muzaz

Very very true! Those pistons were black as you'd expect from used engine... I read somewhere that polished pistons and combustion cambers stay clean as exhaust wont stick to a polished surface (to be confirmed!) and that a polished surface reflects heat making the engine more efficient ( to be confirmed too!!) So I said, might as well do it, and spent three days of my dear life cleaning and polishing!! At one point I read that coating them with some heat resistant coating improves as well...so I started looking for this coating!! Unbelieveable!!! sometimes I leave myself without words!! At last I realised that this is a rough 18 year old truck engine, not a rocket engine, so I decided that polishing should be enough! probably useless but anyway, good to look at! Lemme ask a quick question, does porting a tdi head make sense? or it falls in the same class of maddnes like polishing the crowns?!

yes you're right, but the final project is not finishing off the engine... its rebuilding the series 3...and beleive me, if I'm taking a year to finish the engine, I'll take 3 to finsh the landie! nah, then its not a vapour mine, I intend to finish it off one day, before my gf decides to burn me in the garage along with all the "oil and rust" (her definiton for a landrover)

Been reading this topic to get the meaning of vapour build... and it just suits me perfectly I think, it that every single thing i do will take the vapour direction! Whats that syndrome huh?! Even for a simple service, it takes me a whole afternoon, cleaning here sealing there...oh!!! At first when i bought the engine I wasnt going to open it up, I thought it looked ok, but on a closer look at the crank I saw that the key way for the pulley was a bit knackered, well just slightly, everyone said leave it, not worth the hassle, but not me!!... so off went the head crank and everything! Years will pass untill I see my beloved landie on the road again! is this vapour?! A polished piston crown!!

Do I qualify for a vapour build? Ive got a Coiled ser 3 88" waiting for an engine transplant... Had to garage it a year ago bec I was more than sure it will fail the VRT (its like the mot)...last summer bought half a 200tdi... yes half, without injector pump, timing case and most of the pipes and fittings!! call me mad...yes I am! So I started sourcing parts here and there, mostly off ebay, and now I got most of it here, To make it more interesting I disassembled every bolt and nut from the engine and at the moment its spread in a thousand pieces at the garage. I must say that on opening it up the engine was found to be in near perfect condition!, Today I took the block for honing, so in the next week I should begin the reassembly... In the meantime I got inspired by Les Henson seeing the beauty of a rebuild hes doing! Got more photos if you like to see Chris

At work we use Astromat orange, its very good at removing almost anything, and it smells of orange, you'd almost feel like drinking it!! wouldnt know where to buy it tho! I just borrow some when I need it I should think thinner and other solvents will work fine, I just cleaned a whole tdi with thinner and it takes all the grime away! Other solvents like acetone, MEK, isopropanol etc are all good degreasers but a bit toxic (well not exactely a bit, I'd say extremely!)

me got spray gear too, but the compressor has seen better days, and leaks some oil at times...for air tools its no prob but for spraying it is... Will try a bit with a brush and see how it comes... the paint I got is 2 part type, takes hardner and is a bit thick (like hammerite) so it shouldnt look ugly...I think! Tommorrow taking the block for honing, hope he doesnt mess my work of art! Think it was a bad idea of painting the block before!

Thats what I did with the engine block (anyway the original paint helped me guess where paint should go and where it shouldnt) But on the alloy castings its different as there was no paint... well might as well paint them all over, there should be no oil in the timing housing and flywheel housings no?! To clean the alloy I used an alkaline solution, taking care to wash with water straight away...now will paint them with wash primer and finally with silver heat resistant paint... guess Les used a spray gun to paint them no?

Really nice job! Doing something similar myself and its nice to see the end product before I start experementing myself! Just painted the engine (did it with gold colour just to leave it similar to what it used to look like, and for some practical reasons, like spotting a leak etc) and now I'm going for the alloy parts. Just a couple of questions, should I paint the cyl head or not, and what about the mating parts where the gaskets fit, should those be left without paint or not...for example, I left the top face of the block without paint for obvious reasons, what about the rest like the timing case to timing cover faces, or flywheel housing to bell housing faces? Chris

Thanks for your replies... I've sourced the pump sprocket... What remains are the pump hub and retainers, hopefully I should be getting these shortly as there's no part no. for the hub, so i had to rely on photos marking the parts needed. Hope that in the end I'll recieve the right parts! I dont know why some ppl sell them without that hub!

Hi, I bought a 200tdi injector pump off ebay, and unfortuately it came without the hub, pulley and retainer. Its a nightmare trying to find one, anyone knows the part no for the hub etc, I'm not even sure of what exactly goes on the drive shaft! chris

Who me?!!

This is where I found it, David Vincent the other one I found it here Newmann 4x4 but its all in french, and didnt understand much... but the price looked good at 42Euro. This eve will be leaving Malta to Liverpool, spending a week there...will have a good look around in the spare time maybe I'll find something!

thanks for the replies, So which one do you guys think suits my engine? Or it is both, one for aircon fitted and the other without aircon? If anyone got a spare one and is willing to sell I'd be grateful. Ps been told you're a living parts book western... you just confirmed you are! reg chris

Hi, I'm doing an engine conversion on my ser3. Bought a disco 200tdi engine, but is was more of a shell than a complete engine. Now I sourced most of the parts but I have one remaining part which is quite hard to find...at least here in Malta! Its the front timing case cover. Tried to search the web, ebay etc but found none. By any chance do anyone know the part number, maybe it will make the job simpler? I found these part nos from a couple of online shops, But I'm not sure it its the right part no, or the right part. ERR390 Timing Case Cover - 200Tdi - Discovery I ETC8853 Cover Plate & Pulley Support - Timing Case Cover - 200Tdi (Aircon) regards Chris