Rebuilding my 300Tdi

[Shonky]

This month, my Defender and I will click over 12 years together. In that time, we have moved house no fewer than 14 times, travelled much of eastern Australia, had two iterations of camping fit-out, failed to proceed only once (my fault - check your swivel oils, people) and travelled just over 200,000kms.

For the most part, it has been a trouble-free daily driver and adventure machine. We'll gloss over the constant and intensive maintenance that makes that possible and consider it part of the experience.

There's no denying, however, that the old bus is showing her age these days. It still presents well - I keep it tidy - but the last convoy to Tassie saw me relegated to tail-end-Charlie so as my companions could see where they were going and avoid smoke inhalation. Sometime after returning home, a stern letter from the EPA rubbed salt into the wound. Unsurprisingly, there has been an inverse correlation with the amount of smoke produced and the amount of power produced. It could probably pull the skin off a rice-pudding, but only a small one.

To put it simply, after 375,748kms across three owners over 27 years and 10 months of life, it needs some love.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20210524_074457.jpg

It is worth noting that there are other intercurrent issues (cracked exhaust manifold, for example) which are heavily contributing to the problem, but various trustworthy sources suggest that the big-end bearings are likely at end of life by now anyway, and I am at a brief juncture of my life where the Venn-diagram of space/time/money has converged temporarily and given me a window to do this myself.

Additionally, when I replaced the head in 2016 I learned a few lessons the hard way:
Firstly, if you're removing the head; don't forget the coolant drain plug on the left side of the block otherwise you'll dump a bunch of coolant into your decapitated engine when you lift the head off.
Secondly, if this happens, no amount of paper towels will get all the coolant out of the bores and the remnants will settle around the rings and after 3 weeks of sitting, will have corroded spots on the cylinder walls. If I had my time again, a good dousing with WD40 to displace the moisture would have probably been an idea...

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20161122_093237.jpg

Is this significant? I don't know. But I've always wondered if this might be a factor, despite my best efforts at cleaning up the surface corrosion on the bores and the lack of any acute changes after this event. This will give me an opportunity to resolve it and stop wondering.

So, the time is now.

I thought I'd keep a bit of a thread going as I progress, as it may help someone else down the line and I'm sure I'll be needing some advice from the brains trust as we go.

I like to think I'm a little more savvy than 6 years ago when I last had the head off, and indeed at that time I was more-so than 6 years prior to that when I bought it. There's still much to learn though and I think it is worth adding the disclaimer that I am no expert, and that I haven't rebuilt an engine before. This is not a "how-to". Replicate my inevitable mistakes at your peril.


https://youtu.be/TAMsMbpDZwc

[Shonky]

Enough waxing lyrical.

So, the engine is down on power and blowing smoke. It has a cracked exhaust manifold, and potentially some imperfections on the cylinder wall. It starts promptly, runs smoothly and hasn't overheated.

Before stripping it down, I figured it was probably worth doing some investigation as I go.

[B]Compression:
The compression values between the cylinders were actually quite consistent, with only 15psi difference between the lowest (#4) and the highest (#2). This is notable, as generally variation is of more concern than the values themselves.

...unless those values are only ~280psi. That seems substantially low to me, but happy to hear thoughts from the peanut gallery.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220610_102740.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/RTFM1.jpg

Somewhat lower than the benchmark of ~348psi. It is worth noting that this was indeed with a fully charged battery, on a warm engine, and with the valve clearances checked and set to the specified 0.20mm.

Glow plugs and injectors:
Pulling the GPs out for the compression test revealed that #3 was sooty all the way up to the thread. My understanding is that they are mean to seat and seal near the tip, which is consistent with the soot on the others. I didn't test them electrically, but I'll do so later.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220610_130549.jpg

I don't know enough about injectors to say much about them, other than that #1 and #2 were bathed in fuel, perhaps from the fuel return union, #3 looks a little rusty and was damp, and #4 seems okay I guess. These will all be gone through by a specialist in due course. They are Bosch items (made in India).

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220629_212724.jpg

Other than that, the AC belt was past its prime, the low pressure hose between the power steering reservoir and the pump is leaking (again) and the P-gasket is weeping (again). There was also some oil around the flywheel housing - rear main seal or t-seals? Other than that, it is remarkably leak-free.

Fluids:
The coolant seems clean, with no evidence of oil contamination.

There was no chunks or abnormal glitter in the oil or on the sump plug magnet. Just for the hell of it (and because I was doing so for my old Benz anyway), I took an oil sample and sent it away for analysis. I don't have a benchmark for these values, but the diagnostic opinion seems promising.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/Oil_analysis.jpg

There was what I would consider a typical amount of oil in the intercooler hoses (and presumably the IC itself), although I don't have much to compare it to. I am considering installing a Provent 200 once everything is back together to reduce the amount of oil it re-breathes.

[Shonky]

Whilst I will be doing the actual rebuild at home in my little one car garage, I am fortunate enough to have access to a large shed and a ute inconveniently located 200kms away. At least it means the rest of the truck is out of the way and undercover while I work.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220616_163549.jpg

A vehicles engine seems like such an intrinsic part of the car that to remove it can seem insurmountably complicated. Like most complicated things though, it's just lots of simple things put together. Have a checklist if you're new to it (or use the workshop manual) and just work through methodically. Label anything you aren't absolutely certain that you will remember the interface for, and if you're in an area with mice and mud wasps like I am, be sure to plug or cover any openings where you don't want a small creature to take up residence.

From memory, the workshop manual states to de-gas the AC and drain the power steering fluid. I feel that neither are necessary. Like many, I just unbolt the AC compressor from its bracket and cable tie it off to one side whilst still connected and do the same with the power steering pump.

In order to avoid making a mess when draining my coolant (or if I'm going to reuse it) I siphon out the contents of the overflow tank into a clean container, disconnect the branch of the bottom hose that connects to it and put a valve into the end of that. I used an old sprinkler system valve this time because it was lying around, but in the past I have used a pop-top off a sports drink bottle with a few turns of electrical tape around it with equal success. Now that the lowest point of your cooling system is connected to a handy hose with a tap, just feed it down through the engine bay and direct your coolant into a container. Zero mess.


https://youtu.be/3P60-neiC54

Then, remove the drain plug for the block and make a mess. [bigsad]


Since I had to transport my engine home, I stripped it of most of its ancillaries and left them behind, and made up a pallet for it out of scrap timber.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220617_151710.jpg

Unfortunately, my engine crane decided to blow a seal just when I was ready to hoist it onto the ute, and as such I had to wrap it in glad wrap and come back a week later with a new ram to hoist it in and take it home. Once strapped down, it was very stable and didn't budge an inch on the trip back to the dojo.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220628_130449.jpg

And here we are, mounted on the stand and ready to begin slowly stripping it down, assessing as we go.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220629_203954.jpg

[Shonky]

As a bit of a time warp, when I pulled the engine I noticed this:

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220616_173126.jpg

Clearly that leak I noted earlier was the rear main crankshaft oil seal (again), so probably good that it will be sorted also before contaminating the clutch.


I'm working my way through disassembling the motor, but going very slowly for two reasons. Firstly, I'm hoping to compensate for incompetence with diligence, and secondly because the prevailing wisdom is that taking the time to check tolerances and thoroughly inspect components yields important diagnostic information and gives a benchmark against the specs for reassembly.

Additionally, it presents a good opportunity to have something of a dry-run using some tools that I don't use regularly like the dial test indicator, and some new tools like the bore gauge and outside micrometers.


Most of the easy stuff has already been removed from the engine, leaving only the cylinder head, injector pump, timing case and belt, sump pan and rotating assembly.

Cylinder head:
After slackening off the valve clearances until the pushrods were unloaded, I removed the rocker shaft. The manual says to undo the fasteners working out from the middle. I worked inwards from the ends. Oops. Probably not a big deal, but worth paying closer attention in future. Immediately after removal I put a big cable tie through the bolthole at each end to stop everything sliding off the shaft and onto the floor. After pulling each pushrod, eyeballing them on a flat bench for any obviously bent ones (none noted) they were poked through a piece of numbered cardboard to keep them in order.

I had already loosened the head bolts (following the tightening sequence in reverse) while the engine was still in the truck, as it's easier than fighting with a breaker bar and an engine stand that wants to roll away, or deafening my quiet neighbourhood with the heavy duty battery powered ugga-duggas (HDBPUDTM). This made it easy to zip the bolts out with the less aggressive of my impact drivers.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220705_113422.jpg

There was some discolouration around the rearmost aspect of cylinder 4. The vehicle has no symptoms of head gasket failure, but this does appear to me to suggest escaping combustion products? What say you, learned friends?

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220705_113435.jpg


Timing case:
Surprisingly, the crank pulley came off with a minimum of fighting. Like the head bolts, I did this in the vehicle with it in gear. Initially I used a breaker bar but found that the force generated would overpower the clutch and turn the motor over before loosening the bolt. On this occasion, I did resort to the HDBPUD which made short work of it and paid for itself in that single event as far as I'm concerned.

Under the timing case cover, I was a little surprised to see that my relatively new 30,000km old timing belt seemed to be rubbing itself to death on the forward lip of the tensioner pulley. Additionally, one of the bolts on the injector pump timing pulley was completely rounded off and required careful Dremel surgery and an hour of fighting to remove. Not real impressive, considering this work was done at great expense by a Land Rover specialist mechanic. [bighmmm]

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220705_114558.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220705_140855.jpg

After pulling off the injector pump, it's time to turn it upside-down.

[Shonky]

After rolling it over, I was greeted with a comical amount of silicon protruding from every orifice on the sump. The 300Tdi doesn't have a sump gasket, and by virtue of being attached to a Land Rover they are prone to leakage, but this was ridiculous. Excess silicon has a nasty habit of migrating into places it shouldn't be, and the consequences of it migrating into the oil pump would be fairly undesirable. Please, don't do this.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220705_152320_1_.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28160/title/sump-bolt-silicon/cat/500)

Peeling the sump pan off without bending it required some patience and a paint scraper, but I got there in the end. Happily it, looks quite clean in there, and there was no chunks of metal in the sump.

There was, however a few bits of plastic floating around in there... Annoyingly, much of it is evidently an off-cut of one of the t-seals. These were also trimmed unevenly, and the main bearing cap bolts holding them in appear to have been installed with a rattle gun resulting in damage to the heads. This would also have been when the engine acquired 2kg of silicon. Once again, this was work that I had paid a LR specialist workshop vast amounts of money to do. Sure, it's not a complete hatchet job but it doesn't exactly suggest that a lot of care or diligence was applied. [bigsad]

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220705_163021_1_.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28162/title/t-seal/cat/500)

There was also this small, plastic washer that appears to have been munched at some point! I have no idea where it could be from. Any ideas?

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220705_162901_1_.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28161/title/sump-fod/cat/500)

[Shonky]

Before I started pulling everything apart, I thought I'd run the dial gauge over a few things.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0vHFkvnTPw

First up, I flipped it over again and measured the piston stand-proud. This is entirely irrelevant as the block will be decked anyway and I'll have to do it again, but I was just curious to know what it was. Interestingly, the highest figure I found was 0.64mm at the front edge of Piston #3. This falls within the range where a two-hole head gasket is specified, but I had installed a three-hole (thicker) gasket when I did the head last time. From memory, this was recommended as something of a one-size-fits-all gasket, and seems to commonly be the go-to when you can't, don't or won't actually measure the stand-proud. I'll be sure to measure it properly and order the specified one this time.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/RTFM2.jpg

I also checked the end float of the camshaft, which at 0.13mm is well within spec. (0.1mm - 0.2mm). The crankshaft end float was also good at 0.06mm, however the manual was unclear about the test conditions, and this was done with the main bearings and caps in place. One of the illustrations seems to show that this is tested with these removed. Any ideas?

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220706_153746.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28163/title/cam-end-float/cat/1464)

I decided to pull the cam out first, so after gently sliding out the cam guides and rollers (and retaining them in order and orientation) I was able to gently slide out the cam. I've heard that cam bearings on a 300Tdi almost never wear, but mine seemed rough? Almost chewed up? There is no marks on the cam itself, and no copper showing to suggest wear, but it does seem a bit strange.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220706_171934.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28164/title/cam-bearing/cat/1464)

[peterjj]

I suggest checking the surface on the crank that runs on the rear crank seal. 300tdi will leak there with the slightest excuse.
I rebuilt a 300tdi myself and didn't do this and regretted it.

[Shonky]

Playing catch-up, after a prolonged period without reliable internet... [bighmmm]

So this is why we're here, folks:

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220707_131034.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28172/title/main-bearing-cap/cat/1464)

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220707_130914.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28171/title/main-bearing-shell/cat/1464)

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220707_162735.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28173/title/big-end-bearing/cat/1464)

I'm no expert, but it appears that the big end and main bearings are utterly worn out. I'm rather surprised that nothing showed up in the oil analysis, although maybe the bulk of it has been and gone many services ago!

This probably explains the strange wine coming from my engine.


https://youtu.be/9vhEAv8YjTQ]Strange wine coming from 300Tdi - YouTube


Otherwise, the pistons looked to be in good shape and measured up at 90.380 for pistons 1 and 3, and 90.390 for pistons 2 and 4. Wear specs are not provided for in the manual, but I wouldn't have thought that a maximum of .015mm would be unacceptable? (me from the future here: this is irrelevant, but more on that later. [thumbsupbig])

As an aside, I found these tubs at Bunnings for a fiver each, and they are perfect for keeping the assorted bits tidy, safe and in order.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220707_162954.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28174/title/pistons-in-tubs/cat/1464)

While I had the block stripped down, I had a go with the bore gauge. Again, mainly for my own peace of mind and educational benefit.

The usual order of service applies: RTFM (read the ****ing manual), measure, record, compare. I made a spreadsheet and transcribed all the workshop manual ranges into it, then used conditional formatting so that when I type my findings into the box adjacent, the cell turns red if it's out of spec or green if it is within tolerances. Why? Because procrastination. I'll post it up eventually - someone might find it useful.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220707_145708.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28176/title/20220707-145708/cat/1464)

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220707_145755.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28177/title/20220707-145755/cat/1464)

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220707_142932.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28175/title/20220707-142932/cat/1464)

All measurements were reasonably close to the 90.470mm standard, with the largest diameter of 90.515mm found on the lateral axis midway down cylinder three.

[Shonky]

With the block stripped down, it was time to stop aimlessly prodding at it and give it to someone who knows what they are doing.

Squashing a 300Tdi block into the boot aperture of a Mercedes W123 was always going to be a tight fit, especially since being on my own necessitated using the crane, and not wanting to get oil all over my nice car necessitated it being in a tub. Turns out if you cinch the crane hook and the straps as much as possible, it fits with 40mm to spare! [wink11]

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220718_142841.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28178/title/20220718-142841/cat/1464)

I also handed over the pistons for measuring, main bearing caps to aid boring (I presume they use them to mount the engine in the boring machine perfectly aligned?) and the crankshaft for inspection and linishing. The machine shop will replace the welch plugs and cam bearings while they have it also.

I did notice this "wear" spot on the end of my crank on the thrust side of the driving flats for the oil pump inner rotor. I was a little concerned about this but some research suggests that this is normal, or at least acceptable.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220718_144422.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28179/title/20220718-144422/cat/1464)

Both Chris of Trailerfitter's Toolbox Videos (How to measure your crankshaft (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be6M3pwjuos)) and Mike of Britannica Restorations (Checking the 300Tdi crank (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhxhvBU30tY)) have videos specifically about 300Tdi crankshafts where this mark is clearly visible and doesn't rate a mention. These gents have proven experience with these engines, and I'm sure many of you will be familiar with their content. Considering they are confident enough to put their knowledge on the altar of public opinion and have proven to be excellent sources of information to me in the past, I am greatly reassured by this.

Speaking of crankshafts, I ran the micrometer over the journals and found them to be minimally worn with almost no ovality or taper. Well within spec.


I suggest checking the surface on the crank that runs on the rear crank seal. 300tdi will leak there with the slightest excuse.
I rebuilt a 300tdi myself and didn't do this and regretted it.

Thanks Peter. You're right - they're a bugger. Fortunately mine has no real scoring and seems to be in good condition. I wonder if it will also get linished along with the journals? I did double check it on your recommendation. [wink11]

[Shonky]

The expert consensus from my machinist is that a rebore is required out to 020 thou over, and as such new pistons are required. I decided to splash out on a set of high-quality Federal-Mogul items, however there was a mix up and I ended up with adequate-quality Allmakes instead.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220804_145931.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28180/title/20220804-145931/cat/1464)

That said, it's a Land Rover, not a race car and I'm certain that these will be fine. The supplier was most apologetic and promptly made good on their error.

The crank and block are otherwise quite okay and I'm looking forward to getting them home and putting it all back together.

I picked out a colour for the engine the other day. I'll leave you hanging on that for now, except to say black is boring. [tonguewink]

[spudfan]

Excellent stuff. My daughter has a 90 300 tdi and I got a sump gasket for it. This is where I got it from on EBAY but there are other suppliers there too. No oil seeps since it's been fitted.
Landrover Defender 300 TDi Sump Gasket | eBay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/142020378064)

[Shonky]

My daughter has a 90 300 tdi and I got a sump gasket for it.

Thanks Spud!

Good to know there are other options. I'll try and seal it with an appropriate amount of RTV silicone first, but if that fails I'll look into one of these.

Alternatively, I could always cut my own I guess.

[Shonky]

Don't get me wrong, I'm a firm advocate of "RTFM" as a foundational start point for any work you do if you're not expert at it already. Sometimes, however, the manual is more unhelpful than it is worth.

In the case of 300Tdi oil pumps, the official Land Rover manual (LRT0070ENG) is utter ****.


For those unfamiliar with it, the timing case on the 300tdi is actually a pump. If you look at the back of the casting, between the webs near where the injector pump bolts, you will see the brand "HOBOURN" on it - an OEM supplier of lubrication pumps to much of the British auto industry.

Not just a casing to house your valve smashing snappy-strap; it actually forms the running surface for the oil pump rotors and incorporates the intake, compression, and outlet chambers. Like any critical components that go round and round fairly hastily, it is subject to quite fine tolerances, which are outlined in the manual, along with a procedure for measuring them.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/DRTFM.jpg

Now this is all well and good, but the specified tolerances between the rotors is allegedly 0.025 to 0.075mm.

That is between one-quarter and three-quarters of the thickness of a piece of paper.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/A_20210104_070636.jpg

Incidentally, the lower range is smaller than my smallest feeler gauge anyway, but when I went to check it with an absolutely humongous 0.08mm gauge, it was absolutely miles off.

Perplexed, I presumed that one or both of two things had occurred. I was measuring it incorrectly, or my pump was incredibly worn.

I double checked the manual, double checked my gauges, checked their thickness with the outside micrometers, checked the housing, watched some YouTube of some generally reliable sources and couldn't for the life of me figure it out.

Until I came across a copy of the 300Tdi Overhaul Manual that included imperial measurements for those who still live in black and white.

Thus:

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/Screenshot_20220722-103922_DuckDuckGo.jpg

Now it's been a while since I laid spanners to the Series fleet and so my brain is largely metricated, but if memory serves me right, 0.01" is a lot bigger than 0.025mm. Turns out... it is 0.25mm. Seems like too good a coincidence to me. Evidently someone put a decimal place in the wrong spot and it has just never been updated. :bat:

Armed with this new knowledge, I did some targeted searching to see if other people had encountered this problem. Turns out, it's a thing. Additionally, the manuals assertions that the pressure relief valve spring free-length is 68mm is also bollocks, as is the instruction to apply sealant to the oil pump cover plate. Regarding the latter, there was none on mine when I dismantled it, it seems that there is none on anyone else's either, and I can't see how the end-float tolerances (even the correct ones) required can possibly lend themselves to essentially being determined by a vague smear of sealant on the running face/cover.

That said, whilst everything measured up okay against the new seemingly correct values, it is irrelevant because the rotors are junk.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220728_155252.jpg

Clearly some small bits of metal have been munched through the pump over the years - probably from the main and big-end bearings, and both the inner and outer rotors are riddled with small divots and gouges on all faces.

The cover plate has some very light scoring in it but nothing much. I'll get it surface ground anyway to get it perfect again.

More perplexing though, was the condition of the pump case itself. These are expensive and at present, hard to find it seems, so I didn't relish the thought of replacing it. There is scoring under where the outer edge of the inner rotor runs, and although not overly deep, it's definitely there and you can feel it with your finger nail. This photo makes it look terrible as it's a macro shot: (it doesn't appear as bad in real life)

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220722_134219.jpg

After doing some more reading and seeking out pictures of other peoples cases, it seems my wear is on the lower end of the spectrum of what I could find. It also wasn't giving trouble as best I could tell, as my engine didn't fail.

I think I am going to live with it.

With new rotors and a fresh running surface on the cover, it should have very little adverse play, if any, and I suspect that the light grooves in the soft aluminium case will not transfer to the steel rotors. Additionally, the wear is on a surface that is perpendicular to the momentum of the rotors, so it's not like they're going to flog against it.

As always, I'm happy to turn this over to the brains trust. Anyone have any experiences of 300Tdi oil pumps to share?


If any man or woman present here today knows any reason that this casing and new rotors should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.

As a bonus finding, the flat on the inner rotor that corresponds with the "wear mark" on the crank, seems to have worn substantially flatter than its comrade on the non-thrust side.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220728_155557.jpg

[86mud]

Great write up Andrew. Thanks so much

[Shonky]

300Tdi oil pumps - part 2 of at least 3.

After condemning my oil pump rotors, I ordered a new set from a reputable supplier. For those interested, the current part number is [B]STC3407 - this is for a complete set including both rotors, and replaces the individual part numbers in the parts catalogue.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220820_171425.jpg

I was a little wary when a blue box arrived, as these are typically synonymous with a certain parts company that specialises in rather variable quality components. Encouragingly, their logo was absent, but less encouragingly the label specifies the country of origin as one that... also is typically synonymous with rather variable quality components. Measuring and comparing between the old and the new identified a few surprises.

Curiously, the running flange that sits inside the central hole on the new pump is a full 2mm longer than the original. That is to say, the new one sits deeper into the crankshaft hole. The profile of the lobes of the old and new inner and outer rotors was 9.62mm, however the total height of the old inner rotor was 14.74mm compared to 16.74mm for the new one.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220820_170534.jpg

I suspect this isn't much of an issue in itself - it is still well clear of the oil seal and if anything, the broader running surface may spread the wear and reduce movement - however remember that little wear-spot on the crankshaft? Well that was perfectly sized to the drive-flats on the old pump, and I'm not sure that I want to disturb it by having the pump run on the 2mm edge where the broader flat sits beyond the wear. At best, it will wear the extra 2mm down to match, putting bits of crank into my oil as it goes. At worst, it will concentrate the force onto that much smaller contact patch and potentially damage the inner rotor and/or the crankshaft.


Test fitting the new rotors in the housing raised more questions than it answered.

The outer rotor to housing clearance was within spec at 0.33mm, although curiously this was slightly more clearance than the old one at 0.28mm. Neither are far off the 0.25mm (0.10") minimum.

The inner rotor to outer rotor clearance is considerably tighter than than the lower value derived from the imperial book (0.25mm / 0.10") and even more considerably looser than the metric book upper value! (0.075mm). The new rotors measured at 0.13mm. Curiously, the old ones were not in spec either at 0.18mm. WHAT?! [bigrolf]

The end float for the new rotors was 0.08mm and the old ones 0.10mm. Both within specification I guess, if you assume that on this occasion the metric book was correct with its range of 0.026mm to 0.135mm.

I'm really getting the idea that despite all the guff about these being a vitally important piece of precision engineering, they are actually just two lumps of fairly unfussy metal that as long as they have vaguely enough clearance between them, they'll keep squooging oil around at whatever meagre psi pressure these old donks need to keep chugging. (25psi at idle, apparently). The fact that the tolerances on the original one don't line up with the book - which itself doesn't line up with the other book - suggests that trying to get this done right is probably more down to supposition rather than micrometry. [tonguewink]

Spinning the rotors in the housing though, they felt a bit grabby. At first I thought it was just due to them being dry, but then I noticed it was only as certain lobes passed over the running surfaces of the alloy housing. Pulling them out again and looking closely, they have distinct defects in the edges. Looking in the pump case, there is evidence that even by hand, these were removing filings from the aluminium. Thank god I didn't fit them.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220820_170945.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220820_171148.jpg

All in all I think these new rotors are junk also. I might look to return them and see if I can get a better quality item that is the same dimensions as the original.

Who knew there was so much to know about these things, and so little consensus or information about what the answers actually are!

[Shonky]

While I'm at it, oil pressure relief valve springs seem to suffer from the same confusion and misinformation.

The 300Tdi overhaul manual specifies that the free-length of the oil pressure relief valve spring should be 68mm

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/overhaul_manual.jpg

So does the Defender Workshop Manual on Page 81:

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/manual_2.jpg


The problem is, that 63 pages earlier in the latter manual it specifies the free length as being a very specific 51.6mm

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/Workshop_manual_1.jpg


So clearly one of these is wrong.

Maybe, but as the Mexican girl in the well-known taco advertisement says: "por que no los dos?" ("Why not both?")


Hence:

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220810_1253311.jpg

My brand new spring is neither - it is 54mm. Reading around, it seems that this is the norm.

Fellow AULROvian ("Pawl") reported similar confusion back in 2007, here:
Oil relief spring 300Tdi (https://www.aulro.com/afvb/technical-chatter/72838-oil-relief-spring-300tdi.html)

His allegedly genuine new part was substantially shorter again at only 43mm, which is shorter than the free-length of my used one (44mm)!

Another contributor ("2stroke") to the same thread seems to have received a part that agrees with my new one:


The one supplied to me is p/n ERR 1084... ...The existing one is 44mm and the new one is 54mm


Another mystery. I figure the new one will be better than my old one, regardless of what it is meant to be, and the old one seemed to be doing fine as best I could tell. So, it's going in. [thumbsupbig]

[Shonky]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a number of the threads in various aluminium components have either stripped, or are on their last threads. Since I've got it all apart and I have a helicoil kit I thought this might be a quick and simple fill-in job.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220803_210412.jpg

Spoiler alert: It wasn't.

Most of the stripped threads were in the flywheel housing, from the bell-housing bolts being over-torqued. Additionally, the threads in the timing cover where the AC belt tensioner bolts on were also barely hanging in there.

I haven't really done a lot of helicoiling before, so I put a bit of effort into setting up my work in the drill press to ensure I got everything nice and straight. This may have been overkill, but I've always said that overkill is my second favourite type of kill.

First up, I bolted a piece of formply onto the deck of the drill with countersunk bolts so I could have the fairly large components sitting securely and squarely in place.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220804_132454.jpg

Then, I used a square to adjust the whole platform to be square to the chuck as best as I could. I didn't have anything better than a drill bit to line up against, but as much as it pains me to admit I'm not building a space shuttle here and this will get me set up with more-than-adequate accuracy.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220804_111833.jpg

From here, it's just a matter of drilling out the old threads to the appropriate size: (the bit came in the set)

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220804_112414.jpg

Then tapping them out to the OD thread of the helicoil:

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220804_114215.jpg

Then attempting to screw in the helicoil and buggering it up:

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220804_133231.jpg


Each time I attempted to insert a helicoil, it would skip a thread and end up tracking only through every second thread. After some head scratching, I decided that the cheap insert tools were at least a contributing factor. They are much smaller than the ID of the helicoil and hence allow it to compress in, aided by the direction of winding pulling the end of the coil towards the centre of the hole.

Looking online at some of the more expensive tools, they seem to often use a threaded insert tool that supports the coil in what will be it's final thread spacing and diameter, so I took the Dremel to a spare bolt and cut a slot in the top of it and tried that.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220804_125743.jpg

Success! This worked much better, although the bolt did not hold the insert drive-tang as securely. I might talk myself into buying a higher quality helicoil set, as this took way longer than it should have and I had to evict many wonky helicoils with needle-nose pliers after failed insertions.

I got most of them done at least, but still two more to go. If I buy a new kit, I'll post up a comparison. [thumbsupbig]

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220804_124107.jpg

[Shonky]

Much of what I've been doing for the last few weeks has been peripheral stuff whilst I wait for my block (and cam, crank, and pistons) to come back from the machine shop. Sorry for the lack of real engine rebuilding - hopefully next week I'll be able to start getting things back together.

Looking at all the aluminium componentry, it is showing it's 28 years of age and frankly; looks scabbier than a bat's arse. This was AFTER they had been pressure washed and scrubbed in the parts washer...

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220727_154452_copy.jpg


After talking to a well-regarded media blasting place, they felt that the corrosion required some slightly more aggressive tactics, whilst also balancing the necessity to avoid blasting the alloy to bits and also minimising retained product. The result was that the finish would be dull, although would form a good surface for painting. I'm sorry to report that I don't recall what exactly he blasted it with.

I decided that a coating of high quality ceramic engine enamel would probably look more consistent and be easier to keep clean anyway, so went with it.

$200 later and all the parts came back looking very clean.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220803_130959.jpg


In a moment of paranoia about retained media in the alloy working its way into my engine, I stuck them into the dishwasher for a hot wash. To be honest, I need not have bothered. Hosing them off was surely fine and after the washing I noticed the parts developing white spots where they wanted to start corroding. For the remainder of the parts I just flushed them thoroughly with the hose.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220803_131952.jpg


After giving them a week to fully dry out, they each got two coats of ceramic engine primer and three coats of aluminium-look ceramic engine enamel. I used the DupliColor product and was very happy with the finish and how it went on.

Conveniently, I found that an upturned camping table fit perfectly on my folding hand-cart trolley, and a broom handle through the seal holes gave good access to all surfaces. The inlet manifold I got creative and bolted to the footboard of the trolley. [thumbsupbig]

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220805_112429.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220805_172525.jpg


All of the aluminium parts are now done. I pre-assembled a few of the minor ancillaries, such as the thermostat housing complete with new thermostat, and the oil filter head with new waxstat and adaptor and fresh fasteners for the latter.

In the spirit of getting carried away and for safe keeping, I've wrapped them in glad-wrap and tucked them neatly on the shelf. I know they'll get a beating in time, but it seems a shame to let things get scuffed up before I've had a chance to put them on the engine!

[Shonky]

To correct the timeline a little, after the blasting and before the painting is when I did the helicoiling and various other repairs to the aluminium parts.

This included the fitting in the water pump housing where the bottom hose connects, which was badly corroded. I briefly flirted with replacing it, but after seeing the price I decided I would make do.

After blasting, the extent of the corrosion became apparent. It was badly and deeply pitted, but not holed and to my mind really just needed sealing up and it would be perfectly fine.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220804_143359.jpg


I ended up just forcing JB Weld into the pits and massaging it firmly into every nook and cranny. Once dry, I sanded it back to original size and shape.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220804_160237.jpg


I haven't got a photo of it after painting, but you'd never know it was there and it seems rock-solid.


The oil filter housing got a new waxstat. I also replaced the extension piece that it sits into as mine never sealed properly due to some light damage on the inner sealing surface. The bolts for this were also a bit rounded so were replaced. Note that both washers go together on the outer end of the spring. I've read stories of people (perhaps intuitively) attempting to put one at either end, which doesn't work. They aren't actually washers so much as valve components, I guess.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220803_202412.jpg


I always make a habit of thoroughly inspecting new parts, and this is why:

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220803_185826.jpg

The inside of the waxstat adaptor had a nice big piece of swarf from having the thread cut in. Not at all the kind of thing you want circulating straight into a brand new engine! :o

[Shonky]

After a little over a month, the very busy little machine shop gave me the call that my block was ready. Being a largely one-man band, this time frame was not unreasonable, and I'm happy with the work they did. For $810, they:

- Chem cleaned block
- Rebored block to match 0.020" oversize pistons
- Honed bores
- Milled block face
- Installed cam bearings (supplied by me)
- Installed core plugs (supplied by me)
- Inspected and linished crankshaft

After a tidy up with the wire wheel on the drill, I was keen to get the block in primer and paint.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220827_133020.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220827_153539.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220827_172247.jpg

Why British Racing Green? Three reasons: It's British, it's obviouslya race engine, and the can was in the discount bin at REPCO. Looks good though, and seemed Land Rover appropriate. [bigsmile]

[Shonky]

With the block painted up and absolutely begging to have new parts thrown at it, I started out measuring the ring gaps on the Allmakes replacement pistons. These seem nicely made and seem to be of excellent quality as best I can tell.

The top compression ring on each cylinder required a little fettling with the ring filer and a small fine-cut jewellers file to get the gap up to the 0.40mm-0.65mm spec, as they were all around 0.33mm. I got them all to 0.432mm. The second compression ring gaps were all 0.381mm straight out of the box and were perfectly in the requisite 0.30mm-0.50mm range. I left the oil control rings largely alone, except for the one on Piston #2, which I very expertly snapped in half. I've ordered another ring set today.

[bawl]

In the end, it didn't matter much anyway as after methodically checking the conrod end float (all perfect) and clearance on the journals (also perfect), the last item on my checklist was to check for warping of the big-end cap. This is done by torquing down the fasteners, releasing one side and testing for any opening of the mating faces with a feeler gauge as per the manual.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/Untitled1.jpg

As you can see, I don't need a feeler gauge to tell me that this con-rod is gone-rod. [bigsad] All four were like this, and as such are destined to join their now-undersized piston friends in the bin. For the sake of curiosity, I did measure the gaps and they were between 0.076mm and 0.152mm, which is a little more than the zero mm it should be.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220828_133248.jpg

Of course this was the last thing I checked, having got all set up to build some pistons onto them.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220828_101954.jpg

For those interested, Here's some shots of the plastigauge in action. I hadn't used this before, and whilst I appreciate that it is not super accurate, for gross error detection and confirmation of the more accurate measurements done by the machine shop, it's quite handy.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220828_130100.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220828_130321.jpg

As you can see, the big-end bearing to journal clearance is neatly within the 0.025mm - 0.075mm tolerance.

[86mud]

Nice work Andrew

My 12 month 1998 300TDI detonated in a serious why last Tuesday night. Picture tells the story. I am pretty gutted as I have owned my 130 for over 14 years and at 354,000kms I thought the engine has plenty of life left in it. Oil and filter changes at every 5,000kms using Penrite oil. Big end shells were replaced at 300,000kms. But something at number 2 piston/conrod has let go in a big way.

I am in the process of removing the engine. A new crate short block is on its' way to me. I'm ordering a high flow head from Turners.

So seeing this is giving me some inspiration to keep going.

What are doing with your existing injectors? Will you replace (at $300 each for genuine Bosch) or have existing one's cleaned? I am not sure which way to go.

Cheers
180639

[Shonky]

My 12 month 1998 300TDI detonated in a serious why last Tuesday night. Picture tells the story. I am pretty gutted as I have owned my 130 for over 14 years and at 354,000kms I thought the engine has plenty of life left in it. Oil and filter changes at every 5,000kms using Penrite oil. Big end shells were replaced at 300,000kms. But something at number 2 piston/conrod has let go in a big way.

I am in the process of removing the engine. A new crate short block is on its' way to me. I'm ordering a high flow head from Turners.

Oh man... my condolences, Andrew - that's one heck of a mess. Sounds like you took even better care of yours than I do mine (and I'm pretty fastidious, so that's saying something!) but I guess catastrophic failures can be like that.

Are you going to strip it down for a post-mortem? Looking at the location, perhaps the number two big-end cap has come adrift and either it or the remainder of the conrod has been kicked through the block by the crank? It would be interesting to know.

I am terrified that this will be me in a few weeks... :eek:




What are doing with your existing injectors? Will you replace (at $300 each for genuine Bosch) or have existing one's cleaned?

I gave both the injector pump and the injectors to Sydney Diesel Centre (https://www.sydneydieselcentre.com.au/) at Smithfield in NSW. They tested the injectors and found them all to be serviceable, with one having a slightly wide spray pattern. I got them back with a written report, 6 months warranty, spotlessly clean, capped and bagged and they even stapled a little baggy of leak down washers on for me. This was $156 well spent and I'll just put them back on now.

Absolutely outstanding service from SDC also. Easily the best workshop I've ever dealt with.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220830_214630.jpg

I just went back to the archives and my original injectors were replaced with these ones (also Bosch, but made in India) in 2014, for 258.50 each. I bought them from Karcraft in Silverwater. I still have my originals, and if I had my time again I would just get them tested and serviced if required like I did on this occasion.

[Shonky]

The last few days has been a case of two steps forward, one step backwards.

After being stymied by con-rods the other day, I decided to crack on and at least get the main bearings squared away. All was going well until I checked the clearance of the 5th main bearing shell and found it to be in excess. The maximum book value is 0.079mm, and my plastigauge only goes to 0.076mm, but it was over that and I don't exactly want to be at the limits of specification on rebuild anyway.

On retest, despite all conditions being as they should, it was still out of spec. Since plastigauge is really only a reference, not a measurement, I wanted to know what the clearance actually was before I lashed out on yet more parts. After remeasuring the crank with the micrometer again to confirm my earlier measurements were correct (they were), I measured up the main bearings and found the following differences, which largely agreed with what the plastigauge suggested:

1: 0.065mm
2: 0.040mm
3: 0.070mm (marginal...)
4: 0.060mm
5: 0.080mm (oversized)

(NB: Bore gauge is zeroed to the diameter of the 5th main bearing journal, which was 63.470mm)

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220830_094339.jpg


So there's no getting around it - I need a set of undersized main bearings.

I know that sounds counter-intuitive, and indeed I went looking for "oversize" bearings, but my lesson for the week when it comes to bearings such as these; was:
Oversize ones have the same inside diameter, but a larger outside diameter and would be used where you've spun a bearing and needed to line-bore the main bearing bore.
Undersize ones have the same outside diameter, but a smaller inside diameter and would be used where you've had to grind your crank, or it is worn and your bearing clearance is excessive.

Since my main bore hasn't got larger, but my crank has worn and been linished to be smaller, undersize is what I need. They should be here this week, and I can crank on with it.

Until then, I may as well put the camshaft in and start building on ancillaries!

[Shonky]

Until then, I may as well put the camshaft in and start building on ancillaries!

Only joking. [tonguewink]


I installed the cam oil jet and gently slide the camshaft into place with plenty of assembly lube. I had earlier checked the end-float and it was very acceptable at 0.13mm.


No sooner had I buttoned up the cam, that I decided to have a cup of tea. Rather fortuitously, I decided to watch a video from Brittanica Restorations on YouTube whilst I overindulged on hobnobs...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGlBn1RrylI


Literally the first thing he does is point out a tiny little oil hole in the front cam bearing. The problem is, I don't recall seeing this. The seed of doubt has been planted. I know I have to pull the cam out again to check it now. My neighbours must think I lead an exciting life, with all the moaning and groaning that has emanated from my garage this week.

[bighmmm]


I'm bloody glad I did, though.

Hiding up at the 2 o'clock position is a tiny little hole, which feeds into an oil gallery that goes up and around the cam follower guides. Looking through strip-down photos, this was substantially larger on my original bearing and I can see how this little one got missed. Apparently it was made smaller to keep the oil pressure up and to maintain the hydrodynamic wedge over the bearing surfaces of the front cam bearing, rather than escaping via the path of least resistance into the follower galleries.

Earlier in this thread, I posted a picture of this bearing and expressed curiosity as to why it alone was a bit chewed up. I think I found my answer!

In this case, however, the hole was clocked about 10 degrees out, and so whilst there was an adequate aperture for the main hole to let oil up into the cam bearing, the small hole out of the cam bearing into the follower galleries was blanked against the wall. The latter shot is a bit of a confusing perspective - it is taken into an inspection mirror.


https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220830_154228.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220830_1555241.jpg


So as it stands right now, I have a freshly painted, newly machined block, and thousands of dollars of new and refurbished parts to put in it, and I can't do any of it because the three main components that everything else depends on cannot be installed. No pistons, no crank, no cam.

I guess tomorrow I will be reloading the block back into the car and driving it to my machine shop again. [bawl]

[86mud]

Oh geez Andrew, lucky you found that now.

Funny that you are using your old Benz as the ute... What year is it?

My other car is a 1972 Peugeot 504, so it is doing the daily driving duties while I rebuild the 300Tdi.

I am thinking that mine might just be the number 2 big end cap bolts coming undone. Funny how is how it has lasted 50,000kms since doing the big end bearings at 300,000kms. But I triple checked torque settings on the bolts. Will pull it down and investigate.

I have found a new crate short block so I am going down that path. I just don't have the time for block work right now. Happy to add to the block. I will order a new Turners High Flow head.
I have my exhaust manifold and turbo hot side housing getting ceramic coated and am about to drop off some alloy brackets to the vapour basters.

I am getting an engine crane tomorrow night then I can yank the engine. I have disconnected everything except the injection pump and timing gear.

Any tips on removing the engine leaving the gearbox in place?

It is simply a case of attaching engine crane (it has a leveling device on it), undoing bell housing bolts and engine mounts bolts, slide engine forward then lift out? Do I need to remove engine mount brackets from the block as well?

Thanks heaps

Cheers

[Shonky]

Funny that you are using your old Benz as the ute... What year is it?

My other car is a 1972 Peugeot 504, so it is doing the daily driving duties while I rebuild the 300Tdi.

Haha I noticed that... We should start a club for blokes named Andrew with broken 300Tdi Defenders and Euro trash daily driver sedans. :lol2:

The 504 is magnificent. Probably one of the most stylish Pugs ever made in my opinion. The Benz is a 1981 300D with 300,000kms on the clock. I am only the second owner, after it outlived its first one. It's done 2,500kms in the last 4 weeks without a hitch!

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20220220_140236.jpg




I am getting an engine crane tomorrow night then I can yank the engine. I have disconnected everything except the injection pump and timing gear.

Any tips on removing the engine leaving the gearbox in place?

It is simply a case of attaching engine crane (it has a leveling device on it), undoing bell housing bolts and engine mounts bolts, slide engine forward then lift out? Do I need to remove engine mount brackets from the block as well?

Sounds like you're mostly set. There's no real tricks to these - it really is as simple as it seems. You don't actually need to remove anything from the engine except the AC compressor, power steering pump (both can remain connected, just moved aside), fan, and the radiator/intercooler assembly. Obviously there are things to unplug or disconnect, but that's all that must actually be taken off.

If you have a crane with a leveller then you should have no real troubles. You can unbolt the engine mounts from the chassis side from underneath the car and leave the rest of them attached. It can be worth removing the studs from the bottom face of the mounts to make it a straight rearward slide when reassembling though.

Here's the little checklist I wrote up to help me along.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/Untitled2.jpg

[Lionelgee]

Hello Andrew - the Shonky one,

Thank you for putting up the interesting, entertaining and very informative posts about your 300tdi rebuild. The only bit I did not comprehend was the part about "the small hole out of the cam bearing into the follower galleries was blanked against the wall". Was the small hole not connected to an oil gallery when the motor was originally made? Or did the re-machining do something to the gallery as in blank the small access hole off?

Kind regards
Lionel

[Shonky]

Was the small hole not connected to an oil gallery when the motor was originally made? Or did the re-machining do something to the gallery as in blank the small access hole off?

G'day Lionel. Glad you're enjoying it. [bigsmile1]

The original front cam bearing had two large holes, that correspond with two similarly sized oil galleries in the bore where the bearing sits.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220706_171907.jpg

The lower hole is where oil enters from the main gallery and lubricates the bearing as it turns, and some of this oil escapes out the second hole at about the 1 o'clock position after it is carried around the bearing. This second hole is the gallery that runs between and around the cam follower guides, which themselves have oil holes in them to let oil in to lubricate the rollers and slides.

On replacement bearings, this second hole has been greatly reduced in size. I have heard that this was to keep the oil pressure up in the bearing to improve wear. Looking at the bearing surface pictured above, I can see why this might have been desired.


The problem in this occasion is that the bearing was installed slightly clocked around from where it should have been. This was not an issue for the lower hole as it is large and really only needs to be at least half-lined up. The upper hole though, being so small, was now not lined up with the gallery and hence was a hole to nowhere, with the gallery blanked by a section of bearing with no hole in it!

I hope that makes sense. I'm about to post up some pictures which hopefully will show what I'm waffling on about. [thumbsupbig]

[Lionelgee]

Hello Andrew,

Got it this time with the clocking and the small oil feed hole being blocked off by the incorrectly placed bearing. Who would be fault for the incorrect placement of the bearing? As the other Andrew wrote - damn lucky you picked it up after watching Mike on the Britannica video. Those hobnobs were worth it after all! I would go out and buy some extra packs to celebrate along with a couple more drinks of tea!

Kind regards
Lionel

[Shonky]

After the requisite tetris involved in getting the engine onto the crane and out of my garage, it was off to the machine-shop again this morning to resolve the cam bearing issue.

Essentially, we had two options:

1) Order a new set of bearings, wait for them to arrive, and then find a time to make yet another 1.5 hour round trip to pick it up again.
2) Establish a new hole in the bearing that communicates with the oil gallery.

Pulling the bearing out and reinstalling it is not really acceptable, as they are an interference fit and won't be as tight in the bore second time around.

Considering time, effort and relative risks and benefits of each, we decided that it would be fine to put in a new hole. Fortunately, the gallery also heads vertically up to the block face, and so a long drill was gently used to get through the backing material, and a fine punch used to make the final aperture through the bearing surface. It was then cleaned up with a bearing scraper. The hole is not perfectly round, but it is in the right spot, and in size it is midway between the allegedly unsuitably large original hole and the disconcertingly small replacement hole. Best of both worlds? We'll see, I guess.
https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220831_200539.jpg

Hopefully the con-rods and main bearings will arrive any day now, so I can get on with getting it all together.

[Shonky]

Who would be fault for the incorrect placement of the bearing?

That would be the machine shop who installed them, hence why I took it back. [wink11]

Totally agree that Hobnobs are fuel for thinking! I'll be sure to overindulge, at your behest.

[BreakingBad]

G'day Lionel. Glad you're enjoying it. [bigsmile1]

The original front cam bearing had two large holes, that correspond with two similarly sized oil galleries in the bore where the bearing sits.


The lower hole is where oil enters from the main gallery and lubricates the bearing as it turns, and some of this oil escapes out the second hole at about the 1 o'clock position after it is carried around the bearing. This second hole is the gallery that runs between and around the cam follower guides, which themselves have oil holes in them to let oil in to lubricate the rollers and slides.

On replacement bearings, this second hole has been greatly reduced in size. I have heard that this was to keep the oil pressure up in the bearing to improve wear.


The problem in this occasion is that the bearing was installed slightly clocked around from where it should have been. This was not an issue for the lower hole as it is large and really only needs to be at least half-lined up. The upper hole though, being so small, was now not lined up with the gallery and hence was a hole to nowhere, with the gallery blanked by a section of bearing with no hole in it!

I hope that makes sense. I'm about to post up some pictures which hopefully will show what I'm waffling on about. [thumbsupbig]


Great read.

Question. If the engine was rebuilt with the oil feed hole smaller than normal AND not lined up correctly, what sort of issues would one expect and how quickly would something happen?

[Shonky]

If the engine was rebuilt with the oil feed hole smaller than normal AND not lined up correctly, what sort of issues would one expect and how quickly would something happen?

That's a really good question, and one I couldn't help but ponder myself...

I assume you are referring to only partial misalignment of the small hole, in reference to my statement that the large hole can be misaligned by up to ~50%? Complete occlusion is the same outcome regardless of hole size, of course.

Like this, but on the small hole?
https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220902_160017.jpg


The short answer is, that I don't know for sure. My understanding that the oil galleries only need to be at least half uncovered comes from reading around and talking to my machine-shop, but isn't something I have first-hand expert knowledge of.

I can only imagine that being such a tiny hole, you'd really want all of it open!

As for what the outcome of reduced oil flow through this hole might be, it's worth noting though that whilst the cam bearings are internally oiled, and the cam-lobe for the vacuum pump has an oil jet pointed at it, the rest of the cam lobes are lubricated along with the followers and slides from this oil gallery. As far as I can tell, the entire top-end is also dependent solely on this gallery for oil supply, so you if oil supply was inhibited, this would affect the rocker shaft and rocker arms also.

Depending on how much the hole was occluded, you might get anything from slightly accelerated wear of the above components over many years, to rapid damage to the oil-starved top-end and cam, potentially resulting in catastrophic failure when something breaks and introduces your valves to your pistons.


EDIT: I have amended this post after closely inspecting the cylinder head and discovering that it too is completely dependent on this oil passage. I previously thought it had additional or separate oil supply and as such would mitigate some of the poor lubrication of the camshaft by letting oil onto it down the pushrods. This is not the case!

[Shonky]

I just went and stuck a few torches in the camshaft bore, and pulled the blanking plug to see how it's all connected.

To reiterate: oil comes up through an oil gallery from the oil pump, and into the front cam bearing via the lower hole. It then does a clockwise loop to lubricate this bearing and some of it is forced out the top hole, which is out of shot. If you look through the threaded hole, you can see the small passage where the oil comes up into this gallery. The light is showing out the top of the cam follower bore, and if you look at the follower assembly sitting on top you can see a broad groove in it to let oil around it and through the next gallery into the next one, then the next, and so on. Note the hole in the side of this assembly, which lets oil into the follower guide (which doesn't move) to lubricate the end of the pushrod, which sits on the slide, which sits on the roller follower, which sits on the cam lobe.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/cam_oilway1.jpg
NB: This image has been edited to enhance the illumination of the oil gallery to the head.


Critically, it also comes up the small hole at the front left corner of the block face, and into the cylinder head (around one of the head-bolts!) to supply the rocker assembly with oil, that then runs back down the pushrods towards the sump via the cam followers and cam lobes also. Follow the red wire.

As best I can tell, this is the only oil-supply to the head!

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220902_170757.jpg

[Shonky]

On to the next rabbit-hole. This is probably a boring, wordy post.

I hope you all don't mind, but I'm largely using this thread to data-dump a lot of the over-thinking I've done about various components. As a novice engine-builder, and in keeping with the intent to mitigate incompetence with diligence, I've probably spent a long time navel-gazing over things that probably don't matter. Until you know they don't matter though, it's hard to make that call. Maybe this will one day save someone else the trouble.


One of those things was piston to bore clearance.

My cylinder block came home from the machine-shop nicely bored and honed, with excellent dimensional consistency within and between the bores, measuring up at bang-on the book value of 90.980mm for a +0.020" oversize job. I did notice that only one of the four piston boxes had been opened, so clearly the machinist only measured one, but this is a Land Rover not a race engine and this is surely fine.

The 300Tdi Overhaul manual specifies a piston to bore clearance of 0.075mm, measured with a feeler gauge. It was hard to know if this is a benchmark or a maximum, but it says that if it is over this, then the cylinder must be rebored.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/RTFM6.png

Despite following these instructions, the largest feeler gauge I could get down beside the piston was 0.038mm, and even then, it was way too tight to be diagnostic of that value. This was confusing, as the cylinders are freshly bored to spec, and the pistons are new.

Putting grandad's feeler gauges away, I decided to stick to more accurate instrumentation and do some reading.


I am rapidly forming the opinion that unfortunately the official literature should be taken with a grain of salt. It is very useful, and absolutely a necessary reference, but I've come across more than a few things that are questionable, inconsistent, or objectively incorrect.


My thoughts on the specified maximum of 0.075mm cylinder to wall clearance? It's bollocks, and here’s why.

Unless I'm missing something, Piston to bore clearance = bore diameter - piston diameter

If you subtract the STD piston size of 90.395mm from the STD bore size of 90.470mm you get... 0.075mm. So rather than being a maximum, this is what it was when it was brand new. Obviously wear happens, and is normal within an acceptable range, but the manual does not provide this data for piston to wall clearance.

By way of contradiction, the same book gives the bores a permissible bore wear value of 0.177mm maximum, which of course will affect your clearance. On the one hand, wear is acceptable, and on the other allegedly it is not. Curiously, calculating theoretical clearance for an engine with STD pistons and at maximum permissible bore wear gives you a massive 0.252mm. That's 0.010"!


If you want to really get lost in minutiae, even the book values for oversize assemblies do not agree with the 0.075mm maximum. For +0.10" it comes out to 0.081mm and for +0.020" it comes to 0.077mm - so technically if your specs are exactly right on a rebored engine, your clearance is out of spec. As it stands, the "+0.020" pistons that I was delivered were stamped as being 90.895mm anyway, which is less than the 90.903 in the book. (by 8 microns, or the width of a red blood cell…) This will give you a clearance of 0.085mm.

In actuality, there was a reasonable variation between the actual piston diameters.

For reference, this was the dimensions of my fresh bores and new pistons:

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/Piston_to_Bore_Clearances.jpg

As you can see, only one of them is close to book value. The others are out by as much as 0.025mm over or 0.015mm under.

[B]tl;dr: So after what has been a very long walk for a very short view, my conclusion is that I am going to ignore the official overhaul manual’s guidance to stuff a feeler gauge between my pistons and bores to measure clearance, and use the ideal value of 0.075mm as a guide only.

It is doubtful that these things were built to finer tolerances than the ones I have, and even the cylinder that technically has inadequate clearance is only 15 microns under.

I didn’t know if this was okay initially, but now I’m sure it is. And that is the point of all this. A fresh engine is really the secondary outcome in my case. The primary end-point is learning. [thumbsupbig]

[Shonky]

After a hefty wait for my replacement conrods to arrive, along with my main bearings, last week a package finally arrived.

It contained a number of other parts I had ordered, but no bearings. So that was quite irritating. After calling the supplier to harvest my deserved apologies and promises of reparation, I thought I'd double check the rest of the parts.

Curiously, one of my conrods was a different brand to the other three. It seemed nearly identical, until I looked closely and noted some slight differences in the casting. The part number was identical though and it certainly seemed functionally correct.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220908_170803.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220908_155754.jpg


Once again, it pays to check all new parts very thoroughly.

Putting the rods over the scales, the three like-branded Bearmach (RIP) ones came in at 1217g, 1219g and 1220g - not an unreasonable variation I thought.

The mystery branded one, however, was a substantial ~30g heavier at 1248g. This may not sound like much, but on a rotating assembly doing thousands of RPM I imagine it would make my nice new motor run like a washing machine with a brick in it.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220918_091545.jpg


So once again I called my supplier. Once again promises of rectification were made. Once again apologies were extended. They have been otherwise very helpful, so I'll cut them some slack.

Since this workshop also has extensive experience rebuilding Land Rover components, including engines, I also ran my piston-bore clearance questions past him. He also concurred that the 0.060mm minimum clearance is perfectly fine, and is indeed more than the 0.050 that he aims for in his builds, so that was reassuring.

It might be another week or more before more conrods come in, so apologies for the lack of updates. The camshaft is back in, and the vac pump, lift pump, cover plate and filter head are in situ, and I have resorted to repainting all manner of peripheral components, because I've run out of things to do until the crankshaft and pistons can be assembled into the block.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220904_161038.jpg


As an aside, I wonder if 300Tdi owners should check their "camshaft oil-feed plugs". These are the three rubber plugs that blank off drillings that go from the top right of the block down to the second, third and fourth camshaft bearing bores. Mine had completely disintegrated, and would permit water and detritus to accumulate in these drillings and sit behind the cam-bearing shell. I'm not sure if this would be much of a problem, but I'd rather like to not have mud sitting anywhere near what are supposed to be internal components...

They are easy to get to, and available with part number ERR5034.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220904_134411.jpg

[Shonky]

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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220926_103317.jpg


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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220926_121925.jpg


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.

****. [bawl]

[86mud]

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.

[rar110]

I also have a set of four rods that came out of the 300tdi. I bought/had fitted a new complete set of rods/pistons from turners for the rebuild.

Located Bris.

[rar110]

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.

[shack]

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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220926_103317.jpg


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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220926_121925.jpg


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.

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

[Shonky]

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. [emoji846]

[Shonky]

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. [emoji848]

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

[Shonky]

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?


https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220904_1610381.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28325/title/assembly/cat/1464)

[Shonky]

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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/RTFM7.png


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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220908_082122.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28326/title/crank-bush/cat/1464)

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

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221007_185506.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28327/title/crank-in/cat/1464)

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!


https://youtu.be/0GgvauP-h3o

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

[Shonky]

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!

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221102_200016.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28329/title/good-rods/cat/1464)


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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221103_093206.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28330/title/pistons-on-rods/cat/1464)


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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221103_110725.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28331/title/pistons-in/cat/1464)


Excitingly, rotating the crank was silky-smooth.


https://youtu.be/jhxpp89jH9E

[Shonky]

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.


https://youtu.be/vaaHYXwygTo]300Tdi oil pump - YouTube


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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221103_164103.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28332/title/20221103-164103/cat/1464)

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.
https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220810_202055.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28333/title/20220810-202055/cat/1464)


PH2 and PD2 drivers - spot the difference!
https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20220810_202137.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28334/title/20220810-202137/cat/1464)

[Shonky]

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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221104_120230.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28335/title/20221104-120230/cat/1464)


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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221104_121845.jpg (https://www.aulro.com/app/showphoto.php/photo/28336/title/20221104-121845/cat/1464)


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.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-QD0AndkhI&t=790s

[Shonky]

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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20221104_123834.jpg


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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20221104_135902.jpg


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.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20221104_145056.jpg


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?

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20221126_090834.jpg


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. [happycry]

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/20221126_091047.jpg

[Shonky]

Reinstalling a head is also well documented, so I'll simply share some of my little observations.

I spent a fair bit of time calling a number of suppliers to find a composite gasket, which were in short supply at the time it seemed. About the sixth one said they had one and I asked them to double check that it was definitely composite and not multi-layered steel. The sounded exasperated and said "yes mate, it's definitely composite."

Surprise surprise; it was not.

Fortunately at least it is a high-quality Victor Reinz MLS gasket as since I was out of time, I had no choice but to use it.

Circling back to my pondering about how restrictive the oil hole between the front cam bearing and the head might be, the fact that both the old (Elring composite) and new (Victor Reinz MLS) head gaskets have only similar sized holes reassures me that it is indeed sufficient/necessary.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221104_160223.jpg


I found the easiest way to whack the new dowel in to the block without smashing your fingers or having the dowel flying away was to hold it with a cable tie.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221104_160408.jpg


After putting the head on, the pushrods went back in their respective homes, and I stripped the rocker shaft and replaced the rockers. I'm not entirely sure this was necessary in retrospect, and given the issues others have had with replacement rockers. I was sure to safely retain my OE ones just in case.

Continuing the theme that new parts do not necessarily equal good parts, this is a brand-new lash cap fresh out of a genuine parts bag and purchased through a reputable supplier.

Seems that even genuine parts are not always all that crash-hot either!

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221107_122737.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221107_122724.jpg

[Shonky]

Valve clearances set, (no, I didn't use that lash cap), rocker cover on, thermostat, timing cover and some other ancillaries in place and now we are here:

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221108_140448.jpg


My old exhaust manifold was full of cracks and rather unhappy, and my old turbo had a little bit of play in it, so both of these were refreshed.

Scouse very kindly helped me out with a near-new replacement manifold which came off a warranty return back in the day with a turbo of unknown condition. Thanks mate! [bigsmile]

Since my old turbo worked fine, I decided to rebuild the unknown one, and keep my old one as a known-good spare. A genuine, made in UK Garret core was fitted and the housing media blasted leaving it as good as new.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221108_172221.jpg


Bolted on with the intake manifold in place also, it's starting to look like a real engine again!

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221108_184647.jpg


The last ancillary to attack to the block is the turbo oil feed and drain pipes... and with the clock ticking down I discovered that the adaptor between the feed and the block was missing. [bawl]

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221108_184713.jpg


This is even more annoying because I'm a very organised person and I do not generally lose things. Not only was this an inconvenience, it was an affront to my entire identity. Turns out, the only thing harder than finding a missing part in a messy shed, is finding one in an immaculate garage. You know it's there, but there's nowhere it can be!

After a cup of tea to simmer down, I broke the place into zones and conducted a methodical line-search. Of course, the last place I checked was the cleaning bench, and what did I find lurking in the murky depths of the jar of kero?

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221108_191928.jpg


What a relief!

[Shonky]

With the deadline to re-register the Defender fast approaching, time was now of the essence.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221109_090547.jpg


Mum kindly offered to drive down from the property with the ute (thanks mum) so I could get the engine back to the shed, and as she arrived I had finished bolting on the flywheel housing and brackets, and had only to install the rear main oil seal before lashing it back onto the custom pallet and calling it finished.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221109_105601.jpg


At this point, careful as I was, I almost derailed everything. Following the instructions, I applied RTV sealant to the rear face of the aluminium seal surround, and installed two guide studs. Keeping the inner slip guide in place to ensure the teflon seal was not damaged as it slid onto the running face, I slide it into position - only to discover that I had contaminated the crank with silicon on the way through.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221109_110324.jpg


I gave as much thought to this as time permitted, considering the relative merits of:

A ) Removing the seal, attempting to clean it, refitting the slip guide and attempting to refit it (and probably having it leak)
B ) Leaving it alone, hoping that the seal had squished the RTV out from under the running surface and wouldn't be a problem (and probably having it leak)


In the end, I settled on the latter. I didn't have time to obtain a new one, and I figured that worst-case scenario, I could pull it apart again after it was registered and removed from the now for-sale shed. Not ideal, but it was my only option.

I think in future, I will apply the sealant to the mating face on the block to reduce the risk of contaminating the seal.


I would like to report that this seems to have paid off, with no oil noted from the flywheel drain plug, and no evidence of clutch contamination.

[Shonky]

After loading the fresh new engine in the filthy old farm ute, putting the engine crane and other necessities in the trailer, and buying the old-dear lunch to thank her for once again being an accessory to Rover, we hit the road back to reunite the engine with the Defender.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221109_121927.jpg

This was Friday afternoon, and my Rego deadline was COB Monday. So I had two and a half days to install the engine, reconnect all the ancillaries, refill the fluids, test everything and resolve any issues, and get a rego check before the registration would be cancelled as 3-months past due and I would be forced to get a full blue slip and start again.

Better crack on with it then.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221109_181300.jpg

[Shonky]

Having had the engine out a few times now over the years, I didn't run into any problems with the reinstallation.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221110_131756.jpg


And here it is, all neatly tucked in with everything reconnected!

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221110_204249.jpg

(except the injector lines)


In order to closely supervise the new engine, some diagnostics were temporarily plumbed in. These have now been permanently integrated in a much neater fashion, but for the time-being, I just had the display cable tied to my phone bracket.

https://www.aulro.com/app/data/1464/medium/20221110_212151.jpg

[Shonky]

After filling the engine with Penrite running-in oil, I decided to move the truck outside before attempting to start it so I didn't fill the shed with smoke.

Unfortunately, despite having had the battery on charge overnight it was completely dead, so the suspense continued whilst I drove in to town to buy another battery.

I was confident that the motor turned over without valves meeting pistons, so I gave it a few cranks with the fuel shut-off solenoid disconnected so it couldn't fire, just to get the oil moving and make sure that everything was still moving correctly.

With no small amount of trepidation, it was time to find out. Will it run?

...


https://youtu.be/wop5-LwiElY

[86mud]

Nice Work Andrew.

Running sweet!

I finished my rebuild in early December but hadn't driven it much....until Easter when I drove to Cooma and back from Brisbane. No issues apart from a slight oil leak at the turbo oil feed hose at the block. It is super tight, so will have to pull it off and see why it is leaking. It was a brand new part, but like you have experienced, the quality of some new aftermarket parts are not up to scratch.

What coating is on your exhaust manifold?

I had mine ceramic coated inside and out plus the hot side of the turbo. Reduced the under bonnets heaps

I may have some added some 2.8 TGV bits while I was there, like the inlet manifold and rocker cover.

in relation to the lash caps, genuine rover/brit part etc are rubbish. Next time try Crane Lash Caps part number: 99425-16. They are made from a much harder steel and will last much longer.

[Shonky]

Nice Work Andrew.

Running sweet!

I finished my rebuild in early December but hadn't driven it much....until Easter when I drove to Cooma and back from Brisbane. No issues apart from a slight oil leak at the turbo oil feed hose at the block. It is super tight, so will have to pull it off and see why it is leaking. It was a brand new part, but like you have experienced, the quality of some new aftermarket parts are not up to scratch.

What coating is on your exhaust manifold?

I had mine ceramic coated inside and out plus the hot side of the turbo. Reduced the under bonnets heaps

I may have some added some 2.8 TGV bits while I was there, like the inlet manifold and rocker cover.

in relation to the lash caps, genuine rover/brit part etc are rubbish. Next time try Crane Lash Caps part number: 99425-16. They are made from a much harder steel and will last much longer.

Thanks Andrew!

Looks like a beautiful job on yours also. Shame I didn't catch you at Cooma so we could compare notes. It looks great with the 2.8 bits!

My exhaust manifold was just painted with a can of manifold paint I had laying around. I considered ceramic coating but in the end wasn't sure if it would be worth it. If you don't mind my asking, how much did it cost?

Thanks for the p/n - I'll order some now because I'm certain the ones that are in there will not last long!

Andrew

[86mud]

The ceramic coating cost $350

How's the new motor going?