Thread: TD5 Woes & Oil Cooler Failure

Just a quick note to bring hope to those, like me, that find oil in the water system after a head gasket failure and rebuild. I bought my TD5 with a blown head - Stripped it, got the head checked and 4 thou skimmed, valve depth reset, hardness tested both before and after and no change. Pistons were removed, three replaced and bores honed. New rings and bolts and re-assembly went well. Flushed the system and went for a drive, 5 minutes in the top hose blew - oil had killed it so not unexpected. A few days later with a new hose I tried again. Drove about 5kms when suddenly engine started knocking badly. I pulled over and it died. Checked oil, none in it - feeling faint now. Help arrived in the form a faithful friend with oil so I topped up and drove home, engine still knocking but not as much. Didn't get hot, just sounded awful. I drained the oil out and found just 2.5 litres in the sump. At the same time noting oil coming out of my water reservoir. I decided not to conduct the Viking funeral as advised by another friend with the Land Rover bug and went indoors to skulk about.


Later that day a nice bloke was coming over to pick up a spare TD5 block I had donated. I told him my troubles as he was driving the same year and model of Landy. He suggested I check the oil cooler, the very part he had wanted off my block. I went and consulted the oracle (sometimes known as google) and began to feel more confident that I was the victim of an oil cooler failure.


This morning, wielding spanners for possibly the last time I attacked the beast and discovered to my joy, a hole about 1mm in size, on the front of the cooler. I am still concerned that the engine will have suffered damage due to the lack of oil but am putting the knock down to oil starved hydraulic tappets at this point. Don't tell me I'm wrong - I don't care. A new cooler is in the post and I will let you know how I get on in the next few days. Watch this space and feel free to send a prayer to the Land Rover gods on my behalf.

Well i'm pleased to say that the replacement oil cooler cured that particular issue but the failure may have contributed to another. At least oil and water stay separate now, I used the non foaming dishwasher powder trick to clean out the waterways and it worked well ! Another day, another issue...check out my post on suspected turbo failure to learn more...