Series Land Rover (U.S.A./Canada)
Serving the Series 1, Series 2, Series 3 and other Land Rover communities worldwide.

Last month the cylinder head was dismantled and now it needs to be serviced. If your Series land Rover engine was tuned correctly but seemed to be lackng power then you can expect to see carbon deposits in the combustion chambers, inlet and outlet ports. These should be removed carefully using a blunt scaper. You should mask off the bolt holes and water passages before doing this to prevent deposits entering these areas. The cylinder head can then be washed in kerosine.

The valve inlet and exhaust heads and stems may need to have carbon deposits removed also. At this point the valve seatings should be inspected and if slightly marked they can be ground-in. Smear a liittle coarse grinding paste onto the valve seat, fix a valve grinding suction tool to the valve head, insert the valve into its own port and rototate the valve tool backwards and forwards by rubbing the tool between your palms. Lift and turn the vale by a quater turn periodically. Keep inspecting the seat. When any slight pitting or marking has been removed then repeat the process with the fine paste. Finally, clean all paste thoroughly from the valve and cylinder head.

If the seats are badly pitted then it may be necessary replace the valves and have the seats reground or replaced, but this is unusual.

There will also be deposits on the cylinder block around and on the piston head. To remove these first turn the engine so that two pistons are at the top of their strokes. Seal off the other two bores with rags, mask bolt holes and water channels and smear grease around the edge of the two exposed pistons. Now carefully scrape off all carbon deposits around and on the two exposed pistons. Wipe away the grease and repeat the process for the other two pistons. Your Series Land Rover should be a lot livelier for removal of this small amount of material.

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