Help! Lady Landy in distress...

Hello all,

My landy is in distress and before I get depressed and declare her a terminal case and start foraging for a new engine I wondered if anyone had any ideas. I've a J reg Defender 110, ex-army, normally aspirated engine, symptoms so far...

Sounds like a jumbo jet where we previously had a nice diesel rumble, blue & white smoke from the exhaust, pretty much constantly, a horrible knocking/clanging sound from the engine.

I've (well I say me, I mean my Dad with me peering in holding the oily rag) checked all the usual ports of call and nothing can be seen that makes you go "Ah ha! That's the culprit".

A couple of suggestions so far for a diagnostic is piston broke (aren't we all) and injector pumps, and I've no idea how much it could cost me to repair.

And all this happened exactly a week after she passed her MOT when all was well.

The major problem I've got is a) she's not really roadworthy so driving her anywhere is dicey as I can't be sure she won't conk out on me in a puff of smoke and b) a good reliable mechanic that doesn't cost the earth and won't rip off a girl becasue she doesn't know what the engine parts are called but does know that its not working when she presses the start button, does anyone know of one?

Any suggestions chaps (and ladies)?

Justinelily

you might wanna mention where yer from as a good free mechanic in outer mogolia int a lot of good to you if yer in scouseland

Knew there was something missing....Southmapton, city cente

blue and white smoke sounds horribly like a head gasket failure to me... but the 'orrible clanging knockin' jumbo jet sounds might mean it's a lot worser.

If you ain't tried this already... take the glow plugs out and shine a torch down each of the bores while someone turns the engine over with a socket and ratchet on the crankshaft pulley... you'll see the crown of each piston as it comes up in the bore and you should easily see if there's something wrong with any of 'em.