The Rover-Landers of BC

I'm a newcomer to the land rover obsession. I have dismantled my 68 series 2A 88, and am contemplating dismantling the engine myself (no mechanical experience, just handy) or having someone do a rebuild for me. What is a reasonable charge for a rebuild on a 2.25 l petrol engine? (...turns over easily). Thanks, Ken.

Ken,

Welcome! You will likely get wildly varying opinions on this topic. The $$$ differences will be in the quality of the parts used and the quality of the machine shop work done. These cover both ends of the spectrum. A good place to start would be with some of the vendors listed in the "Supporters" section of this site. My personal recommendation would be to call Aart @ UK Trek & Traction. It will not be the cheapest price around but it will be done right.

John

Hi Ken,
Take John's advice, there are a lot of so called rebuilt motors out there but you won't be getting any freebies. If it sounds like a cheap deal it will likely be a cheap rebuild. Even a respectable "warming" over rebuild is going to see a couple of grand vaporize out of your wallet, and that's with you doing some of the tear down and reassembly. Sometimes you can luck into buying someone elses abandoned project at a bargain price or the occasional ex-military long-block at a good price but in the real world a good rebuild costs good dollars. Lots of Roverlanders have built or are currently building motors, hopefully some will post some up to date advice on their experiences with the local pros.
Bill

Hi Ken,

During my automotive technician training at BCIT in 2001, I rebuilt my Dad's 2.25 petrol engine.

I did all the disassembly and reassembly myself with all required tools and knowledge at my disposal. We bought only high quality aftermarket and genuine Landrover parts and spent about $2000 on parts. I had the machining done at Precision Valve and Crank in North Vancouver for about $800.

The rebuild was very thorough and included new valve guides and valve seats, new bearings, seals, pistons, reground camshaft, lifters, and on and on.

If you were to do a drive in drive out job I would add another $2000 or more for labour. Landrover overhaul time for a 2.25 petrol is 25.4 hours plus 3.1 for the cylinder head plus removal from the vehicle.

Rebuilding an engine takes a lot of time, knowledge, specialized equipment and a clean and dry work environment and I wouldn't recommend it to the average handyman. I would think the average guy may do a head gasket or maybe a timing chain but not a complete tear down and rebuild.

Hopefully, I have provided you with some useful information and not scared you too much! :shock: :shock:

Good Luck!

Later,
Don MacDonald, Gold Certified Landrover Technician
Landrover Vancouver

Bill and John are absolutely correct, that Aart will provide an excellent product, not the cheapest, but very fair value for the dollar, but personally I've always been short on dollars. My suggestion would be to work with someone like Aart for your parts, but the labour portion is not rocket science and excellent experience.
You will end up with close to $800 of machining for the head and crank, and depending on the condition of the parts could end up with another 12 - 1500 for other parts, such as bearings, pistons, valves, valve seats, camshaft, etc.
The money you save in labour may be a couple of grand, however, that shouldn't be your motivation as you may end up having to do a few things twice along the way. Your motive should be the experience you'll gain that you can put to use later on when your truck has a problem. This is invaluable.
And, if you wanted to keep/get the truck running sooner, there is several used engines of unkown condition kicking around for around $500 (Check with Ray Wood who also posts on here), you might gamble on one of them and get a year's use out of it while you thoroughly rebuild and get to know yours.

Dave

Wise Owl list a 2.25 performance long block @ $1,734 exchange

Thanks a lot everyone for your comments. These forums are a wealth of info for newbies like myself. I'll talk to Art. Thanks, Ken.