monkie

As I understand it, you are correct. Those notches are to allow oil to pass into the bearing surface therfore they should face outwards away from the main bearing housing they sit in so that the notched side is in contact with the rotating crankshaft.

Certainly sounds like something going on with your earths to me. I was thinking about bad earths on your previous thread about the temperature gauge. If all is well on the bulkhead earth that Western suggests, you might have disturbed something when you were changing the temp gauge, I have had this problem occure due to loose earths when fiddling about with gauges, infact my battery charge indicator still doesn't work but as all other gauges currently work I'm leaving it alone!

Richard, mine did this a few years ago. It turned out to be a bad earth on the gauge. No doubt the VDO gauge is better than the original one you removed, but I wonder if a bad earth may have been a factor which you disturbed when fitting the new guage?

Half the fun of owning a Land Rover is taking them apart or wondering what is making a funny noise! They are mostly quite easy to work on with simple tools, not much more that a good socket set, spanners and screw drivers (plus welder) really. Parts are readily available including sections of body and structural parts. Also, this is a great place for advice and bouncing ideas off people who have done this stuff before. As the post above says, make a list and figure out stuff that needs to be done urgently to get it through an MOT then go for the rolling restoration approach - Mine's been rolling for 7 years!

I have a similar thing on my tractor, nothing inside, its just a place for heavy stuff like rust and water to sit before the fuel goes to the filter. I guess it is just to extend the service life of the filter if you are using fuel that has sat around a while in a metal storage tank.

One of the first lessons in Land Rover ownership my 110 taught me was there is no such thing as a 10 minute job when you take into account something you stumble across done by a previous owner! After replacing one of the rear lights for a new one (easy 10 minute job, right?) but then kept blowing fuses every time I tried to put the lights on. On the 5th fuse I finally figured out that the previous owner had decided to use a black wire to replace a red wire

I've often wondered how easy/feasable it would be to "Defenderise" a Discovery 200Tdi because as has been pointed out, Defender 200Tdi engines often have a significantly higher price tag than a Discovery 200Tdi. Just a thought.

So in theory could the timing case from a 12J/19J be used interchangeably on a Defender 200Tdi or used to convert a Disco 200Tdi to a Defender 200Tdi with respect to the timing case?

This is probably where your friend got the idea from: http://www.glencoyne.co.uk/200di.htm I'm in total agreement with Snagger's statement of not throwing in a second hand engine on blind faith.There is a further rebuild option: If you have the room, get a second hand 12J engine to rebuild (you can still get a perfectly good 12J really quite cheap as people rip them out for a Tdi) so that you still have your land rover running while you take your time and rebuild the second engine - it takes the pressure off a bit and will stop you rushing the job and also allows you to spread the cost out if funds are tight. I think the head gasket is certainly worth doing first. It's dead easy to do on a 12J, it will also allow you to get a good look at the condition of the head, piston crowns and cylinder bores while you are there.

I imagine that you going to swap the timing belt any way before you fit it in your 90/110 (probably easier to do it while the engine is in the Disco anyway)? Take the crank pulley and damper off to see if any evidence of contact with anything is visable. If not, I guess it could be the timing belt tensioner - but that is all it is, a guess! HTH

You make a good point about being occupied with undoing the bolt that you didn't consider any difficulty in doing it back up again correctly - this is what I think when people recommend undoing the bolt by resting a bar against the chassis while filcking the engine over on the starter, it only addresses half of the problem. If you take up Vulcan's offer, it will make the job a breeze. I bought the tool when my local garage said they used to lock the flywheel using a chisel on the ring gear. If anyone in the Southwest is doing this job and needs to borrow the locking tool, send me a PM.

Have you managed to get your timing problem sorted?

Yes, this is right^^^ - apologies, I must have got confused with the Tdi I did a while ago where the woodruff is at 12 o'clock when timing the crank. But I think we are on the point here, you must be using the wrong reference marker as a timing point on the crank. When the woodruff key at 12'o clock the engine is at #1 TDC. If you have had the head off you will see piston 1 at TDC when the woodruff key is at 12 o'clock.When the dot is at 12 o'clock I'm sure the pistons are all half way down the bore. Follow the guide by Les. The only thing is - you have said that you have had piston valve contact with the crank in both positions, are you absolutely sure of that? Take the belt off, then set the crank to where you think it should be by the DOT and then see if you can lock the crank by putting a drill bit into the hole on the flywheel housing which should locate into the flywheel if the crank is in the right position.

If the timing marks on the crank, cam and FIP are all lined up correctly then nothing is 180 degrees out. The crank turns twice per revolution of the cam. As long as the crank is set to TDC and then you set the cam and FIP to their respective marks then all will be fine. As soon as you have tensioned the belt, are the marks still in alignment? Is the belt slipping at all when you move it? I wouldn't add any shims anywhere at this stage because thinking about it, the engine presumably ran fine before you did the timing belt. What head gasket are you using? Have you got part number STC1562 for the 2.5NA head gasket set? What other work have done on this engine since it last ran while you have changed the timing belt?

I think I might know what you have done. On the Crank pulley, there is a dot on one of the teeth (see the 1st pic below from my 19J). This is not TDC, but I think it corresponds to when all of the pistons are midway in the bore. It is easy to mistake this as TDC. For TDC, the woodruff key should be at the 12 o' clock position as in the second pic below.

040 is in inches. It equates to 1mm in sensible units My view is that I wouldn't buy any pistons or other parts until you have consulted your engineering shop first. It may not be necessary to go that far as you can still see the cross hatch on your bores from the pictures. It will depend on the measurements taken as described above as well as how bad any scoring is. They will be able to advise you on the best option after assessing the bores in detail. There are lots of measurements on many different parts to take to assess wear which is why I think atleast the set of micrometers and feeler gauges are a must in your tool kit. Taking measurements to assess the degree of wear is the most important part of any overhaul proceedure. However; in the absence of any measuring instruments - take the conrods, crank and the cam shaft along with the block to the engineering shop. It may also be wise to take the head for them to look at too so they can check to see if a skim is necessary and to check the valves / guides for wear.

Welcome to the forum. I have no idea on any conversion kits out there, someone else might come along soon who does know. However, I do know of CWS in Glastonbury who specialise in breaking 4x4s, they might be worth speaking to for advice but they are not cheap. http://www.cws4x4.co.uk/ I imagine that unless you pay for an engine with a warranty or get a rebuilt one, you could end up paying a lot of money for the conversion with all of the necessary electonic upgrades to swap a tired 300Tdi for a tired Td5, they are not without there problems.... but people have done it! What about the options of either selling your Defender and buy a Td5 Defender, or keep your Defender and get a recon 300Tdi engine with a warranty?

Just as Bowie69 says, you really need to take the pistons out and measure the bores carefully and corectly using one of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Metric-Dial-Bore-Gauge-50-160mm-Cylinder-Internal-Bore-Measuring-Engine-Gage-/252741792846?hash=item3ad895b44e:g:X-YAAOSw4DJYiifu you will also need these for other measurements and to zero the bore gauge: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4pc-Micrometer-Set-External-Outer-Metric-measuring-0-to-100mm-with-Ratchet-Stop-/152244092036?hash=item2372747c84:g:jCoAAOSwAuZX3A-S You need to find out how much the bore has worn and how it has worn (out of round and taper). These figures compared with the tolerances in the workshop manual will answer your question. If it is in tolerance then lightly hone the bores to make a cross hatch pattern for the new rings to bed in. If it is out of tolerance then you will have to take the block to an engineering shop and get it bored oversize and have oversize rings and pistons fitted. For the cost of bearing shells, I would just renew them anyway if you have gone to the trouble of stripping the engine down, but I would imagine that they will show wear so will have to be renewed. I would also measure the crank journals for wear too using a micrometer. Don't forget to check the end float of the crank too to check if you need an oversize thrust washer fitted. Same goes for the camshaft. If you don't want to buy the measuring equipment, I'm sure an engineering shop will take the measurements for you for a small charge and then offer you advice. This link is for motorcycle engines, but I think it explains how to measure bores really well: .http://www.realclassic.co.uk/techfiles/tech05031600.html HTH

I think it would be a good idea to take the core plugs out after you have put the vinegar in so that you can get a jet wash in there and allow larger bits of rubbish to come out. Also you will be able to see better what is in there.

Have you seen the thread I did on the 19J turbo diesel recently? I appreciate that it is a different engine, but it is a development of the petrol engine. If you put that together with the workshop manual plus generic videos on youtube for details such as grinding valve seats etc you should have everything you need. The special tools that I think you will need for a rebuild are mainly for taking measurements to decide how worn parts are: micrometer set, bore gauge, dial test indicator - you can get all these on ebay. Go for it, it isn't as difficult as you might think if you take your time.

I think that is a really good idea. I don't mind loosing a little boost to help to preserve the engine for longer. I think the standard pressure for a 19J is a little over 9 PSI, I wonder what detuning it down to 5 or 6 PSI would do? Is it a case of getting a gauge, T piece and some tubing then driving up a hill? Which way do I screw the acctuator to reduce boost? Would this sort of gauge do: https://www.slime.com/us/products/lawn-garden/gauges/dial/1-20-psi-low-pressure-gauge.php

I've had all these thoughts going round my head, but its keeping it original that is important to me now for this. I like having the factory look, it looked messed about with when the tdi was fitted. If something goes wrong, I'll just have to deal with it. But, it will be service regularly, driven sympathetically and I don't tow heavy loads up hills, so it should have a relatively easy low stress life. So far the only thing that is not quite 100% but is managable is the governor in the injection pump as on the odd occasion the idle speed is unstable and it wants to surge until you blip the throttle then it settles down again.. I have adjusted the two settings for idle speed as suggested by Patpending a while ago which helped greatly, but I have a pump (kindly supplied by Kevh) that I have stripped down and plan to rebuild and send off for calibrating. I'll probably fit it when I do the timing belt next.

That's interesting, I did a quick search for 18J and there isn't much information out there on them. On wikipedia, the 11J, 12J, 13J, 14J and 15J are mentioned, The most sensible suggestion I could find is that it is a modified version for the military ready for 24volt systems fitted and the belt driven vacuum pump you mention. I wonder if anyone on the military forum has information on it?

It's nice to see that I might not be quite as lonely as I thought I was in the 19J fan club! My understanding is that the later 19Js from about 1988 up to the introduction of the Tdi's in the early 1990s were modified to cope with some of the problems that were highlighted by the earlier engines failing after relatively low milages. That's why I went for a 19J build date as late as I could find for this project. I would imagine that there can't be many early examples made before Land Rover's modifications left now? In fact, isn't a TDI block exactly the same as the late 19J's?

I think I still have the turbo as a spare from your old 19J Richard. If I remember your story correctly, I think you said that your 19J got you to where you picked up your 200Tdi from and then home again while it was bleeding to death, is that right? On occasions I've had my 110 at 80 in my Tdi days, two things happen. (1) It doesn't feel entirly smooth or happy through out the whole vehicle, not just the engine. (2) Was the speedo just telling porkies? Either way, it made me slow down!