Aberdeen Angus

Hello again, Spring has arrived and with the warmer days some progress made on the fleet. White has had its injection pump timeing checked and with the reconditioned injectors starts a bit easier and runs quite well, all things considered. I checked the compression and on my guage it was 1-4, 390,250,100,400 which might explain some of the problems I have been having! Any suggestions what might be a likely cause- head gasket, head, valves? and any further test I could try to narrow it down? Red's compression test, again 1-4, 420,420,420, 320 Cyl 4 was the one which had seized on the big end and although I had checked the bore and rings and ground in the valves I may have missed something.... I finally got round to having a good look at"blue" when the snow had cleared- turns out its actually Conison green with a nice Webasto heater, DEFA battery management extras, electric trailer braking system, fancy Thule roofrack and completely rotten chassis. Compression on this one was 1-4, 400,400,400,400 so that seems the way it should be. My current plan is to get the engine from green and have a good check over it on the bench. I think Red's engine will also have to come out, and at that stage I will decide which to refit. Bit stuck with White, it keeps going but I dont want to try it with too much heavy towing work until I get a better idea of what is needed. Any suggestions as to what I might try next? Angus

So Spring is on its way, at least back here in Scotland! Meanwhile back in Sweden its still-15C at nights and the time for Discovery jobs is slowly approaching. I did follow up on some of the suggestions from forum members and have made some progress on White, well at least for few days-changed injectors and adjusted the pump timing a bit and much better starting and almost some power and no smoke... but it only lasted for a few days then back to poor starting, so still a bit of diagnostics and adjustments to make. Meanwhile back home on Skye for a couple of weeks my old 200tdi which has been sat for almost a year started instantly!! Not the same story for the old G reg V8 manual which is beyond my capacity to renovate. It has been sitting for almost 10 years now, LPG converted with a spare V8 engine and autobox. It must have some value to someone, so if anyone is interested, its at the South End of the Island of Skye and could be free to a good home if trailered away- seems a shame to scrap it, but the big hungry crushing truck is due on April 5th...... So for interest, the picture of what awaits me when I go back to Sweden at Easter- the Best 4x4xfar....... Good Easter to you All, Angus

Hello Again, Another 6in of snow overnight so most of the day ploughing snow, so no chance to try out any of the good suggestions gratefully received. Will get to it after Christmas and try to give the results(if any) on here. Many Thanks to One and All Seasons Greetings, God Jul agus Nollaig Chridheil from Leksand

What a wonderful forum, helpful hints from all quarters! Have had a long look at their website now and will contact them when I get my pump chessgame underway, Angus

Hi again, Big Thanks for all of you to take time to reply to my somewhat vague set of problems, and for suggesting some positive lines of attack. I now have a bit of faith that I might be on the right track and have some experienced people that I can bounce ideas/problems off when I get to that stage in the weeks after Christmas. What would help me most right now would be a pointer to a step by step guide to pump timing and compression checking and maybe eventual engine removal so that when I start I am not messing around wondering in which order to do things. Tobias, I am near Leksand, Dalarna, so a bit away from you, but thanks for the kind offer. Might you be able to recommend anyone/company that could check injectors and the fuel injector pump here in Sweden? Angus

Thanks again for comments, I'm tempted to agree with the possible timing/fuelling issue as, now you have set me thinking, I had a similar problem on a Holder tractor many years ago when the woodruff key on the pump slipped-took ages to diagnose that one.... I'll try to get a methodology going to work through the suggestions prior to setting about moving engines- that is on the list as a last resort! Angus

Hi folks, Thanks for the welcome, and the initial suggestions! Dont really want to go down the auto route as we do a lot of towing and gravel/snow driving and I kind of like the feel of things through a manual, if you know what I mean, especially when towing our two forest horses out to worksites. I have had the Red injectors checked recently and they are OK and have done the White tappets last week so the idea of Red injectors into White is a good one. I have a compression tester, but not got round to getting it out of its box, and figuring out how it works, also a dial guage for checking the pump, although short of hands to get it all done, although both tasks are on the list. Todays job was reshoing one of the horses, so at least we have one way of getting around in the snow! Angus

Hello from Snowy Sweden, New to all of this and in need of a bit of guidance. I have some cold weather and age related problems with my 300Tdi "fleet". In no patriotic way I have three Discoveries, Red, White and Blue in various states of disrepair and would appreciate some guidance/procedures/methods/tips to help get me on my way again. We have had White for a long time, but over the last few winters it has got harder to start, now almost given up completely. Symptoms, when less than -5C hard to start, and when it does, clouds of white smoke, smell of unburnt fuel, low on power. On normal temperature start-up it needs three turns of the ignition key to fire up, then is OK. Glow plugs fine, block heater fitted, lives in unheated carport where it can get down to -30C! Red was running well until it picked up on no4 big end- quite a rattle so stripped down bottom end, "glitter" in oil. Replaced shells, checked head, checked and slipped valves, tappets done etc(twice). Starts really well even at the lower winter temperatures, but lacks power, knocks with a smell of unburnt fuel. It spent 4 months at the local diesel specialist and came back no better, so I feel a bit on my own out here and have lost faith in this engine but the body is very good having lived in France and Argentina before I got it Blue was found locally here in Sweden two weeks ago. Its an automatic with a completely rotten chassis but the engine runs well and came with a comprehensive service record. My plan is to remove the engine from Blue and put in to Red, which is a manual, so have to take off the auto bits and replace with the flywheel and other gearbox parts to fit to the manual box from Red, including changing over the fuel injection pump. I'm sure its not that simple, so any guidance on this proposal welcome. I then intend to try the head from Red onto the White engine to see if that helps to rejuvinate. My problems are compounded by persistant low temperatures, thick snow on the ground and a lack of a workshop, however I have a good deal of optimism, some previous experience of dealing with 300Tdi's and a reasonable set of tools/jacks/spares and am trying to hiresome indoor space for a couple of weeks. What I need form Forum members is an idiots guide to how to go about this fairly ambitious project, as when I sart I dont really want to be rolling around in the snow for too long especially at the time of year when the Discos need to be earning their keep. And yes, I do want do it! Angus