300tdi valve lash caps disintegrating

Pawl, sorry to hear that you have the lash cap problem, i have the exact same problem.

My story.

I did a work for discount trade for a Friend on mine in the local rover club. The work involved rebuilding a low mileage 300Tdi that had been cranked with incorrect valve timing, broke a few rockers and bent a couple of rods.

I did a full tear down and assembly with new bearings rings, gaskets etc, and changed the rollers, followers, push rods, rockers, valves and lash caps.

The engine runs like a top, lots of power etc, only problem is it goes through set of lash caps in about 200km.
Not all of them usually about 6 of the 8.

I did the build with OEM parts sourced via Britpart and Cradoks, so my initial thoughts were poor quality parts, ordered a set of genuine lash caps, and went through them in 150km.

Pulled of the head, every thing looks good, no valve to piston contact, com lobes look fine, did find a couple of stick cam followers.

I ordered another set of parts from Turner in the UK, cam followers, rockers (i did not like the look of the rocker bushes in the OEM units) valves, valve guides, adjusters, lock nuts. another set of LR lash caps.

Set valves to 0.20mm cold, did a warm up, set to .020 hot, did 80km to settle everything in, did a hot valve set started at .25mm and adjusted to .20mm (i put the 0.05mm adjustment down to bed in and expansion)

went for a 260km run and yet again the caps are worn, about .05mm on the intakes and .20 to .30 mm on the exhausts.

I have run Shell Rimula 15W40 and Shell T5 0W40, oil pressure is in spec and their is oil up around the top of the head, mind the design does not supply a lot of oil to the lash cap are, no cross drill on the front of the rocker, head sloped back to the push rod pockets, so basically splash and mist, and the feed through the head gasket is only about 1mm.

I am a diesel mechanic by trade and work for a cat dealership, my day job is looking at engines and components, these little caps are driving me nuts.

My next steps.

Check cam/valve timing.
Order a set of aftermarket lash caps, VW or crower.
Change out the oil pump.
Last resort full tear down of the engine and inspect everything again.

So i will be watching to see if you get this thing figured out, you mentioned good oil feed through the push rods, are your push rods hollow ? mine are solid.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/06/522.jpg
Worn ext cap 260 km intake one not as bad.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/06/523.jpg
Pads and adjusters look fine.



https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/06/524.jpg
Caps flipped, the inside is worn, the valve tops look fine push rod cups look fine..

Some additional info on the oil pressure.

From cold start 20C in the garage i have the following.
At the filter T piece Lo Idle 57Psi Hi Idle 80Psi
At the rear of the cam Lo Idle 19Psi Hi Idle 30 Psi.

With the oil at operating temperature i have the following.
At the filter T piece Lo Idle 32Psi Hi Idle 60Psi
At the rear of the cam Lo Idle 9Psi Hi Idle 18 Psi.

The pressure at the T piece is as per the manual, their is no spec for oil pressure at the rear of the cam, their is a plug id the block that i removed and installed a test fitting, so i need data from another Tdi for comparison.

So i think the oil pressure is OK, however their is a chance their is and internal leak or restriction that is limiting flow to the rocker shaft.

the lash caps are about the last thing in line to get oil, so oil flow is still on my list of suspects.

PS, sorry for hijacking your thread, i think we are both working on the same problem.

Hi Guys, new to posting here so here it goes,
I have had the same issues with turning valve lash caps into donuts. 2 of the caps were not worn at all and the others were all stuffed. So i ran a file over them all to see which ones were still hard or not. The 2 that had no signs of wear were hard enough not be affected by a file while the others filed easily. Here is my solution. I bought a set of Crane Cams after market lash caps, cost $85 for 16. Cannot buy 8. These are 8mm NOT 5/16 .Only about 3 thou difference and twice the price but tried the 5/16 caps and had to take them back because they would not go over the valve stem. 8mm caps fit perfectly.I put the feeler gauges between the bottom of the lash cap and the top of the collet and had at least 10 thou. Good enough for me.I ran a file over every new cap and could not mark any of them. Uniformly hard. Perfect.
All fitted as expected and adjusted as normal.
Now for a few kms to see how they fare.
Crane Cams part number 99425-16
Give them a try ,I think you will be happy.
Cheers
Russ

Just to add..
These caps have a very small hole in the center which i believe will help lubricate the top of the valve.
Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rleggett

I bought a set of Crane Cams after market lash caps, cost $85 for 16. Cannot buy 8. These are 8mm NOT 5/16 .Only about 3 thou difference and twice the price but tried the 5/16 caps and had to take them back because they would not go over the valve stem. 8mm caps fit perfectly.I put the feeler gauges between the bottom of the lash cap and the top of the collet and had at least 10 thou. Good enough for me.I ran a file over every new cap and could not mark any of them. Uniformly hard.

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Hi Russ

For those who what to follow up on your posting here is a link to Crane Cams.
Crane Cams Australia

CONTACT DETAILS

Automotive Performance Distributors
35 Chapel Street Norwood
5067 South Australia

Ph. 08 8363 5566
sales@cranecams.com.au

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AlexC

Some additional info on the oil pressure.

From cold start 20C in the garage i have the following.
At the filter T piece Lo Idle 57Psi Hi Idle 80Psi
At the rear of the cam Lo Idle 19Psi Hi Idle 30 Psi.

With the oil at operating temperature i have the following.
At the filter T piece Lo Idle 32Psi Hi Idle 60Psi
At the rear of the cam Lo Idle 9Psi Hi Idle 18 Psi.

The pressure at the T piece is as per the manual, their is no spec for oil pressure at the rear of the cam, their is a plug id the block that i removed and installed a test fitting, so i need data from another Tdi for comparison.

So i think the oil pressure is OK, however their is a chance their is and internal leak or restriction that is limiting flow to the rocker shaft.
the lash caps are about the last thing in line to get oil, so oil flow is still on my list of suspects.

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Hi AlexC and Russ

There could be a loose lump of hard crud in the oil galley leading up to the small hole in the head gasket, see this extract from my previous posting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wrinklearthur

My guess is there isn't enough oil getting fed through to the rocker assembly.
----------------------------------
Having the last motor that I renovated set up on a test bed, using the starter motor, I had it turning over without the head on and was surprised to find a hard lump of crud come out of the hole that feeds into the oil galley in the head.
Given that the size of the hole in the head gasket is smaller than the oil galley, as soon as the oil flow lifted a bit that hole may have been blocked, if the head was put on first that lump would have still been in the oil galley in the block.
.

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Further to this discussion.
About 10K ago I went to adjust the clearances after a 20K interval (longer than I like but it did incorporate a long trip and just didn't get around to it). What I found was the caps in a really bad state, two were worn through, some badly pitted. These were aftermarket ones, I think were Britpart. Not having any choice, I reinstalled the old ones (fortunately kept) which I replaced before the 20K mentioned above, shiny, with some wear (all circular marks so at least rotating properly). Now 10K later I just put a new set of genuine caps in (LJC 100270) and will see how they go.

The set I took out, the previously reinstalled used set, after the 10K, still look reasonably serviceable and all the clearances were still good. See the attached photo. The ones on the left are the ones that have been used twice and have done at least 30K maybe more, the ones on the right (mixed up and in no order) are the aftermarket ones with 20K. I tested one of the bad set with a file, and could make a groove pretty easily.

I think this a good case for poor quality caps over lack of oil.

Simon

Just following up on the lash caps. I did a valve adjustment the other day after about 10K km and inspected all the lash caps. All seemed to be as good as new. The only wear was the original blue worn off the top of the cap. Problem solved. Hope this helps somebody else.

Cheers mate.

FWIW I've also heard of someone using Volkswagen 8mm hardened lash caps successfully too.

After reading this thread, with some alarm I might say, as I am about to replace my 300TDi head and was going to fit "NEW" genuine Land Rover lash caps to the new valve train.
After reading the problems others are having with these lash caps I decided to have a closer look at my new genuine LR lash caps (see pics).
First thing I noticed was that the top (section that actually rubs on the rocker arm pad) was concave, no 2 alike, then I noticed that the top was not level on most, so rubbed the top very lightly on some emery paper on a flat surface to show the hollows up. Also the thickness of the lip was variable, thin one side thicker the other.
Now there is no way I'm going to put this CRAP on my new valves and as they are made in UK by/for Land Rover then I think LR should be able to supply servicable replacement parts.
In the meantime I will inspect the lash caps that are on the engine now (nearly 400,000klms) and if they are servicable, I will number them and fit them to the valves corresponding to the rocker arms they were mated with, or buy a set of Crane caps.
What is the concensus on running the 300TDi without any lash caps, Regards Frank. P.S. Anyone want to go halves in a set of Crane Valve Lash Caps, PM me.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/11/393.jpg
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