Marks 110

Cheers for the offer Les but I have a spare engine in the garage so I'll pinch a conrod from that if I need to.

Not sure if to get engine reconditioned whilst its out. Its done 160,000 miles and uses about a litre of oil every 1000 miles although it only smokes significantly (blue smoke) for a couple of minutes after cold starting, not when warm (valve seals?). Only other smoke is black under hard acceleration?

Yes head gasket had blown from waterway and to cylinder and one of the pushrods had also bent slightly. Just had injectors tested and all ok.

Yes that seems to make sense. Thanks Engine has just completed a 1000 mile trip and ran fine with bent con-rod although I did notice fuel consumption down to 26 when it used to do over 30. Noticed a slight lack of power as well, especially on long hills. Mark

Thanks for your help, I've just replaced the head and will see how she runs tomorrow. I'm due to be doing a rebuild anyway (new chassis, side frames, rebuilt axles etc)so I'm taking the 110 off the road in few weeks time. I'll sort the engine out properly then, maybe get it reconditioned as I want it to be reliable. I'm sure there will be plenty more questions to come in the next few months. Cheers Mark

Yeah, Thinking about it to lose 1mm in length would require quite a bend. I reckon it might have happened when the head gasket went about 6 months before and thats why I,'ve had problems since. I must admit to not checking it properly last time,I just fitted a new gasket in a bit of a rush to get it running. Some say you can get the ladder frame off with engine in situ but I'm not so sure. Mark

The piston is only down about 1mm from the others so it probably isn't to bad, am wondering whether to risk running just for next week? I assume I just need to undo the 2 main bearing bolts and push the conrod and piston up. Is it a good idea to use a conrod from another engine just as a temporary fix and should I use the bearings from that engine as well? Mark

Hi all Just about to replace the head gasket on my 200tdi defender (original def engine) but noticed No.4 piston isn't protruding from the block when the engine is rotated. I know for a fact it used to protrude by 0.61mm as I measured them and wrote the figures down in the manual when I first did a head gasket. The other pistons seem ok so I can only assume the no.4 conrod has bent, probably due to the head gasket failure. As I've never actually been inside the engine before can anybody tell me how easy it would be to check the conrod? (Can you see by just removing the sump?) Also can the conrod be changed with the engine still in the vehicle? I have a spare 200tdi engine from a disco in the garage and thought I could maybe borrow a conrod from that as I ideally need to use the vehicle on Saturday. I presume that running the engine with a bent conrod will cause further damage. mark

I presume you're using an aftermarket gauge to get these precise figures. Mine was showing 83 to 86 just before my head gasket went. Once I've got the head sorted will fit a new rad and see if it makes any difference. Mark

Cheers les Just had the landy delivered back from france this afternoon. Whipped the head off straight away and sure enough the gasket had gone in exactly the same place (corroded waterway). Think i'm going to get the unit reconditioned at turners (I want it to be reliable for more trips abroad)at least i'll have their opinion on whether the head is re-usable. I'll use an elring gasket and new set of bolts as well, hopefully it will be good for a few years this time Mark

Hi Les, What exactly is a head saver and where would I go about getting one? Someone suggested alloy welding the head where it is damaged and then having it skimmed, have you heard of anybody doing this?

Yes the head was skimmed last time. This removed most of the pitting but there was still some around the waterways. As Les says it may well have been run without proper anti-freeze in the past. The gasket i used was from paddocks, only a cheap one. I have a new gasket which I'd ordered from craddocks as a spare. This one was more than twice the price and consists of three separate metal shims. Has anybody used these? Quite frankly I don't mind paying for the best gasket available, but which is the best? Would I be better off going to a LR dealers for a genuine one?

Well not an entirely sucessful trip to France! Head gasket blew right outside the airport in Nantes and I'm still waiting to get the landy back. Even though I had a new gasket and could have fixed it the breakdown assistance insisted in taking the 110 to garage which had no mechanics avalable for 2 weeks! Anyway I knew something was wrong when my daily checks revealed that the coolant was still pressurised when cold. Then the level of the coolant began to go up! Eventually when I removed the cap on the expansion tank (cold engine) coolant began to overflow. Further investigations revealed that the top few inches of the radiator was full of air. I presume the combustion gases must have entered the cooling system and collected in the top of the radiator. I,m beginning to think that maybe the head is cracked or has gone porous. Has anybody else had these symptoms? It's the third head gasket in about two years. I've just spoken to a friend of mine with a 200tdi and his gasket has also gone with exactly the same symptoms. The new gasket had only lasted four years. As 200tdi heads are no longer available new this could be a problem. I know there are plenty of disco heads around but I guess they will all be in a similar condition. When the head was last removed the aluminium seemed to be corroded around the coolant passageways which is where it blew. I'm thinking of sourcing a disco head and sending it to Turners for reconditioning as I've lost faith in the original. Has anybody else had similar problems with the 200tdi it seems the head/gasket is about the only weakness with these engines. Cheers Mark

Have always used electricians tape over the moulded bit on the headlamp lens and never had a problem

Had almost identical damage to my 110 after a mate crashed it. Insurance decided it was write off and finally paid out after I refused the first offer, got an extra 500 quid although it was still quite low. I then bought the vehicle back off them for 650 quid and repaired it myself ending up about a grand better off.(took about a day and a half) My radiator and intercooler were damaged quite badly damaged but a local radiator specialist recored the radiator and mended the intercooler for about £75. I used a company in Leeds called PRB for 2nd hand parts IIRC got everything I needed some bits were virtually brand new anyway. Spraying for bumper and wing was about £150-200. Found the assessors and engineers to be absolutely clueless and seemed to speak to the insurance company every day for about 5 weeks (didn't help that the landy was in france) but got it sorted in the end. good luck mark

Remember doing mine with one of those offline adaptors on a 3/8 socket which allows a slight angle to be put on the extension bar. IIRC the top bolts can be done from the engine bay sticking your handsdown by the corner of the wing and the bottom bolts can be done from underneath.

Just used tiny screws to secure mine - the way landrover did it!

Thanks for the inspiration with the gauges 'zulublue'. I was thinking of putting an electric fan on as a back up with just a simple on/off switch in the cab. I have an old kenlowe in the shed which I removed when the mountings wore holes in the radiator (not the greatest design, the thermostat pocket in the top hose also tended to leak). Maybe I should look at making some better mounts or do what I used to do and just keep the viscous fan and the cranked spanner in the back in case of an overheating emergency? Cheers again, Mark

Just been for a test drive with new digital temp gauge wired up. Temp rose steadily until it reached 85 degrees before suddenly jumping back to 82 (I guess this is the thermostat opening). It then stayed between 82 and 86 for the duration of the run. On the same run with the standard LR gauges (one of which was brand new) the temp was almost in the red! Anyway I feel more a lot more confident the engine isn't overheating but have no idea why the other gauges and new sender and wiring showed a high temp. Obviously not totally out of the woods yet (I don't know how accurate the gauge is, I might test it against a thermometer to be sure) but will go for a longer test run at the weekend before heading off to France next week. Thanks for all your help, I wouldn't have got this far without you guys making the effort to reply to the posts.

Found that my metric tap and die set does actually have a 1/8 npt tap in it so I can now make the adaptor out of an old sender as in the thread mentioned above. Will crack on as soon as new gauge arives and let you know the outcome.

So is the thread on the 200tdi sender 3/8 npt?

Sorry a bit confused Have ordered a different gauge which comes with a 1/8 npt fitting so what adapter would i need? I can't see any that are 1/0npt? Had a quick look at my old sender and it looks more like 3/8 npt (close to M16 x1.5 but not) although I havn't got a thread pitch gauge for this size

Good luck with your trip. If yours has been this way for years maybe I should risk mine in france. Dont really fancy going in the megane. I measured the reisitance from the grounding on the sender to the battery earth terminal which was basically nothing so that can't be the problem.

Cheers Just a thought if there is a high resistance in the battery earth strap would this affect the reading on the gauge? Is there a way to test this, I suppose I could measure the resistance between the grounding point of the sender unit to the battery earthing terminal.

Cheers, it looks like they may be worth a try. Don't suppose you happen to know what thread it is for sender on a 200tdi?