Well I have decided to do the job properly. I have ordered a set of four standard sized piston rings from AllMakes as well as a set of big end shells. I bought eight new follower assemblies last week which are sat ready to drop into the block and my cylinder head is back from the engineering shop with a foray of work carried out (re-cut valve seats and valves, de-coke, skimmed etc.). I drained the oil tonight, took the sump off, oil pump out and I am awaiting the arrival of a bolt extractor tomorrow to get out one rounded off bolt that is holding the ladder frame in place.
On the subject of 200tdi ladder frames, this may (or may not) be of some interest. It is common knowledge that the ladder frame is secured to the fly wheel housing in the Defender variant via a means of four recessed bolts which sit around the bottom edge of the flywheel housing, thus meaning that the engine has to be detached from the bell housing in order to access them. The Discovery variant typically relies on four longer bolts which travel the entire length through the bell housing, flywheel housing and then directly into the ladder frame, meaning that they can be removed without the need to separate the engine from the bell housing. In my case however, I have a 200tdi engine as removed from a Range Rover Classic. It looks exactly the same as the Discovery variant, sharing the same timing case, intake and exhaust manifolds etc. but it appears to have the Defender flywheel housing. I say this because I can quite clearly see that the studs from the flywheel housing pass straight through the bell housing and the nut is on the bell housing side. I can also see a tube like casting in between the lugs that the studs are fastened to meaning that in theory, this engine should have had four ladder frame bolts sat in an array of recesses similar to the Defender. Whether or not this flywheel hosting was fastened to the 200tdi used in the Range Rover Classic as standard is anyone's guess but luckily for me, those ****witt bolts were not in place. I think I might have knowingly removed them before I installed the engine into my 90 a couple of years ago but if not, then I have been exceptionally lucky. I don't think of them as being overly necessary, so it doesn't bother me that much.
Tomorrow night should see the pistons out, the bores deglazed and if my new rings arrive, I will clean out the groves in the pistons and fit the new rings, ensuring they are gapped correctly of course. Does anyone know what gap there should be on a 200tdi piston ring?
All good fun!
-Tom
