Original high resolution pics available HERE
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I very rarely, actually never, write any web page with a Black background
but it was totally appropriate for this page :-( On Wednesday 16th January 2002 on the way back from Doncaster doing just under 70mph on the M1 just South of Junction 33, Grumble blew the engine - in style... A few moments later a Police patrol pulled over. I lept out and went over to his car, got in and sat down. The officer was just finishing a call, turned to me and said "That's a 101 isn't it?" I was impressed (albeit nearly in tears). He'd stopped to see if we were alright and needed any assistance - the next 30 odd minutes were spent talking about Land Rovers as he'd previously owned a Rangie! There was little more to do other than call the RAC - who eventually sent a very nice man in a very (very) large flat-bed recovery vehicle to return us home, well, to Warrens workshop actually. The next day Warren called and asked if I was sitting down. A conrod had broken and thrown itself through the block. On the next few cranks it had thrown itself through the sump. My beloved V8, the very heart of Grumble, was a total 'write-off', with everything that could break, broken... An immediate transplant was needed. At times like this one thinks about alternative engines but I'm just so totally sold on the feel and sound of the superb Rover V8, that I didn't ponder too long on the possibility of sticking a Perkins Phaser or 300Tdi in there. A couple of calls later landed me again in the very capable hands of Craig Matthews, now a very good and somewhat cherished friend - and the Northern Rep for the 101 Club. Craig had, buried away somewhere, a take-out recon engine, which was still bolted to the metal frame. A week later, almost to the minute that Grumble blew the engine, we were returning from Craigs, with the new engine on our trailer! The next week saw Warren pulling the old engine out and putting the new one in! As I write, Grumble is now back on form, even better and a bit quieter than before. The following pics show various stages of damaged engine parts, broken pistons, bent pushrods, fragments of anything that used to be crank or cam shafts (two of the cams were gone altogether) and a fundamental flaw in the valley gasket - which was split along the entire length! |
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