300 Tdi Rebuild

I reckon I'll have to take the crank out again tomorrow. I'll take the main cap bolts out and see if they have assembly lube on the threads. I should imagine the assembly lube would have oozed in to the beautifully cleaned, degreased and dried holes. I'll have to give the loctite a chance to stick.

As you have the block on an engine stand, would it be possible to loosen all the cap bolts one turn then take out one bolt from each cap, squirt some brake cleaner down the threads, then rotate the block and blow the holes out while they are pointing to the ground, then replace the bolts and repeat with the other bolts which were left in place first time, then locktite the bolts and torque them up ?
Just wondered if it may save some time.

Don't think They will come loose in your life time Al !

That's exactly what I'm having to do. The realisation dawned on me this morning that there was no way I was going to take off bearing cap No5 Not after the trouble I had fitting it with the seals down the side. This meant the crank was staying put. I'm just taking the bolts out now and have come in to check torque settings on the manual. Only taken one out and the threads are still largely clean and dry, so may be less hassle than I thought. Some may need to be cleaned as you described. Thanks for the thought, mate. Much appreciated.

Magicgrotto said:

Don't think They will come loose in your life time Al !

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I hope not. I hope this engine sees me out

Meaning with OUT lock tight !

Great thread!!
I wouldn't worry to much if there is a little bit off oil in the threads Loctite will still work we use it all the time at work and dont go to extremes drying out the threads. when we go back to a component 3 years later thats been loctited you can tell it's done its job as some the bolts/nuts can be a pita to get off.

Magicgrotto said:

Meaning with OUT lock tight !

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Oops, sorry. Thought you were referring to my age again.

TorsionBhudda said:

Great thread!!
I wouldn't worry to much if there is a little bit off oil in the threads Loctite will still work we use it all the time at work and dont go to extremes drying out the threads. when we go back to a component 3 years later thats been loctited you can tell it's done its job as some the bolts/nuts can be a pita to get off.

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Well that's good news. It means what I have done today should have worked well.

Not a lot done today and it's been a day of ups and downs
8.30am I called the local Indi to order some of the copper washers for the squirt tubes and they actually had them in! I went up and got them straight away.
86p for the lot

Bought some new thread lock from TMS while I was out.
Putting the washers on turned out hand, cos the last little on to go is a tightish fit on the thread, you have to turn it on. This was handy cos it held everything together, it would have been a right clart on getting everything lined up and fitted in the tight space of the engine block.

Put some folded blue towel roll over the socket and pushed on to the nut to hold it on.

Little bit of thread lock and bingo, easy job.
At least until I got to the last one! Just tightening it down, thinking I can feel those two copper washers collapsing then it all went slack. Heart sank like a stone and I just started repeating the word NO! I actually felt sick for a moment. I thought I had stripped the thread, but when I dared to unscrew the bolt it easily lifted out to show that I had sheared it off.

I was stunned, I think. The Mrs was just about to drive to Newcastle to take our eldest son to the airport, I was going to stay and work on the engine, but I just packed away and went with them.
On the way I googled stud extractors on my phone and a small set for £3.99 were on the Screwfix site. You have to pass Screwfix on the way to the airport champion.
Anyway, after being away for several hours got back with the extractors. The smallest one was the right fit for the hole in the bolt (oilway, which was lucky) but the end of it was about 3mm square I've got a tap and die set, but there was no room to move the little handle inside the block.
Thought I'll have to jam the tool in a small socket, so I cut a 10p coin in to strips (I did apologise to the Queen several times, but I had nothing else hard enough to use)
I used the strips to wedge the square of the tool in to a small socket.

Amazingly it was a very tight fit and extracted the snapped off stud no bother. Couldn't believe it Ordered another one and another couple of washers from the Indi, which will arrive tomorrow.
Then set about the main bearing caps, checking the bolts. Most were still dry, but I had to clean a few and did those holes too. Everything got a blast out with air.

Bit of thread lock on.

Torqued all the bolts down to 133N.m starting with the centre cap and following the others in sequence.
The crank still turns nicely by hand, not too easily but with a smooth firmness which I'm hoping is just right.
Lucky escape today, I reckon.

You are getting good at this stuff, soon be the 300tdi guru.

raywin said:

You are getting good at this stuff, soon be the 300tdi guru.

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Knowing my luck the gearbox will go next
All I'm looking forward to now is years of relatively easy going, Landy motoring............................ that's not going to happen is it

I hope mine doesn't start needing this level of rebuilding haha. Have you tweaked the engine for more power while you've been working on it?

alexc2701 said:

I hope mine doesn't start needing this level of rebuilding haha. Have you tweaked the engine for more power while you've been working on it?

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No chance! One engine giving up on me is enough, without tempting another one. I bought an EGR blanking kit, but I'm now having seconds thoughts about fitting that. Irrational, perhaps, but when you are in the middle of a full engine rebuild needed due to a cylinder over heat it makes you a bit twitchy Especially, when the EGR's job is to reduce combustion temp.

Hahaha I was thinking of the fuel tweak that increases the amount pushed into the engine but I don't have a exhaust temp thing for one and I don't want to blow up a 90k miles engine seems a waste when it's running beautifully haha
Probably make it alot better for normal road use though. Less engine stress if it gets up to speed faster
But then it's got disco box and gana be bigger wheels so be like being up geared anyway. Have to see how drives when done properly haha. It'll probably say like 100 mph cos the Disco speedo gear anyway faster fender going

Gearbox is an easy repair, happy to help out if it ever does go wrong, got all the tools needed here.

Bennehboy said:

Gearbox is an easy repair, happy to help out if it ever does go wrong, got all the tools needed here.

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I'm seriously hoping to avoid that!
Should the worst happen, I know how to contact you. Cheers.

An EGR is designed to reduce NOx emissions first and foremost by introducing more CO2 into the combustion chamber, replacing some oxygen. In turn this reduces combustion temps. You'll be fine fitting the kit. When I built my cobra engine I removed the EGR for the same reasons, just make sure you run 50:50 water antifreeze coolant, much like they do for a proper Triumph Stag engine (alloy heads)

I agree with the post above that EGR delete is highly unlikely going to harm your engine in any way. Both ours are done. Worth fitting an EGT gauge though - a decent one will tell you exactly what's going on....

I wonder if it would have picked up the changes which led to the overheat ?

Similar - both our 300Tdi's are EGR deleted....the one in the girlfriends 110 is an ex EDC engine too.

florncakes said:

An EGR is designed to reduce NOx emissions first and foremost by introducing more CO2 into the combustion chamber, replacing some oxygen. In turn this reduces combustion temps. You'll be fine fitting the kit. When I built my cobra engine I removed the EGR for the same reasons, just make sure you run 50:50 water antifreeze coolant, much like they do for a proper Triumph Stag engine (alloy heads)

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Disco1BFG said:

I agree with the post above that EGR delete is highly unlikely going to harm your engine in any way. Both ours are done. Worth fitting an EGT gauge though - a decent one will tell you exactly what's going on....

I wonder if it would have picked up the changes which led to the overheat ?

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Saint.V8 said:

Similar - both our 300Tdi's are EGR deleted....the one in the girlfriends 110 is an ex EDC engine too.

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Yes, I know I'm probably being needlessly cautious. But, when your engine has carped it makes you a bit twitchy. Also, both the turbo reconditioning company and Turner Engineering asked me if I'd made any modifications to the engine such as removed the EGR or altered fuel pump or anything. Just makes me wonder. I'll probably still fit the EGR blanking kit.

Or you could leave as is for now, then when you have confidence your engine is now sound as a pound (can we still use that phrase considering the volatility in the market nowadays???) you can then remove the EGR rubbish!