Getting black smoke underload sporadically from my 81 2.25 Diesel along with what I believe to be a noisy big end bearing, so some action required in the engine department.

Just wondering which route is going to be the most viable to getting a powerplant in that is not going to mean a second mortgage - any suggestions?

If it was me I would replace!!!

I guess it depends on your abilities. I am rubbish with engines - it terrifies me to start taking heads off and all that stuff so I decided to get a 2.5 N/A from ebay (would have liked a 200tdi but there wasn't one around at the time for sensible money) remove the 2.25 and bung the 2.5 straight in there. It wasn't complicated but it was time consuming (especially doing it on my own). I think the whole lot cost me about £150 including buying the engine. That was about 3 years ago and I haven't had to touch the engine yet! When it eventually gives up I will just buy another one. I keep thinking what a great idea it would be to buy another 2.5 or 200tdi to strip down and rebuild so that I learned how to work on engines but if i'm honest I havent got the room here to do it so until the wife lets me convert the back garden into one big workshop I will just have to dream!

Agent Koala said:

Getting black smoke underload sporadically from my 81 2.25 Diesel along with what I believe to be a noisy big end bearing, so some action required in the engine department.

Just wondering which route is going to be the most viable to getting a powerplant in that is not going to mean a second mortgage - any suggestions?

Click to expand...

ah ........ rebuild it

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f6/well-needed-restoration-my-series-2a-76144.html

pages 3 onwards of my efforts, dont bin a good engine fer the sake of a new set of bearings

That is a beauty! Most of the pics of mine I took because I was in such a state of shock about what the hell I was doing to my lovely old piece of junk I thought I had better have something to remind me never to do it again! Although I do have one of her when she was nearly "finished".

I think I may have to start the process of trying to learn something about engines (it would mean clearing out all the stuff I have lying around in the shed but that could be a good thing).

I quite fancy having a "spare" for when the 2.5N/A eventually gives up. I dont think it would be possible for me to take out the one that's in there (when it goes tits-up) and "learn" on that as I need to use my landy every day so whereas a straight engine swap could probably be done in a few days it would take ages for me to work out what was wrong with the engine then order the parts then make an almighty cock up and reorder the parts again etc etc. Listening to people harping on and on about how good the 200tdi's are makes me think I should invest in a beaten up one of those from ebay so I could strip it bare and rebuild it back up. It's a choice between that and another 2.5N/A which I think would be easier to work on. I'm pretty happy with the one that's in her at the moment although I could really do with some sound proofing - I couldn't take her on long drives up a motorway (She will do 65 quite happily all day long but my ears couldn't take it for more than 10 minutes). The 2.5N/A is perfect for chuntering around the little Norfolk lanes but maybe if I had a 200tdi I could go further afield? Someone mentioned that the 200tdi is overpowered for an 88 and never gets to use it's full power but with mine being a 109 I was thinking the fact that it's overpowered might mean it didn't have to rev so hard and therefore my ears wouldn't suffer so much?

Anyway, I think I have hijacked this thread for long enough - my apologies! It's a slow slow Friday and all I can think about is a couple of glasses of red when I get home

90truckcab said:

ah ........ rebuild it

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f6/well-needed-restoration-my-series-2a-76144.html

pages 3 onwards of my efforts, dont bin a good engine fer the sake of a new set of bearings

Click to expand...

That is a fantastic post by the way - have just spent ages looking through it all.

90truckcab said:

ah ........ rebuild it

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f6/well-needed-restoration-my-series-2a-76144.html

pages 3 onwards of my efforts, dont bin a good engine fer the sake of a new set of bearings

Click to expand...

You may be being a bit quick of the mark here, a dribling injector will cause a noise like a big end gone and black smoke, run the enjine untill it happens the slaken the injector pipes in turn and see if the noise stops,