Any advise for a Newbie

Hi all.

I've just bought my first Landrover, a '94 Discovery 300Tdi Auto. Having never driven one before I didn't really know what to expect but was a bit disappointed by its performance.

After reading lots of threads I decided to check the turbo pressure, air filter and blank off the EGR valve, plus I wanted to tackle a leak on the rocker cover.
I started today and met my first problem - there is no EGR valve. There is a blanking plate on the exhaust manifold but nothing on the inlet side or any sign of the valve. I'm guessing that it doesn't have one and now wonder if it is a 200 and not a 300.

When I took the rocker cover off I found nothing wrong with the gasket but did discover that the 'o' ring on the breather has perished causing crankcase fumes to leak out. When I started the engine again and removed the oil fill cap plumes of whiteish smoke came out along with a load 'puffing' sound. The white smoke continued to wisp out when the engine was turned off.

It gets worse!!! I slackened off the clip on the hose from the turbo to the inlet manifold, restarted the engine and quickly pulled to hose off to see what flow the turbo was putting out. Straight away there was a cloud of white smoke blowing out from the turbo. By now I was really worried.
Just out of curiousity I removed the glow plugs. 1,3 & 4 were all wet with thick black oil, 2 was dry, carboned and slightly pitted.

Fom what I've read on the forum I suspect there is a problem with the head gasket which could account for the white smoke but the oil on the glow plugs baffles me.

Do the symptoms point towards a blown head gasket or am I missing something?

Sound to me like a head gasket, mine did it, looked and sounded like a steam engine.

This could acount for you lack of power.

Is there any sign of water in the oil, check the dip stick and oil fillr cap or cream.

Well, I bought my 94 300tdi auto a little over 2 months ago. Don't worry about the EGR valve, you don't have one, as LR didn't fit it on UK cars back in 94. The plate was fitted as other countries (at that time) did require an EGR valve, hence the option. Good eh?

The breather seal perishing is a usual thing, and is cheap to replace.

Now for the bad bit.

My head gasket went last month, and when it went, it did so in style. I first noticed a loss of power a few minutes before getting to work, then it started popping, and just before I managed to limp into work I had a white cumulo nimbus following me.

RAC came out, started the car, whereupon the engine ran to full revs for 4 seconds (the RAC man also did a runner - white as a ghost. He thought the engine was about to explode). However, his diagnosis of a faulty turbo seal was incorrect. Following a second opinion, it turned out to be the head gasket.

Now, these are very beefy gaskets, and I was surprised to see the damage on mine when it was shown to me. My local Landy independent specialist (worth his weight in gold) changed the gasket (with a genuine LR part - don't get anything else), replaced the down pipe (it had a frangible can repair), breather seal, oil, etc, and also fitted the dashboard repair kit (I purchased that at £38), all for £695!

As I said, he showed me the gasket and it had gone at the number 4 pot pretty drastically. However, he also told me that the head bolts were only on FINGER tight! They weren't even stretch bolts!

Upside is, the turbo still works perfectly (you don't have any whistles coming from yours do you, when it is in action? If so, you shouldn't), and the car is running sweetly too.

If you're not going to change the head gasket yourself, get some quotes from an independent LR specialist. The first one I spoke to rang alarm bells by suggesting that it could need a new head (if yours DOES need a new head, don't despair; I found a brand new one on Ebay for £349, just in case! ), OR it might even need a new engine!

My advise is to get it in to a local specialist before anything gest really damaged. He can check it out and would tell you immediately whether it was the head gasket.

Thanks for the replies.

No there is no sign of water in the oil or oil in the water. I have the use of another car at the moment so I think I'll take the head of anyway and give it a good check over.

From what I can see from the manual all I need to take off are the manifolds, injectors, glow plugs water pump. Is there anything else that should be removed.

I think you need to take off the rocker's as well, take out the pushrods, when you do this and the head bolts poke them all through a piece of marked up cardboard to keep them in the correct order.

this is what mine looked like when it had gone, I thnk if you take the head off you will need a new gasket as you can't use the old one.

James said:

this is what mine looked like when it had gone, I thnk if you take the head off you will need a new gasket as you can't use the old one.

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Isn't it the gasket that's causing the problem?

Yes but pete was sugesting that he would take the head off to have a look at it.

Yes. I'm going to make a start today. I'm hoping the head will come off easily, get skimmed if needed and back over the weekend. I was planning on a new gasket and head set. I've also read in one of the threads that new head bolts are needed. Will the timing or anything else need doing (other than setting the tappets)?

James said:

Yes but pete was sugesting that he would take the head off to have a look at it.

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Aaaah, gotcha! Too busy looking at work stuff, when I should be concentrating on extracurricular stuff!

Pete M said:

Yes. I'm going to make a start today. I'm hoping the head will come off easily, get skimmed if needed and back over the weekend. I was planning on a new gasket and head set. I've also read in one of the threads that new head bolts are needed. Will the timing or anything else need doing (other than setting the tappets)?

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New head bolts are not needed, if the old ones are OK. If you use the old ones, you might want to give them a tweak after a few weeks, as they might have settled in a tad.

My head didn't need skimming, and I'm told that skimming Disco heads is not a good thing to do, although I must admit I don't know why.

I'm still humming and aahing over whether I should steam clean the bottom half of the engine, since the head is all nice and clean!

As long as you only take the head off then you don't touch any of the timing.

I did get my head skimmed as it was not too bad but needed doing. I was also recomended to go up a gasket size to keep the compresion ratio simiar.

Make sure that you get the right type of head gasket to match your engine 1 2 or 3 holed one Fitting an incorrect gasket can do a lot of damage.Head bolts are not needed just clean locktite from threads bolts and block. Otherwise you can get incorrect torque settings when rebuilding.-----BB

Well the heads off and has gone on No4 cylinder into the push rod port plus another small crack towards the bulkhead. So I'm guessing the white smoke was from oil not water.
Head is booked in for a skim in the morning.
Parts ordered from Paddock - they were half the price of my local dealer plus next day delivery.

One thing though, there is oil in the pipe to the turbo. Could this be from the crank gases?

Thanks for all your help, although I'll be back for more during the rebuild!

Pete M said:

Thanks for all your help, although I'll be back for more during the rebuild!

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How'd it go Pete?

Got the head back from skimming, pressure test was OK. Rebuilt the engine with no problems. Filled with oil and water/glycol and started after a while ( I had changed the fuel filter as well so obviously needed filling!). Left her ticking over while checking for leaks then went for a drive. After half a mile the temp gauge was on full scale. Turned round and drove home slowly and checked the cooling system only to find that the hoses to and from the heater matrix were cold! Undid the filler cap on the header tank and the pressure was unbelievable. Once the engine had cooled down I put more water and tried to prime the system again as the manual tells you to only the water blew out from the top of the header tank as the engine started.

By thing time I was really sick. Discovery still not working and Landyzone not working. Spoke to a few people who suggested an air lock or head gasket. After hours trying to get any air out I threw the towel in and took the head off again. Nothing found so rebuilt again, this time though I spent a bit extra and got a pucker head gasket from local Landy dealer. It might have been £10 more than than the one from Paddock but this one was 4 layers of metal, all contoured around the various port. Anyway, when I put the water in the cooling system it stayed in but still wouldn't cool pump round. So with the help of a mate I slackened off all the hoses, fitted a hose pipe to the radiator bleed and filled the system till water came out of everywhere, left it 5 minutes the tightened the jubilee clips one at a time leaving just the small hose off the top of the thermastat housing for the water to come out of. Stopped the hose, replaced the last hose and plug on the radiator and turned the key. At last it all worked. I ran it for a while on the drive, went for a drive and the temp gauge stayed about half way all the time. Then I let it cool down and took enough water out to get the anti freeze in. Upto now its been great, all I need now is more power especially between 1000 and 2000 rpm when setting off.

Lesson learned - spend a bit extra on crucial gaskets. It can save hours of work.

ps Welcome back Landyzone.