Thread: likely head problem

Hope the head gasket fix goes smoothly.

OK so a complication. When removing the leads from the glow plugs, two of the lead head plastic/rubber guards disintegrated.

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Any thoughts on this? My options seem to be:

* wrap them in electrical tape/heatshrink and hope for the best
* find a wrecked harness, cut the leads off and solder a couple from the wrecked harness
* replace the whole harness ($1,000+)

Any thoughts?

I'd do the heatshrink repair on them to begin with.
Get some good heatshrink tho, it comes in varying thickness.. and maybe a couple of layers.
At the least it will get them going.

I have seen 'repair kits' but IIRC they are expensive for what you get.

Originally Posted by AK83

I have seen 'repair kits'

I see what you mean

4x4 Outdoor Tuning :: Glow plug leads repair kit for Land Rover Defender TD5 and Puma TD4 2.4L

Multiple layers of heatshrink seems like the go.

Alright the head's off. A job of work, but not as bad as I feared.

Problems so far:

- Shattered glow plug sockets. The guys at the local shop said they heatshrink them rather than bother replacing, and their work is well respected so.

- Broke an exhaust manifold bolt inside the head. Apparently this is common, so it's off to get some left handed drill bits and an easy-out kit today.

There were no obvious signs on the gasket where the coolant to oil leak might be occurring, which was disappointing. It was delaminated at the #5 (rearmost) cylinder, but that may have happened during removal. Plastic dowels, so a good chance this is the first time the head's been off since 2001.

Q: it feels fairly likely that retorquing the exhaust manifold on may get more snaps, so I'm tempted to double-nut out all the studs and put new ones in. Thoughts? Of course that may result in more breakages so *sigh*

Q: Also does this look normal for glowplugs? I'm tempted to replace them as well but also balancing against the risk of damage during removal.

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Halfway there.... I have had to remove a number of broken manifold studs, left handed drill bits have worked everytime. Replace with wurth studs, spacers and nuts. Plane the manifold, unless you're 100% there's no warp.

I just used heat resistant spilt cable sheath on the glowplug plugs, once the exposed plug was clipped onto the glowplug I just slide the sheath up the wire so it was down over the plug. One day, I might order Pace Automotive's good looking replacement insulated glowplug loom.

You could test the glowplugs using some jumper cables while still in the head to see if they all still work, even though in Qld you can get away not all of them properly.

Discofender
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Might be a little late, and this may be overkill for you, but this stuff is the go for heat shrink in critical applications like the glow plugs. The adhesive makes a big difference, and it shrinks way better than the cheap stuff.

Originally Posted by Tins

this stuff is the go for heat shrink in critical applications like the glow plugs.

Brilliant ta. I have the multipack on the way.