engine much damage? The bearings in those old Land Rover engines are HUGE for a 4 cylinder.
I later bought it and was startled to learn i could rotate the engine with a hand crank fast enough to get the analog oil press to register! I finally got the engine running (and it runs good) but it’d stop after a while (no fuel) I think i’ve gotten past this but here now is the problem.
I discovered there is no oil getting to the head. it is supplied thru a 1/8" pipe from the main galleys in the block. i removed this pipe, blew air thru it and back blew the oil galleys yet no oil. i have 40psi indicated on the supply side of the filter.
eventually i removed the oil filter to see about 4 qrts. run out before i could get back to shut it off so it has massive flow! and as mentioned, 40 psi indicated on inlet of filter.
still no oil to head so I next only screwed the filter on partially leaving apx. .150" clearance between filter seal and housing and observed barely a trickle of oil coming out. clogged filter right?, so i put a new filter on with the exact same pee steam or less of oil coming out around the filter yet 40 psi indicated on in let of new filter. still no oil to head, no knocking, but last time i started it i heard a squeak from the valve train… it has solid lifters, roller rockers etc. a well built unit and i don’t want to run it anymore, i am and have been prepared to take the engine down (when i finish the shop) but this should be able to be diagnosed before doing anything more.
40 indicated running
massive flow with filter off
little or no flow with filter(s) partially screwed on … oil should be blowing out of that filter all over the engine bay at 40psi … analog guage registered hand cranking engine with starting handle.
I know this is long but who ever made it this far i appreciate your reading it. i also wanted to include the vital details for diagnosis.
IANAE (I am not an engineer) but are you getting 40 out of the filter? What’s next inline after the filter and is that getting oil? I would keep looking down the line as best you can.
what is coming out of the filter is a small dribble, not enough to put back pressure on the system. 40psi indicated going into the filter. after the filter it goes into the galleys for the main bearings and thru a tube to the valve gear in the head. this tube is about 1/8" dia and apx. 10" long …small engine … i wouldn’t be so wrapped about this except with the filter off it’ll pump a massive amount of oil, like a 3/4" stream out the side of the block a foot!! large bearing wear woud of course explain NO oil pressure but it makes pressure…further: the oil goes thru the pump directly into the filter …
If I’m understanding you correctly you’ve narrowed the location of the problem to between the filter inlet and the filter outlet.
Just a WAG, but i know that some oil filters have anti-drainback valves that work in the opposite direction. I’d try a factory filter, not aftermarket.
yes, i see no reason with a 3 qrt. flow within 15 secounds and 40 indicated why it won’t shove a LOT of oil thru that filter, and yes, it’s a new filter (2nd one)
the filters i’m using are common automotive screw on filters. The screw on housing is a after market item supplied by british suppliers and it’s been on there a while. It is tapped for a in and out guage(s) but now it is just on the inlet side (measuring press right from the pump where it goes into the filter.
So could it be expecting opposite flow? How about mounting a gauge port in a filter?
I did think of this out of desperation, it’s just that this screw on filter modification has been in place for quite some time and i see nothing to indicate there is anything wrong with it, and yes I removed it from the engine and had a look thru it, it’s just a aluminum housing with a couple holes in it. one to filter and one returning. it’s now been 3 weeks or so since I parked it and i suppose when I get around to paying attention to it again i’ll go thru this again but right now i’m just stumped. I thot of a bad pump but with the guage showing 40, and it looks like a fine analog guage … well, you know, i’ll have to try another guage and all the other dog tricks but how can that thing pump out a 3/4 or 1" hole like hoover dam yet nothing goes thru the filter… you might be on to something though… what i am describing just doesn’t make any sense…
What you are missing is many filters have one way check valves in them. Not the housing - the filter. Just totally bypass the thing for a bit.
these regular car napa auto parts filters don’t have a bypass in them… neither does the housing and in order to get oil to the engine it has to go thru a filter otherwise it’ll just go out on the ground!.. no way around that but the original design was a canister type filter so you could remove it if you had to!, it probably had a bypass in it too but that is all replaced now you just gotta have a filter on there… and as mentioned: i’ve tried two filters, both new… just can’t get oil thru them… i’m baffled. i guess the guage could be gunny bag but it sure acts like a good analog guage.
It sounds to me like the filter housing has been removed and reinstalled backwards, most have a built in Check valve
Did the oil come out through the pipe nipple that the filter screws onto, or the outer portion of the housing? What’s the Part # of the filter
Take the Land Rover to a Rover mechanic. Land Rovers are known as idiosyncratic machines and even on the best of days not dependable. There is a saying in Africa. If you need to be sure you and your client gets there buy a Land Cruiser. If you have a Land Rover you need 2; one to carry parts, hopefully between the 2 machines and a bunch of parts you may keep one running.
Without seeing the filter arrangement, I’m not sure if this is possible but can you try to bypass the filter by putting some type of fitting in the holes and try it? Is it possible to tap the holes (ports) in the filter adapter? It doesn’t need to be a perfect fit and can leak a little as I wouldn’t run it long like that anyways. I would replace that gauge ASAP with one that you can trust and have verified as working.
If you decide to try and tape the holes / ports, make sure to remove the adapter first to ensure that you don’t get any debris in the system.
this is what I first suspected and did indeed remove it and then afterwards as per c crisp below i verified oil came out thru the nipple into the bottom of the filter… and checked that the holes all line up with the block… and as mentioned: this adapter has been on the engine for a fair while so it was obviously ok before.
yes, thru the 3/4 or 1" nipple! right into the filter… (s), just not OUT of it!
i suppose one could scrunch a rubber hose of some indeterminate diameter in there… but that’ll have to wait a while now… i could see the pump delivering a large volume…but no pressure… . out the nipple as mentioned prev. but with the guage registering 40 psi, it isn’t making sense.
a land rover mechanic? … NO! I’ve diagnosed worse stuff than this plenty of “professionals” couldn’t even get a grip of. besides, the issue is not “land rover” specific. As a CME i’ve had plenty of big deals happen… this hardly registers on that scale.
besides, it’s over 200 miles to the nearest dealer and all they are going to say is the engine is fried. ps; i just brought a dozer back from the dead (10psi) by swapping out several filters and then running about a 50% mix of lucas oil stabilizer in it … and now i’m doing a detroit that lost a rod… put a new crank/rod in it but am sweating whether i have enough pressure on the sealing ring on #1 … fyi, it is in a old excavator that you couldn’t give away and not worth cutting up for parts! a gasket kit cost more than the machine is worth.
tengineer1:: this is great!, ha ha. I’ve owned 3 now and have never had to walk out of the woods yet and i’ve been way way out there! I know well the machine and at times am baffled why they still insist on using a Land Rover when they want to go somewhere that is nothing less than down right dangerous (darien gap/camel trophy) (sahara run) etc. but i think part of it is parts availability from the days the sun never set on the empire … and if you treat them right they’ll never quit.