300tdi disco 1, new head gasket oil leak!!

Hi all,

I’ve just finished changing the head gasket on my 300tdi. I did a few jobs at the same time, new cambelt, water pump, power steering pipes etc.

I brought the head gasket (BGA) and timing belt and pulleys (new secondhand) as someone was going to do the same as me but scrapped the disco

We bolted it all together today, oil change new coolant everything back together. It started up and ran A LOT quieter which was a good sign but then bollocked all of it’s engine oil all Between the head and block at the front of the engine most of 6L I’d say.

The head has been pressure tested and reskimmed the only thing I can think is maybe a dodgy head gasket or damaged in transport. Everything was torqued to spec and done by the book and I’ve done many head gasket before and never seen anything like this

Any advice would be great!

Thanks

Did you clean out all the bolt holes throughly, coolent always ends up in them but mines a 200tdi, not much differance I suspect.

What brand were the new head bolts? presuming you didnt reuse the old ones cos if you did you might have the answer

sierrafery said:

What brand were the new head bolts? presuming you didnt reuse the old ones cos if you did you might have the answer

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reused the same head bolts as read online that’s usually ok with TDI engines and been fine in the past. I’ve order a multi layer steel head gasket and a new set of head bolts from Turner engineering no. I hope they do the trick

To be fair the head gasket i took off didn’t look that old and they most likely re used the head bolts so could well be there 2nd use if not more?

Padda.116 said:

reused the same head bolts as read online that’s usually ok with TDI engines

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Even if in some cases it worked IMO reusing stretch bolts is a bad ideea but reusing them twice is a huge mistake which you'll realise after you fit new ones

Don't bother with a fibre gasket .
Always use MLS.

I had the same with a 300 once, might have been because I fitted the head gasket upside down/back to front, allegedly!

200tdi you cab reuse head bolts up to 5 times so long as you measure them for stretch beforehand, not sure on the 300 though?

300 bolts can be reused but it's not worth it