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Well, I managed to get the head off today, and all looked OK (to me anyway) apart from what I thought was oil on the top of #3 piston (have since been told this could be unburnt diesel, I will check tomorrow) I have taken it to IB Engineering in Nuneaton, they did a pressure test on the valves and one of them was leaking, Mark at IB took the valve out and there was a piece missing from the underside of th valve where is seats on to the head, he checked the headgasket that was on there which he could tell had blown across but only a very little bit and it looked like on the block side, but nothing to be of major concern. There is 2 tiny cracks running to a couple of the glowplugs, but as the engine uses no water he said it should be OK, he is going to skim the head a fraction so we know its flat and replace the valve. I hope this is the end of my troubles, for now :-#

Hi Pete, try John Craddocks http://www.johncraddockltd.co.uk/product_s...=3&page=new You might have to phone them for your part, or its of T8 on the Toll Road, not far for you. Mark.

thanks Les, it's looking like head off time isn't it first time for everthing hey

Would the headgasket failing cause a knocking noise?

Hi all, yes me again here is today's question / findings. I managed to get some time to go and swap the injectors round, before I did I ran the engine again to see if anything had changed, the loosening of injector 3 still made no difference but loosening injector 4 did, as well as 1 & 2, so I removed injector 1 and 3 and swapped them around, I also changed the spill rail pipe as this was old and brittle, I starter her up again and redid the test it was exactly the same, I went through a sequence of undoing all the tops of the injectors one by one and only number 3 made no difference to the running of the engine apart from when I released it the smoke / steam died down, when i tightened it back up it started again, repeating this on the other injectors made no difference. (today the engine did seem to respond more and was not as lumpy). I decided to go for a little run only a couple of miles, the smoke does die down when this is done as stated before, I could hear a knocking noise coming from the engine especially under load, I slowed down put it in to 4th and hit the gas the noise got louder, when I got back I tried it on the drive and went to move off in 3rd, the same again. So now im back a step, and still wondering what is wrong I think a compression check will have to be done. Does what I have said above reconfirm or change anyones thoughts Mark - frustrated

Thanks Ralph, you're a star mate

Can anyone confirm if I do end up checking the head gasket and thus replacing it, do I HAVE to replace the head bolts with new ones, or can I reuse the existing bolts? Strech fit head bolts have been mentioned to me???

I am going to buy one of these set anyhow just in case it is that, I don't know much about engines so please forgive my ignorance, I recognise a few of the gaskets on here but not all will this become apparent when I take the other stuff off. Also, I am due to have my roll cage fitted on Saturday, am I OK to drive the truck its about a 6 mile round trip.

Thanks Les and All, that makes perfect sense, there was a smell of fuel from the exhaust and it did spray when I cracked the top of the injector. great, I will have a look in the tech archive for a step by step guide to changing the head gasket. Thank you everyone.

Were you losing water as don't seem to be but it had crossed my mind, I don't know what to do first have the injectors reconditioned or do the headgasket?

Ralph do you know if the Disco and Defender 200TDi injectors are the same?

I started my D90 200TDi up the other day it started straight away but I got a lot of black and White smoke coming out of the exhaust, I left it ticking over for about 30 seconds then gradually revved it up, the engine seemed slow to respond, I decided to give it a gentle run out. after about a minute the smoke decreased loads but the throttle responce was still slower than normal, I thought it was just the cold and carried on driving, gradually it got better but not 100% when I returned home the sound of the coming from the exhaust did not sound normal, I thought something was knocking, I lifted the bonnet and the engine was vibrating more that it should, I had no time to do anything so left it. The feeling I got reminded me of when I hydrolocked the engine, so I removed the air filter in case it was blocked and checked oil trap to see if it was clear, I have a bit of oil in the end of the pipe from the trap but it also have a very tiny bit of water and the oil on the wall of the pipe had gone grey, I remove the air filter which had about 2 teaspoons of water in the top section, nothing below from the snorkel to the filter, I checked my water level but I had lost nothing. Baffled by this I took it to a friend who said he thought it was the injectors, he said if I run the engine then loosen the injector pipe if the engine alters then that injector is fine, if nothing happens it shows that the injector is not working, pretty simple I thought. So I started it up and slightly undone the 1st injector nearest the front of the truck (sorry don't know if they have a number associated) the engine started to stall, I tightened it back up and moved on to the second one back, same again from the engine, but not quite as bad, I moved on to the third injector released it and nothing happened the engine stayed the same, I closed it and moved to the last one nearest the bulkhead and very little change but more than the previous one, I closed this up and retested #3 and nothing again. Can someone confirm that my findings are correct, is it normal to get a little water in the top of the air filter box in cold weather? I do have a set of spare injectors off my original defender engine which I changed (Block only) for a disco unit about a year ago, are the disco 200 and Defender 200 injectors the same?

Steve I know what you are think of I have the same fitting on my compressor, I can't remember if there is a fitting before the gauge on the one I have and I would not want to put it after, thus having 2 gauges on there. Let me know if Tim's idea works, as my LR is not near to me to check.

R-Kid I Was just thinking about the cage on Winston, you have 35" Simex and a 3" lift, although the lift does not take in to account the winch and cage, I have a +2" lift and on 33" rubber, but the front (top of Wing) of Chalky is higher than Winston by an inch I would say, so this cage could be about the correct weight.

If your around tomorrow, I would'nt mind trying to get a good guage on the weight of it, got the rear floor out and have fitted one of the mounts for the front hoop, going to get the other one on tommorrow if possible, I will then do a test fit to line up the rear mount position.

R-Kid, Spoke to a few people today they say it should be around 70Kg, you're just losing it with age Thanks for that Marcus

I have recently purchased a second hand P&P roll cage, the rear stays have been cut of as it was on a comp vehicle, I am ordering some new stays from P&P tomorrow, but wanted to know what to do with the bit that is left from the old stay, am I OK to grind this off flat, will this weaken it? or should I just leave it and cap it off?

Hi Nige, The cage is looking great mate, I have removed the rear floor of mine today and fitted one of the mounts to take the front hoop, the mounts you are using look the same or very similar to what I have, I managed to get away with not removing the wing (For now), I removed 3 bolts that go in to the bulk head and could work around the rest, I don't know if you have fitted your wings back on yet but wanted to know if the mounts foul the bottom of the wing, mine looks like its pushed out by about 2mm, not much I know but there seems to be nothing I can do for it, also with the mount tube in place I dont think I can get to the bottom wing bolt even if it does line up, time will tell other side tomorrow.

Does anyone know how heavy a TC roll cage in 50mm CDS should be, mine is supposed to be a P&P cage, I asked a mate tonight and he said he can pick his up on his own, but this one seems heavy, im not a small bloke but I think I would be a struggle single handed, Im guessing about 120KG maybe more. Mark.

Thanks for the pics, I have gone no further until tomorrow, I dont think I have rivets in the middle just around the sides, and spot welds along the back, and yes I bet you can guess which 2 are still on there. Mark.

Good Luck Nige, I have now collected the cage bloody heavier than I thought it would be so need to sweet talk a mate in I think. Have you removed the wings to fit the front hoop or can you cut the hole out and slide them down on to the outrigger mount? obviously the inner wings have to be removed.

Thats the plan, now the execution

Thanks Guy's, Nige I was just looking to remove the bottom of the tub not the whole thing, not sure if my terminology came across correctly, It did seem a good way of doing it as I cant see how I can weld the riser plates that go under the rear hoop mounts in such a tight space, by removing the floor its opens the access up.

I have been advised that it would be a good idea to remove the floor of the tub to aid fitting the roll cage I have coming. So Ive decided to take the tub floor out, I have had the grinding wheel out and removed all but 2 of the rivits, i have removed the 2 strips under the tailgate, but it looks like the floor is spot welded to the tub, is it a case of hammer and chisel and splitting this or have i missed something?

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