D3 Quick rundown for the uneducated?

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Originally Posted by PerthDisco

Spoke with a guy I know today who had an early RRS with 2.7D motor. Had 400,000+ kms on it with pretty basic maintenance and no preventative care and no great mechanical knowledge or LR brand interest. Told me after noticing a slow coolant leak he did nothing until a catastrophic coolant leak failure led to loss of the engine. No overheat warning.

He told me he was told by mechanic was caused by a failed block core plug letting go.

I’ve not heard this before so I didn’t challenge him on other reasons i.e. plastic coolant parts.

Anyone heard of this as he suggested they can be easily replaced?

Moral of story is always jump on any slow coolant leak.

Car was otherwise fine but with some transmission shudder and he had not in his long ownership (majority of kms) done the timing belts!

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Discorevy near Albany has recently acquired a sister car with similar mileage - the difference being he is a LR mechanic extraordinaire

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Originally Posted by gavinwibrow

Discorevy near Albany has recently acquired a sister car with similar mileage - the difference being he is a LR mechanic extraordinaire

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Yep he told me he sold to the local mechanic who was prepared to take on as a project and had it up and running and looking great.

Car had done many Esperance runs to clock up kms.

Keen to verify the core plug story.

And also to show that these engines do big kms with all the normal poor maintenance methods of bringing them to an end.

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Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

.... These engines have constantly failed right through to the last of the D4 and even failures in D5 have been reported. .....

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I thought that the D5 didn't use the Ford/Peugeot V6 diesel?(know nothing about them actually).

I visit the odd Peugeot forum for some info re my dads 307(Hdi) .. not a lot, maybe 2 or three times in a year.
But on perusal .. can't ever remember seeing V6 crank blown threads or titles.
Not saying that they do or don't happen, and haven't really looked out for them, but they don't stand out in any way to be so obvious.

And if there was a design or machining issue, how to they seem to manage to make sure that all those erroneously manufactured blocks or cranks or bearing happen to go to LR, and not directly to Ford for the territory motors?

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Originally Posted by AK83

I thought that the D5 didn't use the Ford/Peugeot V6 diesel?(know nothing about them actually).

I visit the odd Peugeot forum for some info re my dads 307(Hdi) .. not a lot, maybe 2 or three times in a year.
But on perusal .. can't ever remember seeing V6 crank blown threads or titles.
Not saying that they do or don't happen, and haven't really looked out for them, but they don't stand out in any way to be so obvious.

And if there was a design or machining issue, how to they seem to manage to make sure that all those erroneously manufactured blocks or cranks or bearing happen to go to LR, and not directly to Ford for the territory motors?

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Ford AU got the 2.7 about 3 years after LR stopped using it, QC must have improved a lot in that time.

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Originally Posted by Stuart02

I don't know the first thing about crankshafts - is that an upgrade?

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4340 is chromoly plus being a billet it is forged rather than cast so much stronger.

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Originally Posted by AK83

And if there was a design or machining issue, how to they seem to manage to make sure that all those erroneously manufactured blocks or cranks or bearing happen to go to LR, and not directly to Ford for the territory motors?

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One theory on the 4x4community.co.za forum is that there was something about the Disco set up that pushed the design to its limit under certain operating conditions (speed, temp, vibrations) and hence it was more likely to see the failures. The belief then is this design weakness carried over to the 3L as well but may have been less likely to be induced (different set up/better low down torque) but time will tell if this is true.

There was one poster researching this topic and collecting failed cranks from both 2.7 and 3L and said every one failed it the same spot and you could take any two different halves from different cranks and they always lined up.

People discussed keeping revs below 3000rpm, remapping to give better low down torque (so you don’t need to rev it hard), and even changing the harmonic balancer every 150,000 kms as a preventative action.

All adds up to make the TdV6 D3 an expensive maintenance vehicle - lower control arms, auto flush, oil pump tensioner upgrade, egr fouling up, air compressor rebuilds, intermittent electrical faults, and then add the risk of crank failure.

I am sure it is also well covered elsewhere here, but good to continue to bring up - especially for the uneducated (the OP must be turned off getting a TDV6 D3 by now).

"(the OP must be turned off getting a TDV6 D3 by now)." These are vehicles that we obviously love, surely we should be a bit more glass half full when we answer his questions! I have never seen one broken down at the side of the road.

And a bit of hope too. My 2006MY D3 SE TDV6 hit 530,000km earlier this year. As far as I am aware it is the original engine. It was used by a tourism operator doing outback tours before I got it so did lots of country runs. It’s not all bad news....

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Originally Posted by PerthDisco

Spoke with a guy I know today who had an early RRS with 2.7D motor. Had 400,000+ kms on it with pretty basic maintenance and no preventative care and no great mechanical knowledge or LR brand interest. Told me after noticing a slow coolant leak he did nothing until a catastrophic coolant leak failure led to loss of the engine. No overheat warning.

He told me he was told by mechanic was caused by a failed block core plug letting go.

I’ve not heard this before so I didn’t challenge him on other reasons i.e. plastic coolant parts.

Anyone heard of this as he suggested they can be easily replaced?

Moral of story is always jump on any slow coolant leak.

Car was otherwise fine but with some transmission shudder and he had not in his long ownership (majority of kms) done the timing belts!

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Originally Posted by gavinwibrow

Discorevy near Albany has recently acquired a sister car with similar mileage - the difference being he is a LR mechanic extraordinaire

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Originally Posted by PerthDisco

Yep he told me he sold to the local mechanic who was prepared to take on as a project and had it up and running and looking great.

Car had done many Esperance runs to clock up kms.

Keen to verify the core plug story.

And also to show that these engines do big kms with all the normal poor maintenance methods of bringing them to an end.

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Too many similarities to be a different vehicle, so a few facts
Had 347764 kilometres when It came in being towed by a vz commodore:eek2:
When he had called a couple of days before , when it had happened I was told the engine oil light wouldn't go off , turns out it got so hot that it had dumped a few litres of oil out the exhaust . he let it cool refilled oil and started ,had oil pressure.
I told him it was caused by the top coolant outlet splitting and it is a maintenance item, yes, easy to replace. Told him to leave with me and I'll do a report and let him know.
replaced outlet bled as best you can with combustion gasses blowing into cooling system and took it 5 minutes around the block .
returned seasick ( and I don't normally get seasick ) from non existant shocks and phoned him with report that included.
front and rear struts, expansion tank with the common failed float ( the secondary reason for overheat as the message been ignored for years ), handbrake module gears, door actuators, sway bar bushes , torque converter , air suspension compressor and front valve block leak, timing belt kits and revised oil pump, tyres and the big one which until body off to confirm would be at least warped heads ( turns out 1 cracked and warped and the other warped ). So big $$$ , combined with no guarantee the bottom end would last much longer as well as chipped and scratched paint , badly oxidised headlights, ripped seat etc , I suggested he ring a few wreckers , which offered him next to nothing so after some dollars changed hands I ended up with another project as if I needed one.[bighmmm]

Issues now addressed , car has now done 359000 k's and wife likes it.
Yes some can do these k's, even neglected but the main factors for this one getting that far are that it didn't tow much and not heavy, and big k's with few heat cycles.
I don't subscribe to looking for the lowest kilometre car when wanting to buy , it's more about heat cycles and one of the only mechanical things better with fewer k's will be sealed bearings as long as vehicle hasn't been abused and has been serviced correctly ( nb , this advice is for non mechanics as obviously I buy any old thing [bigwhistle]).Attachment 155225
It may be that fewer crank failures in other models is down to less arduous use and not pulling as much weight , I also think design, tooling or metallurgy fault

In line 6 much better design

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Originally Posted by DiscoDB

Was that between #2 big end and #2 main?

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I'd be surprised if it wasn't, hopefully Dazza will chime in as I've seen a few in his workshop

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Originally Posted by loanrangie

Ford AU got the 2.7 about 3 years after LR stopped using it, QC must have improved a lot in that time.

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Territory started using them in 2011
Land rover finished with them 2012

Pippin, while I'd love to love these models, and have a glass half full approach, experience has taught me that they will never have my full trust , they are nowhere as tough an engine as say the TD5 , maybe the OP would prefer the facts. yes , maybe I'm jaded by working on these ( but I still like to give them the best care I can ), but the failure rate is unacceptable

edit: Seems less failures on eu3 ( siemens fuel system ) and later ( 2009 > models )