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Thread: Rebuilding my 300Tdi

  1. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by 86mud View Post
    Hi Andrew

    I have three from my old block if you need.

    I am nearly finished adding all the ancillaries to my rebuild block. I sent all the alloy parts off to vapour blasters and will pick them up tomorrow so I can then get the block all finish.

    Are you reusing your cylinder head? Mince is toast with a crack somewhere in a water gallery near the valves at number two piston. i am going to order a performance head from Turners in England.
    I saw the performance head on their webpage. Nice.
    L322 tdv8 poverty pack - wow
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  2. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shonky View Post
    This rebuild is going nowhere at the moment.

    It's now been almost a month since I first ordered new conrods, and when three more arrived this morning to make up a matching set, I thought I could finally crack on and assemble the engine.

    It was not to be.

    Furthering the lesson that just because parts are new doesn't mean they are good, this was the small end bushing of one of the new rods.




    Neither the supplier nor I could find any more in the country, so now I'm waiting for another 2-3 weeks for another rod from the UK. In the meantime, I have no less than 11 conrods sitting on my bench, of which 6 are usable, but not together. 4x original ones that are dead, 4x matching new ones but one is defective, and 3x matching new ones that need a fourth.




    To say I am less than pleased would be putting it lightly.


    This morning I tidied up the garage and covered everything up. The replacement won't arrive before I have to go interstate for nearly a month, so I'll see you all in November.

    ****.
    I'd probably be throwing a rod by this point!

  3. #43
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    Thanks for the offer of conrods, gents. The replacements are on their way as a rush order, and I'm only one good conrod away from putting it all back together! I'll keep you both in mind if I have further troubles. Rebuilding my 300Tdi
    Andrew

    1958 Series II SWB - "Gus"
    1965 Series IIA Ambulance 113-896 - "Ambrose"
    1981 Mercedes 300D
    1995 Defender 110

  4. #44
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    Quote Originally Posted by 86mud View Post
    I am nearly finished adding all the ancillaries to my rebuild block. I sent all the alloy parts off to vapour blasters and will pick them up tomorrow so I can then get the block all finish.

    Are you reusing your cylinder head? I am going to order a performance head from Turners in England.
    Hi Andrew.

    Have you got a thread going for your rebuild? Sounds like a good project!

    Vapour blasting will probably give you a nicer finish off the gun than I got with media blasting. Keen to see how they come out.

    I will be re-using my head, as it is a Turner performance head and only 6 years old.
    These are actually an AMC (Spanish) aftermarket head that Turners tweak in-house.

    After 6 years I do have one small crack between the injector hole and inlet valve on cylinder 4, but I suspect that any 300Tdi head will have some minor cracking.

    My old head had multiple cracks between valves, injector holes and glow-plug holes and still pressure tested fine. Rebuilding my 300Tdi

    I had my valve seats re-cut and new valve guides and stem seals installed by a local shop.
    Andrew

    1958 Series II SWB - "Gus"
    1965 Series IIA Ambulance 113-896 - "Ambrose"
    1981 Mercedes 300D
    1995 Defender 110

  5. #45
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    CLIFFHANGER

    Sorry to leave you all like that. Problems happened, life got in the way, then circumstances dictated that all of the things happen at once; and immediately. As such, I didn't get time to bring you all along for the journey.

    It's been a while now, and while a lot of the hand-wringing uncertainties which were the source of much head scratching have been somewhat data-dumped, I'll try and turn my brain-clock back to that time to bring you up to speed with not only the practical progress made, but the essence of the experience and the learning points for new-players that I experienced and/or endured along the way.

    So where were we?


    Andrew

    1958 Series II SWB - "Gus"
    1965 Series IIA Ambulance 113-896 - "Ambrose"
    1981 Mercedes 300D
    1995 Defender 110

  6. #46
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    Unbearingable

    After getting my head around the validity of the book values for piston:bore clearances, I did a bit more pondering on my crankshaft situation.

    Earlier, I had found that my 5th main was out of clearance spec (by 0.001mm!) and as such I had ordered undersize bearings for it. This was consistent with the advice provided in the manual.




    The problem is, the only size main bearing available other than STD, is 0.010" under, which is a full 0.254mm smaller in diameter. Even if I only used an undersize shell on the bottom and a STD on the top, it would result in a bearing ID of 63.423mm - vastly less than the OD of the crank at 63.470!

    To put it simply:
    - If I used standard bearings, my bearing clearances were excessive even before any wear had taken place.
    - If I used anything smaller than standard, my crankshaft wouldn't even fit let alone have oil clearance.


    Much like the piston:bore conundrum, I think in this case the manual is a red herring. All of my crank journals were marginally smaller than the book range, but also comfortably larger than the service limit. Getting a perfectly good crank reground to fit the smaller shells seemed like a ludicrous idea, so I decided to accept the service limit as the more valid measure, comfortable in the knowledge that whilst 0.080mm was technically greater than spec, it was vastly less than the 0.110mm clearance it had before I pulled it apart!

    Emboldened by once again ignoring the book, STD main bearing shells went in, and after getting a new spigot bush, so did the crank.



    I had to split the bush to get it out - it simply wouldn't move using the hydraulic method alone.



    The replacement bush was a genuine one that I had purchased some 2 years prior, and had put on a high shelf in a jar full of fresh engine oil. The heat/cool cycles and long soak should have made sure it was thoroughly impregnated with oil, but I pressed some more in with my palms for good measure. It's a nice fit!



    At this point, I had once again hit the wall until the arrival of some conrods.
    Andrew

    1958 Series II SWB - "Gus"
    1965 Series IIA Ambulance 113-896 - "Ambrose"
    1981 Mercedes 300D
    1995 Defender 110

  7. #47
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    PISTON, PISTOFF

    After a jaunt away overseas for over a month, I came home excited that finally, the remaining conrods had arrived and I could finally get the engine back together.

    Can you guess what happened?

    Go on. Have a little guess...


    Yep. They were also mismatched, and one of them also had a damaged small end bush. None of the small ends had been reamed to size either so the gudgeon pins (which measured up exactly on-size) wouldn't fit through them.

    At this point, I was done with this game. I rang the supplier and they arranged return freight and a refund, and I did what I should have done in the first place - contacted Turner Engineering and got a set of four re-manufactured OE conrods sent out express from the UK.

    They turned up promptly, all were matching, the bushes were all intact and were a minty-fresh fit with the gudgeon pins.

    Finally. Progress can continue!




    And just as well too, because the property with the shed that the Defender is currently residing in, sans engine, is now on the market and imminently to be sold. I need to get this moving, so I can not only get the Defender out, but have enough time to run it in before using it to tow two other vehicles off the property!

    From here, everything happened very quickly.

    With most of the head-scratching done, and every single component cleaned, checked, refurbished, painted and positively begging to be thrown at the block, I had the whole thing assembled in two leisurely days flat.

    Pistons went onto rods with a good smear of assembly lube on the pins.




    Then the pistons themselves were cleaned, the rings and skirts oiled with running-in oil and with a few smart taps they were sent home into the bores.




    Excitingly, rotating the crank was silky-smooth.

    Andrew

    1958 Series II SWB - "Gus"
    1965 Series IIA Ambulance 113-896 - "Ambrose"
    1981 Mercedes 300D
    1995 Defender 110

  8. #48
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    Pump and Dump

    Oil pumps - the finale.


    Making up the trifecta of "things that I worried about way too much" was getting my head around the oil pump.

    The book makes it out to be a highly precise component with fine tolerances and exacting requirements.

    It isn't.




    Putting the inner rotor on the bare crankshaft, it is a loose fit bordering on sloppy. This isn't due to wear, it's just how it is. It doesn't really spin against much resistance, and so as long as the crankshaft can nudge it around, it should do its thing. My old rotors were doing a perfectly good job before the rebuild, so once again I decided to take the book with a grain of salt and accept that all other things being the same, the new rotors would certainly not do any worse.

    If I had my time again, I'm not sure I would bother replacing or even measuring the oil pump, unless the timing case in which it runs was excessively worn. Realistically, this is by far the weakest link and the only real mode of failure. Your forged crank and hardened steel rotors are simply not going to wear out before the alloy case! I doubt the surface pitting on the rotors was having any effect at all on the oil pressure also. The clearances are all over the place, the book is wrong, and frankly I don't think any of it matters. All of the reading I have done suggests that loss of oil pressure in a 300Tdi is almost certainly bearing/crank wear, or actual oil loss. The oil pumps do not seem to fail, at least not before the rest of the engine is already utterly exhausted.

    I'd love to hear thoughts from anyone who has more than a sample size of 1 to go off. Professional spanners: Let me know what you've seen.


    The oil pump was assembled into the housing with a bucketload of Vaseline. This is important, as it not only lubricates the pump prior to the oil getting through it, but also primes the pump. Why Vaseline? Because unlike oil, it is viscous enough to stay put during assembly, and unlike grease, it has a low enough melting point to readily blend in with the oil as soon as it gets even slightly warm.



    The oil pressure relief valve was also installed with a new spring (wrong length according to the book - ignore it!) and a new cap after I butchered the old one getting it off.


    While I'm at it, the book says to install the cover plate with a smear of sealant. I'd suggest you don't. It does not appear that this was ever done from factory, and after all the stern warnings about the float of the pump being determined by the clearance to the cover plate, they want you to put RTV sealant on the mating face? That makes no sense.

    One thing to note about the cover plate though, is that the screws holding it in place are NOT phillips head. They are posidrive, which looks the same but is subtly not. Using a phillips head scredriver on posidrive fasteners may work, but the fit isn't quite right and you greatly increase your risk of stripping the heads of the screws.

    Ask me how I know...


    Diagonal scores on the screw head denote a posidrive fastener.



    PH2 and PD2 drivers - spot the difference!
    Andrew

    1958 Series II SWB - "Gus"
    1965 Series IIA Ambulance 113-896 - "Ambrose"
    1981 Mercedes 300D
    1995 Defender 110

  9. #49
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    Pan handling

    Putting the sump pan on a fresh rebuild was surprisingly unnerving. It is in essence, the point of no-return.

    Once that pan goes on, you've committed to the assertion that everything that is supposed to be lubricated is, and everything that might come loose will not.




    With the oil pump in place, the timing case went on first with its gasket. A sensible smear of sealant around the cleaned mating surfaces, and the pan went on also.




    I should point out also, that I decided not to use T-seals on the fifth main bearing cap. Instead, I filled the channel with sealant, and after setting it in place with bolts loosely done up, I forced sealant through the hole on the sump-face until it extruded out the inner and outer holes. I didn't take any pictures, I'm sorry. But Mike from Britannica Restorations explains it pretty well.

    Andrew

    1958 Series II SWB - "Gus"
    1965 Series IIA Ambulance 113-896 - "Ambrose"
    1981 Mercedes 300D
    1995 Defender 110

  10. #50
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    Impeccable Timing

    Flipping the engine right side up again, next on the list was to furnish the timing case with a new belt and pulleys.

    These had been replaced not all that long ago, but it seemed rude not to go to all this effort and put the old belt back on. Notwithstanding, the former belt had already been rubbing on the idler and at the time I was alarmed by this. I think in hindsight that it wasn't as bad as I thought, but I did some reading and viewing and discovered that this is a known problem with the 300Tdi.

    I found some interesting discussion online regarding the injector pump bending the timing case. Essentially, the pump is bolted to the back of the case but also to a bracket affixed to the block. When the block bracket is tensioned, it can actually pull the pump back slightly - taking the case with it.

    Curious, I put a dial indicator on the nose of the pump and tightened the bracket. Unfortunately, I don't recall how much it moved, but I can certainly say that it moved enough to make me concerned. As such, an updated bracket was ordered. This was a revised design that has two sliding through-dowels where the bolts go through, to allow for the pump to be held firmly in position laterally, whilst allowing for slight discrepancy in fore-aft alignment.




    As you can see, even that was not enough to take in the misalignment, although perhaps some of this may have been due to the bracket seemingly being squared up by guesswork during manufacture... A washer took in the excess and allowed the pump to locate nicely, and with minimal movement on the nose of the pump now.




    Putting both the cam and pump pulleys on, I ran a straight edge over them both and they appeared to be well aligned.

    With that resolved, the remainder of the pulleys and belt went on, with the engine at TDC and all marks aligned of course. I won't cover the process in detail as there is already plenty of resources out there that do so.




    What I will point out though, is that at this point I made a mistake. Not a big one... indeed I didn't even notice until after I had been driving it around for a week and picked it up whilst looking back through photos. Can you see the oopsie?




    I don't know how or why, but I accidentally put the securing plate under the IP pulley. You might notice that these photos are with the engine in the car (spoiler alert!). Unfortunately this hiccup necessitated removal of the radiator and various ancillaries just to spend 10 seconds to remove the pulley and swap the plate on to the top as it should be.

    Andrew

    1958 Series II SWB - "Gus"
    1965 Series IIA Ambulance 113-896 - "Ambrose"
    1981 Mercedes 300D
    1995 Defender 110

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