Boydie

My guess is your leak is from the infamous "T" seals, they are a total sod to install correctly. My method, and the only one I've found to be reasonably foolproof is to use the little metal blocks shown in the works manual, these have a radiused edge to allow the "T" seals to be compressed into the rear bearing block without tearing them. They can be easily made up from two pieces of 10mm thick x 15mm wide steel bar -- a liberal application of Vaseline onto the new "T" seals is is also required to ensure that they slide into the block. Don't forget to apply a good quantity of Blue grade silicon to the rear face of the bearing block to seal it up to the rear oil seal carrier, Oh, and as I've said elsewhere, use a gasket with a smear of silicon.

Each to their own, sorry boys but I've always used a gasket. The thin metal sump lip is prone to distortion and flexing so I've always used a gasket, with a smear of blue heat grade silicon either side for good measure and I've also never had an oil leak. Lumumba, I dont know where this question arises from, my original hard copy of the works manual for the Series 1 Discovery clearly states to use a gasket with sealant either side. The gasket itself is a good 1.0 -1.25mm thick and compresses down to around 0.95mm once all the sump bolts are torqued correctly. The CD version of RAVE doesn't make too much mention of it. If the sump was made of cast alloy with a machined face or had an additional steel flange spot welded as a flange stiffener I'd probably agree that a gasket wasn't required but as the flange easily deforms just on removing it I would always advise using the gasket simply to allow for any distortion.

Yeah, I'd be looking at an exchange unit

Excessive articulation is the cause of this type of failure, remove the cups off the bottom shock mountings -- this is best done with a very sharp cold chisel as they are only spot welded on, use a tool grinder to remove any burrs. These cups are limiting the possible angular movement, they are fine for normal use, but not so good if you engage in rock climbing etc.

Sabre, Sorry for the tardy reply, I'm just back from a 39 day tour of the central deserts. I had a tool made to hold the crank pulley ( I turned the crank so that the extension pipe slipped over the tool handle was hard up against the chassis ) and then had no trouble using a 30" long 1/2" breaker bar with an 1/2" drive angle dial with no problems from the underside of the car - which was off the ground on chassis stands to enable me additional space to drop the sump easily. Even so with the breaker bar at around 15* to horizontal it wasnt to hard to guestimate the 90* mark, I dont think its essential to get it exactly 90* - just near enough to stretch the bolt and ensure compression of the pulley, timing belt cog and oil pump drive up against the step on the crankshaft.

Hello to you, Okay you need to translate your requirements back to ENGLISH as we limies/brits know it, GAS = Petrol; HOOD = Bonnet; FENDER = Wing etc.etc. so resend and in the request for parts section ask for the correct type of Fuel Pump for your vehicle, give the year of manufacture and the full VIN number. Oh, and welcome :-)

In reality this amounts to the timing belt being replaced five times (500,000 kilometers) or 300,000 miles so under normal circumstances half the normal life of the engine, so its probably not a huge issue, but it should, like the head bolts, be better advised. Other than a possible camshaft or crankshaft oil seal leaking I'm not able to think of any other reason that you would remove the sodding bolt. However if as I did you make up/fabricate a Land Rover Tool LRT-12-080 it makes removing it and torquing the bolt up again a breeze. All you need is a 2" BSP black iron socket cut and a piece of 10mm plate say 100mm x 500mm and an oxy torch (I used a plasma cutter to cut the shape of mine) and a good stand drill.

Okay as I read the LR service documents regarding oil pump failures, the flats on the crank shaft and the corresponding nibs on the inside of the oil pump inner cog are simply there to locate the cog to the outer cog, from then they are in sync.the inner cog has a raised step on it that abuts the timing gear cog, this cog in turn is pressed up against the crank shaft pulley. The crank shaft bolt tension on these three components is crucial to their location and correct operation. I should have realized this three years back when because of a loose crank bolt the pulley came loose and destroyed the Woodruf keyways and crankshaft, its a shame that LR do not make a greater issue of this torque requirement

Okay, hopefully the last word and advice to others who may follow in my sorry path. The crankshaft bolt MUST NEVER be applied with any form of locktite, ONLY copper based grease and it MUST be done up to the specifications which are 80 Nm AND then a further 90* degrees to stretch the bolt. The bolt and its washer apply pressure to the harmonic pulley which in turn presses on the crankshaft timing gear cog which in turn presses on, and holds in place the oil pump inner gear up against the step on the crankshaft. It is this pressure that holds it in place and prevents is from turning on the crankshaft, the four tiny lugs which locate it on the crankshaft flats are to locate it only, not hold it in position. By applying copper grease if you use the correct LR tool to retain the crankshaft pulley (easily fabricated by the way) removal/undoing of the bolt is relativity easy. Its also possible by cuttning away a small part of the fan cowl bottom to tightener the bolt in situe on the road if you feel its coming loose. According to LR the crank shaft bolt, like the cylinder head bolts should be replaced every 5 times its stretched.

Okay, I took delivery of the new oil pump, a genuine LR part in a Green and White box (NOT in a Blue Bag!) and I made a point of measuring the ID of the pump driving "cog" - it was 0.85 mm larger than the OD of the crank !! I made a call to the local LR main dealership who had supplied said pump and they checked a couple that had in stock and a brand new crank - same result so its little wonder that failure occurs as the slop in the drive will mean that the four small lugs (not full flats to co-inside with the flats on the crank) will mean a constant hammering every time the motor starts ! why the internal profile of the driven cog isn't a inverse replica of the crank - with say +0.005 mm is beyond me! I've saved the oil pump and a mate will machine one on his CNC lathe for me- and he assures me it will be a slip-on fit. He recons that he will be able to duplicate the material by doing a couple of test drills on the original. I found one small drag/score on one of the big ends obvious due to lack of lubrication so while the sumps off I'll replace all the crank slipper bearings - at only $148.00 inc, GST for big-ends and mains its a worthwhile expense. I have a magnetic sump plug but with the fine mesh pick-up on the pump supply I dont think the pump failure was due to foreign objects being drawn into the pump, there were a few tiny score marks on the pump housing plate but not of a depth that you could catch your finger nail in, and they were easily lapped out on a whetstone I keep for that sole purpose. I fitted the magnetic plug after I found a couple of the original valve caps had disintegrated, I now use Turner Engineering and haven't had a valve cap failure since.

Well its all pulled apart and it was the pump, the two "flats" on the inner wheel had completely been destroyed and I'm very thankful I had the crank nitrided, I've pulled No.4 bigend and the centre main and there doesn't appear to be any bearing damage, I'll put that down to the engine being shut down seconds after the oil pressure went to zero from 35 psi. As a precaution seeing as I have a spare I'm going to put a new Turbo cassette in as the bearing seems to be a bit worn. Garry, yes we were supposed to be leaving this week, Peter hasn't fully recovered from breaking his collar bone when he fell off his mountain bike -- he had to have a titanium plate installed and then had a second op when a screw came loose - (hard to imagine I know) - so thjat adventure will be put on hold until later in the year or if he puts it off further he will probably have to look for another shotgun as I wont be available.

Has anyone had this oil pump failure and if so what were the consequences ? I dropped the sump today, some bits of metal and a spring washer probably off a 10mm bolt the centre main and No 4 big end looked fine and I replaced the bearing caps, --- I'll start stripping down the front end of the motor tomorrow.

Yeah, Ralph, I tagged it in the index, 300Tdi

On our way back from Lightning Ridge to have a look at my neighbors opal mine the alarm went off 22 K's north of Gilgandra - no turbo pressure, no oil pressure. I turned the engine off and coated onto the grass verge on the side of the road. From there we arranged for a tow into Gilgandra, not the best town in the west - they dont even have a taxi service ! I initially thought that maybe the turbo bearing(s) had blown but that wasn't the case, I disconnected the oil feed line to the oil cooler, pulled off the fuel solenoid power supply to stop the motor from running and turned the motor over for a good 45 seconds - no oil ! the level in the sump was on the mark so it wasn't due to lack of engine oil in the sump and I've been since advised that the inner "gear" on the oil pump have been known to crack in two resulting in zero oil flow --- has anyone heard of this before ? I'm secretly hoping its just the oil pick-up pipe that's come adrift but I wont know until Saturday after I drive there with a trailer to pick the Disco up.

Buy and install a decent after market oil catch can and most of the problem is solved,

Thanks for those leads, I'll see if they do OS mail service

Some have cruelly suggested that I treat it to a new younger owner - that or a packet of fire starters. I ignore these crass and unwarranted comments but from what I can find out on the internet the steering pump is a non-serviceable; throw-away; cost-a-heap item. so I'm up for about AUD$280 for a genuine ZF part. Maybe next month ! I've just got over the wallet induced trauma of replacing the Fuel Injection Pump, the original developed a slight leak in the chamber below the turbo actuated diaphragm, The not-so-nice people from Bosch kindly offered to fully service my pump for AUD$2,450 plus 10% GST fortunately I have a full 300Tdi timing kit so I didn't have to remove the front timing cover to replace it with the very low mileage one that I eventually obtained from a resurrected Land Rover wrecker down in Victoria, even so a man needs 8" long fingers with biceps at each joint to be able to access some of the bloody nuts that hold it to the case and engine bracket. The manual was clearly written with the engine out of the car and on a rotating stand - not still on the motor and in a dark shed.

Just a question to the forum, Is there a service kit for these pumps or are they like the Wabco Vacuum pump a throw-away replacement item? Mine is making some strange noises when I'm at close to and at full lock in both directions, its not air as I've thoroughly bled it so I can only assume that after 19 years and over 500,000 kilometers its due for some attention or replacement.

Thanks for that input. I'll have the 6 Bridgestones on rims, one spare on the rear door, one spare rim and tyre on the bonnet, the 4 Maxxis cases will be on the roof rack. I wont be running any Maxxis / Bridgestone combinations on bitumen - only on sand and then only if I run out of Bridgestones and I'm not able to repair the leaks. I'm even tempted to try some puncture moose as a quick leak fix as I'll be tossing all ten cases on my return and having six new Bridgestones fitted. I've used moose in the past with some success but it makes a mess on the inside of the rims that has to be scrubbed off before a new case can be fitted otherwise getting the new tyre correctly balanced is a nightmare. As for grass fires, I dont think that will be an issue, the last time I went off road over the Gibson Desert going south from Mulan to the Gary Highway via Lake McKay and following camel tracks over the sand dunes all the way my EGT at the turbo never went over 280*C the engine simply wasn't having to work that hard, I dont think from memory it ever went above 10psi boost, another reason to select a diesel for desert touring but in any case I always make a point of getting under to remove any grass from around the underside at every stop as well as making sure I park up on clear ground. A bigger issue is keeping it out of the radiator and intercooler!

Okay, as some of you may be aware I'm going to be driving down the Canning Stock route from Halls Creek to Wiluna in Western Australia riding shotgun for a mate who intends cycling the 1800 odd kilometers, of sand dunes, corrugations and salt lakes in a planned 10 days or less. He intends cycling at least 10 hours a day so lil' old me will be pottering along some 2 k's behind him at around 19 kph. I am not allowed to give assistance merely to carry his spares and tools. He has to carry his own food, water bedding tent etc. WA has received an extraordinary and unseasonable amount of rain this year and the spinifex has grown. Now, for those of you who haven't encountered spinifex imagine a nasty vindictive vegetable porcupine rooted deep into the soil. It may be a form of tussock grass but trust me it can and in my case the sharp stalks have punctured my tyres both in the side walls and right through the tread. The problem is that the stalks are so thin that external detection of the leak with soapy water is almost impossible, the only solution is fully immersing the wheel in a tank of water - and tanks of water are rare in the desert. The solution is to remove the case and fit a new one, I carry a pneumatic bead breaker and tyre levers and although I'd rather get someone else to do it, - because its bloody hard exhausting work - I can and have replaced several tyre cases. So, okay I will be taking around 10 wheel/tyres with me, Mounted on my six rims will be 6 Bridgestone Desert Duellers - these are 235/70R16. I also have 4 Maxxis 225/75R16. My question to the forum is this; the rolling diameter of the Bridgestones is a theoretical 29" (if they were brand new with 100% tread, which they are not, they all have around 7mm of tread depth to the limit bar) the Maxxis are a theoretical 29 1/4" - again if they were brand new with full tread, again they are not, they also have around 7mm of tread to the limit bar. So, can I use the Bridgestones and the Maxxis together on the same axle with reasonable impunity with only 1/4" (6mm) diameter difference bearing in mind that if I get a puncture in the desert they will be running around 16 psi - do I have to use the same tyre brand/size on the same axle or can I mix-match as and if I get a puncture ?

Garry, your concerns have been noted but after serious consideration we will stick with the two satellite phones and the two 5 watt CB radios. Both Peter and I will have one of each.

I think from memory that they are 50mm. They also go in the other way around and when you strike the center of the welsh plug it causes it to expand at the outer circumference causing it to seal tight in the cylinder block. Use some sealant on the edges before you insert it though

Garry we did consider a PLB but while the CSR is a hard trip, its not exactly deserted and my CB radio has a 80 kilometer range with the high mounted ariel. I'll stick with the satellite phone, I've nothing against a PLB apart from the fact you set it off and there isn't any communication until the cavalry come charging over the hill . The couple you mentioned got seriously bogged well of the normal track in a SUV, not even a "proper" 4WD - and she was pregnant and they only had a hand held 5 watt CB radio which was what they used to advise others on the CSR of their plight. Their journey preparation was abysmal !

Thanks Hobbit, as usual you are a bottomless font of knowledge and I'll price one tomorrow. As I explained on the other thread, the leak had been fixed with a fuel additive. Brilliant

Okay, major panic over. I spoke to a guy who overhauls these pumps, in competition to Bosch who told me to save my self some megabucks and run a triple dose of diesel conditioner through the system and take the Disco for a longish run. The product he advised is an Australasian made liquid called "Flash Lube" it apparently compensates for the lack of sulphor in current diesel fuels and this deletion has the effect of causing the compound in early seals to dry out and the seals to leak. This "Flash Lube" has a chemical that causes the seals to "swell" and reseal as new. Anyway, 1 litre of this cast me $25.00 and will normally do 1000 litres of diesel (50 ml to 50 litres) and I dropped into the tank around 1/2 a litre - my fully filled tank now being 160 litres. So, we went for a drive today and after just under 400 kilometers, I now have zero leaks !! Had I not experienced it myself I'd never had believed it. Okay so I'm now going to have to carry a litre of this stuff with me and drop in 100 ml at every major 100 litre fill and in the long term a rebuilt FIP is definitely on the cards but for the next few thousand k's it's a quick, inexpensive and easy fix that you too might want to consider.