The problem continues

Well the new head gasket doesn't seem to have fixed my crank case / heavy breathing problem and its chugging just as much as ever, so I am now in a bit of a dilemma and would appreciate your help, advice and personal opinions!

The results of my compression test showed numbers 1, 2 and 3 cylinders all having exactly 94psi, where as cylinder 4 was only at 88 psi. Is that really a big enough amount of compression being lost into the crank case to point towards a broken piston ring, or multiple broken rings in that bore? The 6psi loss seems insignificant to me, but then again it could be the cause of the problems.

I've adjusted and fined tuned all of my tappets so that the engine is running a lot quieter and the gap between the valve caps and the rocker arms is 0.25mm in each case. Is it possible that there could be some pressure escaping through the valves somehow? Oil is still being blown out of the dipstick tube and its just above the lowest fill level.

What else could possibly be causing the problem? For the sake of £8 for a new set of piston rings (if no.4 piston is jiggered) it's better than paying £350 for a 200tdi and then fitting that.

Any ideas as to what I should try next, or what test I can try that will almost definitely pinpoint the problem?

Thanks in advance for any help!
-Pos

Hi Pos
keeping my ears open cos ive got the same prob. Im doing a transplant next year now, so i dont want to spend too much time or money for money. this years gonna be a lift kit.

The time to look at your rings was when you had the head off , have you checked your engine breather to the inlet manifold ?
Crank case compresion is generally caused by piston blow by anything going past valves will either go out exhaust or cause problems with induction , so you can discount that. what engine you talking about ?

2.5 N/A. I've only just rebuilt it with new pistons and rings all round. Bores all deglazed and new bearings. My local garage told me that the head gasket had gone so I've just put a new one on and the same problem persists. I can only imagine it being a ring or two that have gone but I don't want to think that considering they were al changed about 1500 to 2000 miles ago.

Cheers
-Pos

Pos I am now certain its my bores that are worn cos as you know i done exactly the same overhaul when you done yours. Thats why ive given up looking for other reasons and gonna do a transplant next year so hopfully it will last till then.

I'm going to ring the garage tomorrow and ask how much they want for one of their TDI's. They had about 5 last time I went down. It'd be just as quick to swap as it would be to take the head off again etc.

dont forget its not a straight swap though Pos

Pos how did you go about checking for ovality and parallelism of the bore ?

you might be lucky and find that you do have another split or failed ring but there does come a time in every engines life when the time it would take to fault find/replace is just not cost effective

i would expect that your more than keen to have this sorted but dont just keep trying the easy jobs (like HG) as you'll be wasting yer time and money

maybe it's time to start looking for a replacement ?

such as 2.5 N/A DIESEL ENGINE on eBay, also, Land Rover, Car Parts, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 21-May-08 11:27:55 BST)

Theres an old sherpa engine on there at the mo as well Pos. Its exactly the same engine and will be a lot cheaper that a tdi transplant, if the low power of an na suffices.

When you had the head off you say the bored looked new still, how well did you check them? I had a similar problem in my 2nd engine, but it was pressurising the coolant lots, and that was caused by a cracked block.
As for a TDi transplant, i thought about it and still am - im trying to work out if a disco engine will fit I have been told that many stories about this, like piutting the disco bellhousing on the normal gearbox, (won't this make the input shaft not reach the flywheel?) Moving the engine mounts back and extanding the hoses, (Makes them all leak) And then the exhuast don't fit properly you need to get a conversion for it, and you will have to replace your entire exhuast i think also.

And then you have to tell the insurers...

Assuming you have checked the top breather, you have a new head gasket and no cracked block and or head, then I would suspect that cylinder. Take out the glow plug for that cylinder, start the engine (yes it will struggle) and see if your blow-by problem is still there.

Oh, you can do a complete engine transplant in 4 hours on ur mates driveway if you try

boydy1989 said:

Oh, you can do a complete engine transplant in 4 hours on ur mates driveway if you try

Click to expand...

maybe with 6 mates, all of who know what they are doing, and with everything you need to hand and if every nut and bolt comes undone without a fight .... i'd not rely on a conversion that'd been done that quick unless Lewis Hamiltons pit crew have a side line in transplants

denis the menace said:

Theres an old sherpa engine on there at the mo as well Pos. Its exactly the same engine and will be a lot cheaper that a tdi transplant, if the low power of an na suffices.

Click to expand...

Its the sherpa engine I have, its slightly more powerful and you can do your timing belt in about 30minutes.

It is the landrover engine, just it was modded slightly for LDV, the timing chest is different, and the pump sits a little higher (so the injector pipes are different) and the timing belt has 124 teeth as apposed to 128.

A good engine.

Sean said:

maybe with 6 mates, all of who know what they are doing, and with everything you need to hand and if every nut and bolt comes undone without a fight .... i'd not rely on a conversion that'd been done that quick unless Lewis Hamiltons pit crew have a side line in transplants

Click to expand...

Transplant, not conversion... Me and 2 mates did it, but it had been done a week prior to that anyway so yeah everything was loose. I was still impressed though, removal of old 12J and refit of new one an all...

Pos if you do go for a 200tdi engine. This guy has the downpipe conversion discovery tdi engine into 90/110 defender seriies 3 on eBay, also, Land Rover, Car Parts, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 19-May-08 18:31:51 BST)