Thread: 300tdi pushrod damage - cause?

Originally Posted by Sitec

And when you do, lots of pics... Quite a few curious people here.. Cheers!

Absolutely.

Regarding the "hanging" (if I understood you correctly, it's the valves that were "hanging") - I'd suspect valve guide damage. The clearances between the stem and guide are very close, but perhaps some very small bits of the caps made their way into the guides and are fouling the valve stems.

And did you replace the timing belt, or was it done by someone else? Belts (as well as new idler and tensioner) aren't very expensive, so if you're uncertain of the repair quality I'd recommend doing it again. Make sure that the crank pulley is the later "shoulder" model that was introduced to reduce belt wear.

So the engine has sat on pallet for a few months and a further month on the engine stand until I had time to start investigating. Sorry about that to anyone who might have been following this thread.

Once the head was off it was apparent that the knock was top end & valve related. #4 valve was 'kissing' the top of #2 piston. I found a complete albeit somewhat battered lash cap sitting in the cup of the number 4 cam follower.

I'm guessing the push rod damage was the lash cap having a rub as it went on its journey...






So now I am assuming valve damage, vavle guide damage and valve seat damage is possible so I will check/measure these and go from there. Hopefully the head is okay and I can just install with a fresh gasket & a few parts

I will say that I am annoyed that I didn't persist with investigating this possibility though - light down the push rod hole didn't the cap but I feel a magnet on a rod might have solved all the problems early!