Wilbur the 86 inch

[wally]

Hey folks
Late last year I took delivery of Wilbur the 1955 86 inch. Wilbur is complete and in good rust free condition. He's running, driving and stopping, although running pretty rough. He's also blowing a bit of white smoke which is my main concern. The plan at this stage though is just to get him running smoothly, get him registered and on the road and then tackle all of the jobs that need doing as time permits. We’ll see if the photos appear. I dragged them in - not sure if that works.
Cameron

[wally]

Lets see how this goes.

[fifty seven]

Welcome to the forum. That looks a very good buy. Other things in that shed  suggest you have plenty LR experience.
White smoke usually means there is a fair bit of water vapour coming out. I would start by checking the state of any oil in the sump. If water is there it will become  creamy when engine is run.

Water can simply be the build up of condensation when left parked in varying temperatures and humidity..but can also indicate gasket problems or maybe failure of core plugs with worse corrosion in the block. There is also a water jacket within the alloy casting  inlet manifold. You may need to check block water galleries and lift to check under cylinder head.

[wally]

Thanks for the advice. I have it running a lot better now. It was running on 3 and is now running on 4. I took it out for its first decent drive and was very pleased with how it drove. It's still blowing that smoke though.

Actually, those pictures are a little misleading. The shed, and the other things in it, are not mine. I'm not new to Land Rovers - I've been driving Defenders now for 27 years - but this is my first series 1.