Motard
Active Member
Are you sitting comfortably? This is going to be a long one!
Waaaaaaaaaaay back in September some of you may remember that I posted about laying down a smoke screen. Turned out to be the head gasket. Not rocket science I thought, not very busy at that time so do it myself even if it takes a week. That was possibly one of the worst decisions I have ever taken! My first reaction was to take it directly to the auction, I should have done so.
Removing the chain guide pin has already been covered in a previous post so I won't go into it again other than to say it was a nightmare.
Great advice from Ian Walker sorted that one and I removed the head. Sure enough the gasket had gone in the usual place for this engine between No 1 cylinder and the oil gallery between it and the timing chain case. The new gasket was reinforced in that area.
After buying this car and getting used to the sounds of it there was one sound that I couldn't figure out, people with more know how than I reckoned it was a hydraulic tappet.
With this in mind I performed the check on the tappet buckets, they all failed! The way to test these things is iffy at best so I, and others, thought I had made a mess of it.
A highly experienced MB mechanic on the end of a phone in UK said he had never heard of a situation where all the tappets were duff and made derogatory comments about the shape of my head.
Had the cylinder head checked to see if it needed grinding, it didn't. Blew out the galleries with a compressor etc. Renewed the valve stem seals, ground the valves and put them back where they came from. Everything was so clean even bacteria would starve on this cylinder head!
Put it all back together, slowly but very precisely.
Turned the starter and it fired up as soon as the diesel got through. It ran perfectly but...that noise was still there, no worse but no better either.
A diesel mechanic suggested it might be the injector pump so off I went to the stealers to book it in which they did for a week later. On the way back there was a funny loud hissing noise and a serious misfire. Pulled over and rang the stealers, they reckoned it sounded like an injector problem and said to return to them. On the way back an even louder hissing noise and the engine ceased to fire. Towed it to the stealers, took the oil filler cap off and damage to a cam was plainly visible. They refused to work on it as I had done the head gasket so towed it home. Took the rocker cover off and three tappet buckets had disintegrated removing chunks from the head at the same time. The camshaft had sheared the retaining pin and a large piece of flange where it meets the timing chain sprocket.
This car had already given me more grief than any in my life by this time.
The choice was another head or another engine. Problem with the former was that I didn't know the extent of the damage other than that to the head. The cost of a recon engine without an exchange unit was over £2.5k so the scrappers was the most likely alternative.
I looked around Europe and Ian Walker searched the UK for an engine, we didn't find one that would be economically viable.
After buying this car I bought a baggage cover from an outfit called Mercland near Trowbridge, at £50 it seemed a good deal and was exactly as described so I thought I would call them. Spoke to Nick, yes they had an engine that came out of his own car, he replaced it with a twin cam for more power. Did a deal at £550.
Put the thing in, the engine ran and sounded good, great oil pressure but the clutch wouldn't work even though I bled it countless times. My original engine had a dual mass flywheel and the replacement a normal one so the gearbox wasn't compatible. Removed the gearbox and swapped the flywheels...everything worked! Didn't I just love all this!!
I didn't post earlier because I was sure it would expire the day after. It has now done 400 kms and is running well other than it doesn't reach 80c running temperature for some reason. Any ideas anyone?
During all these months Ian Walker has helped in so many ways. Always there for a chat, bucket loads of really good practical advice and lots of effort to keep me motivated.
Had he not been involved I would most certainly have scrapped the car. The fact that it is running again now owes so much to him. He offered to do the head for me if I could get it to him in Preston. He then offered to come down here and help me put the engine in! Truly Mr Nice Guy.
Looking back at the whole episode and how I suffered crawling around under the thing I don't know whether I should hug him or shoot him, he is due down here in April so no doubt this issue will reach a conclusion
Mercland at Trowbridge specialise in Merc and Landrover bits, can't praise them enough. They tell it how it is and charge very reasonable prices. Nick is the man, I called him to say thanks for the engine and he said he will give discounts to members of this forum.
That's it! Hopefully the end of a nightmare.
Bob
Waaaaaaaaaaay back in September some of you may remember that I posted about laying down a smoke screen. Turned out to be the head gasket. Not rocket science I thought, not very busy at that time so do it myself even if it takes a week. That was possibly one of the worst decisions I have ever taken! My first reaction was to take it directly to the auction, I should have done so.
Removing the chain guide pin has already been covered in a previous post so I won't go into it again other than to say it was a nightmare.
Great advice from Ian Walker sorted that one and I removed the head. Sure enough the gasket had gone in the usual place for this engine between No 1 cylinder and the oil gallery between it and the timing chain case. The new gasket was reinforced in that area.
After buying this car and getting used to the sounds of it there was one sound that I couldn't figure out, people with more know how than I reckoned it was a hydraulic tappet.
With this in mind I performed the check on the tappet buckets, they all failed! The way to test these things is iffy at best so I, and others, thought I had made a mess of it.
A highly experienced MB mechanic on the end of a phone in UK said he had never heard of a situation where all the tappets were duff and made derogatory comments about the shape of my head.
Had the cylinder head checked to see if it needed grinding, it didn't. Blew out the galleries with a compressor etc. Renewed the valve stem seals, ground the valves and put them back where they came from. Everything was so clean even bacteria would starve on this cylinder head!
Put it all back together, slowly but very precisely.
Turned the starter and it fired up as soon as the diesel got through. It ran perfectly but...that noise was still there, no worse but no better either.
A diesel mechanic suggested it might be the injector pump so off I went to the stealers to book it in which they did for a week later. On the way back there was a funny loud hissing noise and a serious misfire. Pulled over and rang the stealers, they reckoned it sounded like an injector problem and said to return to them. On the way back an even louder hissing noise and the engine ceased to fire. Towed it to the stealers, took the oil filler cap off and damage to a cam was plainly visible. They refused to work on it as I had done the head gasket so towed it home. Took the rocker cover off and three tappet buckets had disintegrated removing chunks from the head at the same time. The camshaft had sheared the retaining pin and a large piece of flange where it meets the timing chain sprocket.
This car had already given me more grief than any in my life by this time.
The choice was another head or another engine. Problem with the former was that I didn't know the extent of the damage other than that to the head. The cost of a recon engine without an exchange unit was over £2.5k so the scrappers was the most likely alternative.
I looked around Europe and Ian Walker searched the UK for an engine, we didn't find one that would be economically viable.
After buying this car I bought a baggage cover from an outfit called Mercland near Trowbridge, at £50 it seemed a good deal and was exactly as described so I thought I would call them. Spoke to Nick, yes they had an engine that came out of his own car, he replaced it with a twin cam for more power. Did a deal at £550.
Put the thing in, the engine ran and sounded good, great oil pressure but the clutch wouldn't work even though I bled it countless times. My original engine had a dual mass flywheel and the replacement a normal one so the gearbox wasn't compatible. Removed the gearbox and swapped the flywheels...everything worked! Didn't I just love all this!!
I didn't post earlier because I was sure it would expire the day after. It has now done 400 kms and is running well other than it doesn't reach 80c running temperature for some reason. Any ideas anyone?
During all these months Ian Walker has helped in so many ways. Always there for a chat, bucket loads of really good practical advice and lots of effort to keep me motivated.
Had he not been involved I would most certainly have scrapped the car. The fact that it is running again now owes so much to him. He offered to do the head for me if I could get it to him in Preston. He then offered to come down here and help me put the engine in! Truly Mr Nice Guy.
Looking back at the whole episode and how I suffered crawling around under the thing I don't know whether I should hug him or shoot him, he is due down here in April so no doubt this issue will reach a conclusion
Mercland at Trowbridge specialise in Merc and Landrover bits, can't praise them enough. They tell it how it is and charge very reasonable prices. Nick is the man, I called him to say thanks for the engine and he said he will give discounts to members of this forum.
That's it! Hopefully the end of a nightmare.
Bob
At least now "touch wood" you wont be having anymore probs from the engine.
