110 2.5 NA - Trouble starting after sitting for a few years

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Yorkie Lad

Yorkie Lad

Member
Posts
14
Location
Yorkshire
Hi ... New to Landyzone and wondered if anyone can help.

I acquired a 1984 ex military Land Rover in 2003 and ran it for 7 years. In 2010 I was made redundant and so had to SORN the vehicle in 2012. It last turned over in 2016. It was parked up on driveway.

This year I decided to restore the 110. Tried starting it with new battery and it struggled to start but fired and quickly revved. I panicked and so turned it off. It then didn’t start again.

Since then I have ...

- Unseized the pistons as they wouldn’t move on turning crank nut. Diesel in cylinders to ease and cylinders seem okay.
- Refurbished the injector pump as no fuel to injectors. After fitting, fuel came to injectors.
- Refurbished the injectors as these were poor - fuel now sprays.
- Replaced glow plugs with new NGK plugs. They glow when earthed on engine block.
- New timing belt and timing seems spot on to all three timing marks.
- Checked head and valves .. all seal okay

I have tried to start the 110 and although it turns over now, it does not fire. It won’t even start on “easy start”. There does seem to be smoke from the oil filler point on the rocker cover.

The areas that I’m thinking that it may now be is ...

- Piston rings allowing for poor compression - hope to check in next few days with compression tool in each glow plug port. If okay then not sure what to do ... if poor then replace piston rings.
- Check earthing strap to see if good earth.

Is there anyone out there that could offer any advice as to whether this is a logical way to go, or can advise any other area that I may need to look into?

Any help is certainly welcome.

All the best

Yorkie Lad
 
Hi ...

Fuel is spraying from the injectors and I’ve fitted a new fuel pump ... so I’m assuming that the fuel is getting into the cylinders.

That’s why I’m thinking that it may be compression I.e seized rings causing blow by ... but not sure. Does this seem logical?
 
A non starting diesel will puff white smoke from the exhaust if fuel is being injected into the cylinders. An engine with stuck rings would still do this [ very unlikely all rings/cylinders affected. ] My old Leyland tractor did a lot of puffing yesterday before it fired up.
 
tottot said:
A non starting diesel will puff white smoke from the exhaust if fuel is being injected into the cylinders. An engine with stuck rings would still do this [ very unlikely all rings/cylinders affected. ] My old Leyland tractor did a lot of puffing yesterday before it fired up.
Click to expand...
I guess that there may be ... but I am usually at the key with friend by engine and so can’t see everything that is going on in the engine bay ... or exhaust. All I see is smoke around the side but can’t tell whether from exhaust or rocker top. I’m assuming that it may do.
 
Yorkie Lad said:
Hi ... New to Landyzone and wondered if anyone can help.

I acquired a 1984 ex military Land Rover in 2003 and ran it for 7 years. In 2010 I was made redundant and so had to SORN the vehicle in 2012. It last turned over in 2016. It was parked up on driveway.

This year I decided to restore the 110. Tried starting it with new battery and it struggled to start but fired and quickly revved. I panicked and so turned it off. It then didn’t start again.

Since then I have ...

- Unseized the pistons as they wouldn’t move on turning crank nut. Diesel in cylinders to ease and cylinders seem okay.
- Refurbished the injector pump as no fuel to injectors. After fitting, fuel came to injectors.
- Refurbished the injectors as these were poor - fuel now sprays.
- Replaced glow plugs with new NGK plugs. They glow when earthed on engine block.
- New timing belt and timing seems spot on to all three timing marks.
- Checked head and valves .. all seal okay

I have tried to start the 110 and although it turns over now, it does not fire. It won’t even start on “easy start”. There does seem to be smoke from the oil filler point on the rocker cover.

The areas that I’m thinking that it may now be is ...

- Piston rings allowing for poor compression - hope to check in next few days with compression tool in each glow plug port. If okay then not sure what to do ... if poor then replace piston rings.
- Check earthing strap to see if good earth.

Is there anyone out there that could offer any advice as to whether this is a logical way to go, or can advise any other area that I may need to look into?

Any help is certainly welcome.

All the best

Yorkie Lad
Click to expand...
fuel does spray from injectors when engines cranking?but a compression test would seem a first thing to do
 
Last edited:
Although I have no experience as I sold the vehicle before getting it running myself and a friend had a series 3 with a 2.5na fitted that had not been run for a long time and the research I did a lot of people suggested they are just lazy starters if not regularly run and the common advice I was given was tow start it rather than use the starter and wreck the battery and overheat the wiring. Apparently this could also take 1/2 mile or so before it eventually fired into life, but after this initial start will then start normally again.
Once again would like to state this is second hand information and am very happy to be corrected as we never got that far, we did the chassis and bulkhead welding, painted over the awful blue cammo the PO had done, repaired the drive train where the OD had been removed, in the engine we reconed the head and did the timing but never got it to start and sold the vehicle as a project but less of a project than when we got it as we ran out of time.
 
dag019 said:
Although I have no experience as I sold the vehicle before getting it running myself and a friend had a series 3 with a 2.5na fitted that had not been run for a long time and the research I did a lot of people suggested they are just lazy starters if not regularly run and the common advice I was given was tow start it rather than use the starter and wreck the battery and overheat the wiring. Apparently this could also take 1/2 mile or so before it eventually fired into life, but after this initial start will then start normally again.
Once again would like to state this is second hand information and am very happy to be corrected as we never got that far, we did the chassis and bulkhead welding, painted over the awful blue cammo the PO had done, repaired the drive train where the OD had been removed, in the engine we reconed the head and did the timing but never got it to start and sold the vehicle as a project but less of a project than when we got it as we ran out of time.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info ... To be honest ... I’ve heard the same ... but at the moment it’s on axle stands awaiting a new set of Michelin XZL’s and so would be difficult. We did try to bump start with a Range Rover and upgrade the battery.
 
I know you have said the timing is spot on, but as it was running before and you have fuel going to the cylinders It might be worth checking - not just with the marks, but TDC at no1 piston.
 
zeaphod said:
I know you have said the timing is spot on, but as it was running before and you have fuel going to the cylinders It might be worth checking - not just with the marks, but TDC at no1 piston.
Click to expand...
Yeah ... that’s a good point. I’m hoping to have a look at the weekend at the timing again as I feel that the bod who set it up (not me as I can’t see too good to see the timing marks) may have not set up the injection pump correctly ... it’s only an hunch have read through the Land Rover workshop manual this lunchtime ... but I agree with you that as it ran prior it does deserve another check.
 
zeaphod said:
I know you have said the timing is spot on, but as it was running before and you have fuel going to the cylinders It might be worth checking - not just with the marks, but TDC at no1 piston.
Click to expand...

After a full day of head inside engine bay ... I’m non the wiser. Today’s run down ...

I’ve checked the timing ... and when all timing marks line up, the rockers on No 4 cylinder (rockers 7 and 8 from front) seem to be floating with rockers on cylinder 1 (rockers 1 & 2) being on rock? ... Could this engine be set up to fire on number 4 instead of number 1? (See attached picture) as it seems to be pointing to this ... but not sure.

I disconnected the fuel pipe from injectors and turned it over. Fuel shot out of no 1 pipe (at front) about a foot ... whilst out of pipes 2, 3 and 4 ... it just squirted out about 5cm. The injector pump was refurbished with new parts by Delphi in Sheffield. Does this suggest anything? ... could the injector pump have a problem? The injectors squirt fuel in the order 1 3 4 2. I took a slow motion video and it is easy to see the squirting.

The cylinders seem to have compression but I am waiting for compression tester to arrive to test the pressure.

I’ve cleaned the earthing strap between engine and chassis to get a good earth.

Can anyone point any areas that I could focus on further?

Kind regards
 

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Yorkie Lad said:
After a full day of head inside engine bay ... I’m non the wiser. Today’s run down ...

I’ve checked the timing ... and when all timing marks line up, the rockers on No 4 cylinder (rockers 7 and 8 from front) seem to be floating with rockers on cylinder 1 (rockers 1 & 2) being on rock? ... Could this engine be set up to fire on number 4 instead of number 1? (See attached picture) as it seems to be pointing to this ... but not sure.

I disconnected the fuel pipe from injectors and turned it over. Fuel shot out of no 1 pipe (at front) about a foot ... whilst out of pipes 2, 3 and 4 ... it just squirted out about 5cm. The injector pump was refurbished with new parts by Delphi in Sheffield. Does this suggest anything? ... could the injector pump have a problem? The injectors squirt fuel in the order 1 3 4 2. I took a slow motion video and it is easy to see the squirting.

The cylinders seem to have compression but I am waiting for compression tester to arrive to test the pressure.

I’ve cleaned the earthing strap between engine and chassis to get a good earth.

Can anyone point any areas that I could focus on further?

Kind regards
Click to expand...
when all the timing marks line up no1 exhaust valve should be fully open the engine is timed at exhaust peak
 
jamesmartin said:
when all the timing marks line up no1 exhaust valve should be fully open the engine is timed at exhaust peak
Click to expand...
Cheers bud ... I’m stretching my knowledge now .. so apologies if this is a silly question... but if this is the case then would this suggest that it fires initially on number 4 when timed up? ...

I’m hoping to ring the diesel company tomorrow to check the injection pump and see if I can get any further along with this.
 
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