Thread: This is what happens when you change oil every 5000kms...

Lucky bugger traveling... all the best in your journey

Thanks...I moved to France from NIreland so as I could show my kids Europe for the price of tankfuls of diesel(plus NI is sh+te)...Europe is such a diverse place to behold...so after a few trips to Spain (and on over to Morocco) we're trying for the East and North East bits and a few of the Balkan states....kids have 2 months off so hopefully the LR will be up to it...no reason to doubt it now after confirming the bores are good,the new gearbox and clutch in and the new head on...check the BEB's next and what more can I possible think to cover that has'nt been done...

should the bore normally look like that though(scratched like) is this just wear or for oil?just asking

Some pix from Turner's website
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The scratches are the honing marks from the factory or when you get an engine rebored...simply put they're there to allow oil to stay on the cylinder walls (at a microscopic level as such)...imagine a mountain range and the valleys full of oil...when your engine breaks in the peaks are levelled off slightly and the rings glide over these..to aqua plane over cylinder area one could say...if cylinders are glazed or worn smooth oil will always be used by the engine as there'll be none 'hiding' there on the cylinders and the rings will be less efficient at doing their job...likewise a poor oil will allow this wear to occur more quickly...SO...all this to say I had my suspicions confirmed that my engine was in good shape both by the fact I never used any oil in bewteen changes...and the physical evidence of seeing the bores for the first time...

Why did the head gasket let go?

It let go to due to a €6 part...the expansion bottle filler top stopped working...split the expansion bottle at the seam and the rest is history...common fault I find out,after the fact. This will of course prompt me to check my BEB's now too...after all I did'nt know about those after high kms either!!!

Here's a thread on some nasty big end shells from #2 rod on my 300Tdi plus some links to other threads as well as pawls big ends too.

Thanks again fro the info..do I order up LR ones or another good make??



Always something to do eh??

To give the old girl her due...she limped back from Merzouga(google it lol) to Meknes in Maroc where makeshift repairs were carried out and then on through Spain,over 2 mountain ranges to get home...I'd still be there if I was on 'limp home mode'


As an aside....if your exp bottle top has'nt been replaced...just order one up for peace of mind...I could've saved that €460 I spent on a new head(with valves included)and been able to carry on drinking heavily

Originally Posted by rick130

Here's a thread on some nasty big end shells from #2 rod on my 300Tdi plus some links to other threads as well as pawls big ends too.

Journal bearing failure modes (bloody 300Tdi's...)

Numbers 3 and 4 were worse
Number 1 looked fine except for a small pit in the top (most heavily loaded) shell.

I need to check mine badly then


Wont be driving the old girl very far without doing this anytime soon...

Shouldnt be to hard to replace though.. sump off and spin the crank

Originally Posted by Ohlins

[snip]


It let go to due to a €6 part...the expansion bottle filler top stopped working...split the expansion bottle at the seam and the rest is history...common fault I find out,after the fact. This will of course prompt me to check my BEB's now too...after all I did'nt know about those after high kms either!!!



[snip]

aah, the good old expansion bottle.
Yep, had them split, very very common and far too many heads have been wrecked from that little bugger.

The 300Tdi head gaskets appear to often let go between 250 and 300,000km too, Justin Cooper is a very well regraded Land Rover mechanic here and has had to change a lot of these, noticing that they are often burnt through the fire rings and into a water gallery. ie. they've just plain burnt through from the cylinder.

Not every engine does this, just like not every engine needs the big end shells replaced, but enough do to be aware of the potential problem.

The OE bearings are Glyco (Federal Mogul) so you may be able to source them a little cheaper aftermarket than from a dealer. I used ACL as they were available easily at the time.