My experience with the diesel suggests that if properly serviced, engine life should be of the order of 100,000miles, but it is possible that modern oils may extend this.
Catastrophic failures do happen, mostly due to overheating following loss of coolant, and I have heard of one or two crankshaft failures. These appear to be the result of either incorrectly machined journals (the radiused corners are important) and/or lugging at low engine speeds and full throttle (this engine will pull strongly and smoothly down to a stall at a slow idle speed!).
Precombustion chambers can come loose, and occasionally break up causing further damage, but this seems to be a result of overheating due to coolant loss, possibly far in the past.
As with any diesel, they are susceptible to "dusting", and severe wear can result in a matter of hours in dusty conditions if operated with leaks in the piping from the air cleaner. This can be from wear in the throttle that provides vacuum on some models.
John
JDNSW
1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol
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