Thread: Perkins diesel - anything to watch out for?

The only problem I ever encountered with a Perky was the wearing away of the cam hardface and consequently the lobe for the lift pump!! We wondered why the engine was hard to start and had very little power...
The only other problem I have encountered with these engines is when they are not worked hard enough they carbon up and use oil etc.
They need a good hard workout every now and then. Hook up a car trailer and find a steep hill.

Great engine for a series though, unstopable in low range and uses NO diesel.


JC

just be careful of 3rd gear if its a stock series box, the bigger perkins can eat them if you dont look after them and nurse the lower gears.

They are a great little engine, long lived, reliable, and fuel misers. My experience with them was in small earth movers, and small Mazda trucks. I always thought the English made ones were better than the Mazda made units. The Mazda ones have the Mazda stylised "M" logo on the block and usually had an electric solenoid fuel stopper in the injection pump whilst the English ones had a cable stop. The solenoid stop could be troublesome with a crook battery or partially discharged battery as they were loath to open up if the battery was down, and thus the engine would spin over but not start.

These engines have appeared in a number of different guises for a variety of uses - and the ones designed for non-vehicle uses (tractors, forklifts, generators etc) are set up with maximum rpm too low to be good on road. Even the road version will hit the governed maximum rpm at a lower speed than the Rover diesel, although I think they are more powerful, and certainly more durable.

Generally considered a very good engine, but as others have mentioned, can be a bit hard on the gearbox, but the Series 2 box is probably more durable than the Series 3.

John

G'day Scrambler

The only problems that the Perkins/Mazda engines have to my knowledge is that if they are overheated, 100C+ they will tend to warp and crack the head so if it has overheating problems it may need the Head looked at.

cheers

I have a series 3 L.W.B.with a perkins 4/165, it came out a little later than the 4/154 and has a bit more grunt. I know a couple of people who put 154' s in and I believe they were happy and as such I was going to put one in,however the 165 came out and I put that in instead. I have been all over aust. in it and have had no problems with it. I put it in new, when my landy was 6 months old and that was in 1976. The motor has been out once for some minor work and has not given me any trouble, except some spalling in the injector pump, resulting in it grabbing the rotor in the pump and broke the drive shaft from the gear train. It is a tad noisy and slow. However if you are poking around town or the bush you wont find a better engine. Mine is unregistered now but it still goes and starts well. Perkins then brought a 4/182 motor which i think would have been a better vehicle motor. I probably should have put an overdrive in or altered the diff ratios but then when the fenders came out I have had them since.

We used these Perkins engines in tractors years ago they were very reliable and economical.
I have seen abuse break tractor gearboxes so I suspect that the torque may be unkind to the Rover gearbox.
Most Perkins engines like a good workout and need to be worked ocassionally to avoid glazing.
From what I understand its a popular conversion in the UK.
I remember seeing pictures of someones Series with a 6:354 now there is a conversion that will destroy gearboxes.