Thread: Time for a Re-fit

Originally Posted by garrywlh

brilliant, Johnno, love the 'London Underground'. Bet you had fun getting out the colouring pencils.
Your diagram actually helps me to make sense of the wiring diagram in my Haynes that has baffled me a bit.
Just a newbie question...what is an engine exhaust fan? The one on the Heathrow line.

Hey Garry,

Thanks mate - I'm glad it's of use to you.

The "engine exhaust fan" is a little addition I'm planning. I have a heater fan from a Discovery (I think) which I am planning to set up in the engine bay and use as an exhaust fan ducted to the outside, so on ridiculously hot days I can draw hot air away and out of the bay. The idea at this stage is to site it near the exhaust manifold. If it proves too difficult to fit (there will also be the aircleaner cylinder from a 200Tdi in the same area) I will shorten the wiring, cutting it somewhere between Acton Town and South Ealing and diverting the power on the District Line through Turnham Green to some driving lights at Kew Gardens.

Cheers,

John

C'mon John. Get back from holidaying in the jungle and get to work on your Landy again!

Can't be that long til you return anyway?

Originally Posted by bell1975

C'mon John. Get back from holidaying in the jungle and get to work on your Landy again!

Can't be that long til you return anyway?

Righto. I'm back. Normal service will resume as soon as possible.

Oh, you're still at it. It's gone on so bloody long, we've all lost interest

Originally Posted by wally

Oh, you're still at it. It's gone on so bloody long, we've all lost interest

Actually, I was thinking about putting some of it back in your shed.

After a hiatus of a number of months, today I finally got back to work.

Anybody who may have been following this thread (including Wally, who is pretty bored with it) may remember that back in March I did a silly thing and damaged the injector shroud on number one. It kind of knocked the wind out of my sails and things kind of slowed down, then ground to a halt in June when I ran away overseas.

Having damaged the shroud in a moment of stupid haste, I thought long and hard about how I might fix it. By the book, it's a head-off job and needs the pre-combustion chamber removed so that the damaged shroud can be driven out of its pressing and replaced. This I have been prepared to do, but I had a few thoughts about how I might simplify the job, especially as the engine is not high-mileage since its last rebuild and I really don't feel like opening it up....

Anyway, it occurred to me that I may be able to make a puller to draw the damaged shroud out of the head instead. Of course, this would still leave the little bit of metal I knocked out of it in March somewhere hidden in number one cylinder - but first things first.

Due to the nature of the damage, I thought I'd try grinding two opposite sides off the head of a 7/16"AF bolt and seeing if I could work it into the shroud and then turn it through 90 degrees to give me a chance of "grabbing" it.

Once the bolt fitted through the gap, I placed a number of small washers over it and lightly threaded a nut all the way down to strengthen the surface against which I'd be pulling the bolt. The bolt then passed up through a plate placed against the head and located by the injector retaining studs. The last bit was simply a washer and nut onto the bolt and.....carefully...carefully tightening it.

After a while, I heard a wee "crack". This was either really good or really bad, so I stopped, pulled the lot off and checked. Nothing broken... maybe I had started to unseat the shroud. So I repeated the process twice more..tightening, checking - until the shroud popped out into my hand neatly and in one piece.

So far, so good. Now, for the piece of broken metal somewhere in the cylinder: At least if I did have to remove the head to find it, I would not have to remove the pre-combustion chamber and could avoid any machining work.

But first, I had a go at vacuuming it out. "Can't hurt to have a go," I thought.

So I got the ol' vacuum out and, using a rubber grommet to provide something of a seal against the head, alternately placed the suction at the injector and glowplug ports. I turned the crank a little to allow some airflow in through the inlet and exhaust valves and checked the vacuum bag......

Now, I don't often quote Margaret Thatcher (if you discount words like "and" and "the") - but, REJOICE!!!! That little bit of metal somehow got sucked out of the pot and into the vacuum.

So..... I am thrilled to announce that the project is almost back to where it was in March. How's that for progress?? It remains for me now to gently drift the new injector shroud back in place and (assuming that I don't stuff that up) I can progress towards getting the engine started again.

I will post some piccies below. Sorry for the long post, but I put a lot of thought into this and thought it might be useful to somebody.

Cheers,

John

More piccies of the job:

I know nothing about diesel engines (and not very much about petrol ones for that matter - although I'm learning fast), so I don't have a bloody clue what you are talking about John!
But, it is good to have you back and especially good to hear how pleased you are at the success of this little bit of innovative problem-solving.
Well done!
Garry