I have been perusing the replies, having recently purchased a 300 tdi I the generic characteristics of the vehicle was also uppermost in my mind. The posts in this forum have been both amusing and informative and whilst i still wait for the carpets to dry as the water ingress got to the stage where i was intending to park the landy on the driveway and buy some KOI carp to swim around I eventually found the rubber surround for the windscreen had a tendency to allow water in. Having solved this and the brief interlude where the landy was destined to become paper clips. I am now joyously driving the Landy.. However I am retaining the option of a mobile fish pond should the prices of duty extend beyond what can be termed as reasonable.

Coppergrease, you did not cause your problem with the engine by nipping up the rocker cover bolts because it was your head gasket that had failed, most likely on no 4. The combustion gases then pressurise the engine and blow the oil from the breather into the turbo with the results that you had. This was a more common fault with 200tdis, they strengthened the head gasket eventually. If you want to prevent this happening you can vent the breather into an old oil can, or even into the chassis and oil it as you drive! This is a handy trick with the old TD engines which tend to 'breathe' very heavily and fill the air filter up with oil. I don't suppose it is really legal though.

hey, i gotta say this place is weird, well some of ya. however i like that in some people.
i also drive a '71 volkswagen transporter and god that really does mark its spot, but the vw air cooled engine will run with almost no oil in, a truelly remarkable engine, i wonder what ferdinand porsche would make of the 300tdi engine eh?

Hi Stig,
Correct to let the engine idle for at least a minute before switch off. But better reason for doing so is to allow the turbo to slow down before oil pressure dies. The turbo is spinning at arround 150000 rpm or more, the shaft floats on oil and obviously relies on engine oil pressure. If you switch off while the turbo is spinning fast you can guess the rest.
Regards
RichardG