Kurt

Often wonder why you don’t see any of the aftermarket heads from the Far East for the 200tdi like you do with the 300? Is it radically different?

Just to add. Always use a hex socket to undo the 3 10mm head bolts on the pulley. They will round off otherwise. Dont ask me how i know this 😵

Unable to get this to the machine shop for another week so had a play around with a telescoping bore guage ( calibrated using calibration bar out of my unfortunately to small for the job external mic! ) just checked each cylinder once from side to manifolds side of engine around 40mm below block face. 90.49 90.48 90.47 90.48 Pretty much all bang on standard bore spec.

Hi i replaced mine with a hybrid turbo as the oil seals had gone on my old one and i would not say its any more powerful ( still standard boost ) but i find it has made the lump far more pleasurable to drive low down the in the rev range as it comes on boost earlier.

Checked Conrod bushes earlier and it is possible to rock the wrist pin ever so slightly when inserted into the rod..... I would say the amount of play is the same on all four. Is this acceptable?

Thats where I plan on using for most of my bits for the rebuild. Great service and always happy to answer any questions.

^ Thanks Western. That reminds me i need to ask them about honing of the cylinders. Checking the kolbenshmidt site the top rings are chrome plated i am under the belief that these need a slightly more aggresive hone grit to help them bed in properly. Job for tonight has been to clean off gasket remenants and carefull polish with 2000grit paper using piece of float glass and check block face for straightness. Only spot i could get a feeler guage in was when measured diagonally between 2 and 3 cylinder at 0.03 ( 0.04 at a push... quite tight ).

Called the machine shop today regarding bores and i am going to drop it in with them. He suggested maximum oversize pistons or otherwise sleeve if the scratch is to deep. Hoping there is enough meat left on the block to avoid the later. All bearings including mains pretty good with no scoring or copper showing. Std size shells. All journals apart from the pit on number 1 look good will measure with external caliper sometime this week.

Beginning to now wonder if i managed to hit the journal with the rod when removing the piston.... 🙄

My current 300 has several on number 4 cylinder big enough to feel with a fingernail. Same as you i noticed mine when i replaced head gasket.

Managed to remove the crank rods and pistons today along with camshaft. Mains and big end bearings all seem ok though i will be replacing anyway. Camshaft forward most bearing has a little wear. Crankshaft journal number 1 conrod has 2 small marks / pits though nothing on the corresponding bearing surface. Wondering if it will be fine with a polish or will require regrinding?

Yep was a little dissapointing especially given the general condition of the bores otherwise which i was going to measure with a view to just re-honing if possible but going to leave that for the machine shop now.

Bore score on number 1 cylinder 😩 can feel with fingernail and just about hang my fingernail up on. May require rebore i think. Will get all 4 done and planning on using genuine pistons. Checked crankshaft endfloat earlier and measured bang in the middle of acceptable spec.

Crankshaft gear. This proved a bit awkward to remove. No amount of levering would budge it. I soon decided i had to construct some sort of puller to have a fair chance of removing. I ended up drilling and tapping the m5 holes to accept the m8 long bolts from my timing kit. It was then i noticed that the pulley puller had extra holes in which corresponded with the ones on the gear result! Once off a noticable amount of gunk/rust was evident. No damage to the crank nose , woodruff key or corresponding keywey in the gear though which was nice 😊.

Checking the camshaft endfloat before i remove ( and giving me a chance to try my new dti guage out 😂 ) and finding it to be within spec.