Thread: Beware of the Not serviced 300tdi and the $2.16 that fails

Originally Posted by madmagpie05

The head was in good nick, except the exhaust valve guides which were in very sad condition. The bores are in good nick, just a minor amount of ridging but nothing excessive,

That is good for an engine with that many km on it!

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

There must be a fault in the TDI 300 motors as my Dec 1994 Defender did in a valve stem cap at 80ooo ks and the tappets were set correctly.
The case hardening failed on most of the stem caps.
What happened to me was the man with the hammer let lose going up a hill under full power and the motor was running on three cylinders.
On the side of the road I removed the rocker cover to find a rocker arm had been broken clean in two caused by the stem cap holding the valve open at the wrong time when it broke up.
I removed the broken rocker and drive home on three cylinders only to find this caused a few problems about 100 km down the road when the unburnt fuel of the non functioning cylinder caused the crankcase to over fill with oil.
A road side oil change was done and I managed to get another 100kms back to home.
Inspection showed the case hardening on most of the valve stem caps was flaking off.
I replaced them and the rocker and the defender now has 136ooo km without any problems with the valve gear.
If you own one of these engines it is a easy check to whip off the rocker gear and replace the valve stems caps at little cost.
I was lucky and nursed my vehicle home without long term damage.
Ron

Ive heard of what may have been a bad batch from a mate who worked at ULR years ago and now insists on valve clearances being opened up a little more than spec (from memory 10 thou not 8 thou but not 100%).

This still makes them quiet and doesnt change power or economy but just stops the shims from wearing quickly.

Originally Posted by sclarke

360k on the clock
Have you looked at the Big end bearings????

Nahhh just run in