Snagger

Belt first to set the timing, then fit the rocker shaft and do the tappets after the shaft it torqued down. This way, the rockers are not present and all valves fully retracted while turning the shafts around for alignment, so no chance of bending anything.

Does the original 200Tdi turbo core mate directly to that turbine housing correctly?

Anywhere between £500 and £2000, from what I have seen in the last week.

It can be done simply enough, but DI or Defender axles may fit more easily (same prop shaft flanges) and wheel bearing replacement is certainly far cheaper on the Defender/RRC/DI axles.

Exactly. Tappet clearance is 0.25mm. I'm not sure what that is in inches, but it'd be the same as the 2.25s, and I think I recall seeing a red plate on a rocker cover once with 10thou on it.

No sequence, but to prevent undue stresses, it's not a bad idea to tighten them down each bolt a bit at a time so the shaft is kept straight. Just get the big bolts nipped before you put the small ones in, and torque the big bolts before the small. I do it the same fashion as the head bolts, starting torque in the middle and working out, but 25Nm is not much, so it doesn't have to be scientific! Retracting the tappets first means that there is more slack and the shaft will be under less stress from the open valves' pushrods as you tighten it down (the valves will initially be closed but the rods up, so the rockers will pivot and push the valves as you tighten the shaft down.

Fridge, the rad is supposed to be cooled by the viscous fan, and that should be sufficient by itself even with an ac condenser in front if the ac is off. The condenser has two electric fans controlled automatically by a thermostatic switch in the thermostat housing on Tdis (the two blind holes int he top of the housing on 200s, and in the 180 degree elbow on 300s), and I think in the same location on V8s, boosting the airflow if the viscous fan isn't coping when the ac is on (more engine load plus warmer air going through rad due to the heat exchange in the condenser). The second hole in the thermostat housings ahs another thermostatic switch which disengages the ac compressor clutch if the temperature continues to rise with the electric fans on. So, with the ac off, the main fan should suffice. I think the rad is shagged or there simply isn't enough airflow through it because of an ineffective fan or a widespread blockage in the rad or condenser fins.

I used Series seals in a Defender dash, so I'm confident they're the same...

They used them in pre-2002 Defenders, and possibly 2002-2007 too, so should still be available from any LR supplier.

There is no problem with the chassis leg interfering with the timing case, but the battery tray does - you can either modify the tray and sit the battery further forward into the space occupied by the air filter, or site it in the tool box under the front left seat like a 90/110/Defender - you don't really want to use an oil bath filter with a diesel anyway, as efficient at filtration as they are. It's not a big job. It's the right engine mounting bracket on the chassis which is the biggest task, making up a car mockup and then fabricating and welding the new bracket in place of the old. The chassis leg fouling issue is the turbocharger when fitting a Discovery/RRC version of the 200Tdi into a 109 (but not an 88). That is why I searched around for Defender manifolds to convert my Discovery engine to a Disco/Defender hybrid. If you go to my blog and poke around the engine pages, you'll see how I installed a 12J and later a 200Tdi (modified Discovery with the same mountings I'd used on the 12J), with plenty of photos showing the mountings (including the modified right side mount after fitting Defender axles). Glencoyne has been using the same method of joining the transmission to a Tdi for a while now as I did. I have chatted with and visited him a few times. You have my sympathy for you back. I am finishing my third week of sick leave following a spine op after a disc herniated so much that it was crushing my spinal chord a year ago, originally just occasionally reducing me to hobbling bent double like Gollum, but recently became continuous. The last few days before the op it was so bad that I was on Tramadol (synthetic heroin), after an ambulance ride and hospital A&E admission just for pain relief. The crushing has damaged the sciatic nerve and lost the function of the shin muscles, but it's coming back now. So, I know just how painful it can be!

I would just use a big can of WD40 with the straw to thoroughly wash the insides out, drain it out, throw it back together and test it. It's quite likely that the dust and dirt was either preventing electrical contact or shorting the brushes and commutator, and removing it would sort out either problem. As long as there is enough material left for the brushes to work, and they are quite big when new, then is should do the trick (unless a short burnt anything out).

...while laying on a castor wheeled board with your partner rotating you anti-clockwise.

The pump and injectors were reconditioned while the block was being done, and they have always seemed good. I get instant starts, even when we had the -17 degrees spell, without using the glow plugs, so I think the fuel system is doing its thing. The new bore dimensions, pistons and rings should all be matched; the engineering shop that did the boring provided the pistons - they insisted on having them to measure them for the boring. I don't hear any slap or knocking, but Tdis aren't that quiet, so perhaps the boring was a little to big and the ring gaps are excessive? I'm trying to run through every potential cause and rule them out - I think it's not the head or turbo, so it has to be in the bottom end, and that must mean bores, pistons or rings. I'll see if I also have a picture of the ring gap.

It's using more than that - 1/5l for anywhere between 500-1000 miles depending on use, but consumption is worst when the engine is working lightly and least when working hard. It is breathing a fair bit; I have the breather running into the Tee on the inlet to the 19J filter housing and I use a K&N to prevent the filter clogging or getting so wet that it collapses. A paper filter would need replacing every service (I use 5000 mile intervals). It burns a little oil and this is most visible at low revs and on over-run, tying in with what I said about consumption when working easily or slogging. I was careful to set each ring gap 120 degrees apart. The valve stemn seals were an early suspect and were replaced once before the head rebuild and again during the head rebuild (it was pressure checked too). I'll take a look through my archives for a photo of the polished spot (I sent it at the time to the reputed specialists, not the local shop who did the machining for me, for an opinion that they gave as not ideal, but satisfactory). I recall it having extremely light, fine honing marks suggesting the honing stones had just kissed the surface on the way past, which made me suspect the shallowest of hollows.

On the diesel engines, the valves open down into the cylinder, below the head gasket. If the piston comes up while a valve is down, they will hit each other and cause damage. Usually, if being turned by hand tools, the damage is limited to bending the push rods between cam shaft and rockers (which is why they're so thin and soft - they're sacrificial), but at engine running speeds, it often breaks the rockers, the rocker shaft or valves, all easily replaceable. Bending the valve is also a possible outcome that would cause low compression without being obviously visible with the head removed. So, turning either shaft with the belt of is not good, unless you can ensure the valves stay shut. You can do that by removing the rocker shaft or the push rods (removing push rods allows them to be inspected for wear and bending). Then you spin the shafts as fast as you like to align the timing marks. I can't quite follow what you've done with the engine mount. The usual thing to do is to use the 19J's right hand bracket and a standard rubber, making a chassis bracket up to suit. That allows the installation of any 2.25 or 2.5 LR engine other than the 300Tdi.

I would go around a breaker and look at the Defenders, Discovery Is and RRCs for a dry looking box with fluid in the reservoir (and no ports open to atmosphere) - at £50, it's worth a punt. I got the steering box from a scrap Discovery for free when I bought the axles and brake system - can't go wrong with free, as long as you give it a good check over and test drive it at low speed in a safe area first.

Adwest do recon as well as new, so they can be competitive while maintaining quality. I wouldn't trust other recon units - all con and no re; they just clean and paint units from scrappers and maybe add a seal kit to exchange units (even where the shafts are worn or pitted).

There is clearly a failure between a high pressure oilway and the water system - the oil is at higher pressure than the coolant and so heads one way. You only get water in the oil if the leak is from the water system to a low oil pressure area, like a crack in the bore abeam the cooling jacket or a head or gasket leak into the valve push rod apertures which also act as head oil drains. Unfortunately, you can't tell whether the fault lies in the gasket, head or block without removing the head. A gasket failure should be apparent, and is easy and cheap. If you can't see a defect or marks on the head or block deck, then you'll have to take the head for pressure testing. If that comes back negative, then you'll have to leak test the block, which is a big pain in the back side.

It has done about 40k, so the engine is as bedded in as it'll get. Glazing is possible, though, especially as I started using vegoil before 1000 miles was up. I did use running in oil for 500 and then 1000 miles, and I did give it a bit of a run on the commute to try to prevent any glazing. The vegoil bit wasn't protracted and it was only done with the engine hot and the fuel running through a heat exchanger (multi tank system), but you never know. I also don't know how accurate the boring was. But that smooth patch makes me suspicious. I will try the deglazer. As for the most cost effective repair, is the one +40 piston and the thee others at +20 enough of a mass difference to make it lumpy, or is it acceptable? And is a single liner and bore out to +20 to retain the existing pistons going to be cheaper than boring all out to +40 and a full set of pistons?

I don't think anyone wants to see the company struggle or fail except the competitors, but I think most of us would prefer it was UK owned. You're right that none of the competitors are truly altruistic, but Jeep continue to build basic vehicles for that market that are comparable to the Defender, so much so that it makes LR's excuses about bumpers, safety and emissions clear lies. Toyota, Nissan and other Far Eastern brands continue to make several models of very simple and rugged nature that are taking the Defender's market, and that is purely because of LR's arrogance. They satisfy all markets, whereas LR wants to distance itself from working classes and chase the noveau-riche. It has become a fraud, and it has foolishly limited its market while everyone else tries to expand theirs. It has moved from being the most credible 4wd manufacturer to nothing more than a fashion label. Isn't that a sad reflection of dire mismanagement? Fashions change, and 4wds will go out of vogue, and where will they be then?

Hi folks. My Tdi runs well, but has suffered excessive oil consumption ever since I hooked it out of a Discovery. The head had recently been rebuilt, but I was suspicious, so removed it and found seizure damage in the no.1 bore. So the block was bored +20thou and new pistons and rings fitted. It has always started and run perfectly except using about a pint of oil every 500 miles or so, and seems to produce a little blue smoke at idle or on overrun, but not when working. Two rebuilds of the turbo (due to the first being by a ripoff company, but the later being perfect by Turbo Technics) and another head skim, pressure check and valve and guide check after the composite head gasket leaked has not changed the oil consumption, so it seems to be in the block. Now, here's the kicker. The rebore left the damaged part of no.1 with no scoring at all, but it looks a little polished on that spot with very weak honing compared to the rest. I'm not sure it isn't a tiny bit oval. I had sent photos to several other renowned LR engine specialists and they reckoned it should be OK, but given the head and turbo reworking, it's my prime suspect. Do you reckon that pulling the piston and using one of the rings with a torch on one side would work to reveal any ovality in the suspect area? If it does, it is acceptable to have just the one cylinder rebored to +40, rather than all four, and if not, is a liner bored to +20 to reuse the current pistons and only face the cost of the work on one cylinder cheaper than reboring all and buying new pistons and rings? If diesel hasn't been made prohibitive by the time I come home, I'll need to do this.

Then again, look at the SRS, total brake failure or full throttle with no way to shut the engine down in an automatic recalls that Toyota have had, and the fire related recalls of Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango, just for example. That is why LR should be making more effort to see the dealers support the customer after sale. I don't. I have no love for the modern company. Tata specifically turned it's back on the enthusiast. I don't have any ill will for the workers, other than that they were so feckless on the Defender line, but the company is just another one in the blancmange of the industry now. I am only interested in their older vehicles, only those with beam axles, and not really even the P38. No, it's an enthusiast thing. Exactly the same behaviour is shown in followers of Triumphs, Jags, Jeeps, Reliants and even Allegros. It's about us and the specific car we love, and at a stretch, the people behind making them, not the modern company.

Land Rover do have appalling service, but that is because they are too hands-off with the franchises, which are not LR employees. They also have suffered from years of terrible build quality, with (Clarkson quote) a quality control standard of "That'll do". Quality improved dramatically with the new models, but that was probably largely through robotic construction; standards on the Defender line remained deplorable to the last day. It saddens me to say it, but too many of the workforce just don't care, from line workers to cost engineers and bean counters - look at the bad paint, panel misalignment and rust on Defenders in show rooms, and look at how flimsy the HEVAC servo motors, ride height sensors and other such things are, all to save a few pennies per vehicle, pennies that the buyers would pay many fold for to buy a quality vehicle. Those bean counters destroyed LR's reputation in most markets worldwide, nearly destroying the company. And I'm sure they managed to make it all look positive on paper and earn bonuses and promotions.

There is a thriving Land Rover scene in Malta, and he's in the thick of it. He has a white 109 rag top with 200Tdi and Defender transmission - I'm sure you'll come across him.

I agree, but I think the L322 looked better, and the classic better still, but the 405 is more becoming than the other new models. I just wish that LR would retain its heritage and core while also chasing the cash with the bling stuff. It's not only possible, it's complimentary. Their reputation rests on their rugged, go anywhere, dependable image, and once that is consigned to history, then where will that credibility be? How can you show adverts featuring Defenders and earlier vehicles waist deep in mud, fighting fires and delivering aid supplies if all you make are Chelsea Tractors? None of the new breed hold the slightest interest for me, which is not atypical of the enthusiasts, and isn't that a bit sad?