Thread: Timing belt destruction....

JohnM
Wondering whether yours has the update fitted, you mention a flange only on one side of the crankshaft drive pulley.
The flanges seem to be only spot welded on, the front one may have broken off. If not in the bottom of the timing case it may have been removed from there the last time the belt was changed. If that is the case, a new drive pulley should have been fitted.
Interesting that in the original design L/R tried to guide the belt using a flange on the idler pulley. In 30 yrs. mech.e. experience with industrial timing belt drives cannot recall any that did not use a drive flange for belt guidance, particularly with pulsating loads.
Mine is an Aug. 97 build, GMF7WA747343. and bought new, had the latest drive system.
llandro

Okay,
Back from being away in Canberra for the week due to work, I have just installed the new timing belt kit with new crankshaft gear. Flywheel and fuel pump are pinned and cam shaft mark lines up. Put in new pushrods and replaced two rockers and adjusted valve clearances to spec. Kicked her over and it seems to idle okay, little smokey(blueish), put under mild acceleration and just a sea of smoke.......Thought I must be a tooth or two out in the timing, redid the timing and had a similar result, but with less smoke. Could the timing be out by another tooth (parallex error) or is it something else caused by the belt letting go the other week(no smoke prior to this happening). Doesn't appear to be any oil in the water or visa versa and whilst I haven't taken the head off the valves appeared to be okay....


Thanks

Ilandro - The belt was changed last time by LR. The crankcase gear is spot welded on the one side only, didn't find any metal bits from the front... I suspect this gear wasn't changed but I'm not certain. I have had the disco since new as well, purchased 98 and it is a Jul 97 build.

Just a question - might be stating the obvious - but when you aligned the mark on the camshaft pully with the mark on the timing belt rear cover - did you align the crankshaft woodruff key with the arrow cast on the rear cover ?

Yep.....

there may be oil in the exhaust from when the first belt snapped.....
if its running ok.....let it warm up to normal temp.....
take it for a run and see how it goes.....the smoke should clear up pretty quickly if its gotten into the intake
or exhaust side of things.....
if its a problem thats just started.....it will be constantly smoking and will need further investigation.....





when the belt snapped the engine was instantly shut down....(not by choice...)
the turbo was still spinning.....so didnt get a chance to cool down....
there is a very slim chance something may be damaged.....but i doubt it.....

Can anyone tell me what the recommended life for the 300Tdi timing belt is?

I've just bought a WAxxxxxx VIN 300Tdi Defender which is late 98 build I believe (haven't got the vehicle yet). Belt hasn't been done and it should not need a kit as the VIN is out of the recognised range. But I can't recall what the recommended change over time is on the belt.

how many kms on the vehicle now....?

Originally Posted by Leo109

Hi John,

Generally the valves will be quite OK. As the valves work vertically in the 300Tdi, they hit the top of the pistons straight on and don't get bent. You'll probably have some pretty circular indentation on the piston crowns though... Usually the rockers and pushrods absorb all the impact damage.

I wouldn't remove the head yet. Repair the valve gear and belt (complete with new idler, tensioner and flanged crankpulley), get it running and if you still have full compression of all cylinders, leave the head alone.

Hope this helps.

Are you kidding? A full tear down is required. Clean, visually inspect, and measure everything. Pistons, rods, valves, combustion chambers, cam and bearings, cam bearing tunnels. What the hell do you think happens when the camshaft stops turning and the crankshaft does not? Bang, wallop, whack, is what happens. Engine builders who will not clean, inspect, crack test, and measure, deserve everything that happens to them.

BY the way, a very senior person at Land Rover Australia maintains that the rubber band should be changed every 50,000kms. not 100,000 as per books, and, he says, "do not miss" .