People Hi,
I just want to share a very strange and at least according to the Greek
mechanics a very rare (actually they have never seen it happening before)
problem that struck my 1993 evented ex CT Discovery 200Tdi.
The vehicle has been low on performance and had increased fuel consumption
over the last 6 months or so with the operating temperature going up when
the engine was pushed (full throttle or goind uphill)
Fuel injectors and fuel pump were removed, checked, cleaned and adjusted
but
the problem persisted.
In order to check the integrity of the large full frontal upgraded
intercooler I have removed it and replaced it with the standard factory
one.
The larger intercooler was cleaned and pressure tested revealing no leaks.
But right on the same day when I was ready to fit it the engine started
ticking when idling.
The very next day the ticking became louder and expanded to up to 1000
rpm.
And then suddenly the engine stopped and it would not start.
Not wi****ng to create more problems I called the flatbed and sent the car
to
one of my mechanics.
Removal of the cylinder head revealed 6 (out of eight) bent pushrods.
Thanks God the pistons and valves were NOT bent or cracked. The cylinder
head is OK and the cylinder head gasket was 100% OK also.
And the problem was finally traced on a completely worn woodruff key. It
appears that the bolt securing the camshaft pulley (the one that turns by
the cambelt) onto the cam has not been properly torqued by the factory.
The engine has around 110.000 km on it which by Tdi standards is extremely
low.
The bolt bears no traces of any type of threadlocking compound and this is
somewhat strange.
Good thing is that this gave us the op****tunity to run a full test on the
engine and its internal bits, change the liftpump, check and adjust the
timing again, remove, clean, check and adjust the injector and fuel pump
once more and finally repair a damaged inlet manifold stud's thread which
was the culprit for a very annoying hissing coming from the engine when
the
turbo was at full operating pressure (and it is adjusted to 0.95 bars
since
1996). The turbocharger was also checked and amazingly after 12 years of
operation it is still well within the tolerances (it is a hybrid unit one
of
the very first that became available for 200Tdi units back then)
My mechanic has just called to confirm that the engine is now fully
assembled and most probably the car will be ready to pick it up from him
next Monday. New coil springs are also fitted (custom ordered ones from
SR
in order to accomodate to the additional weight of the full rollcage,
husky
winch etc on the one hand but the removal of the extremely heavy roofrack
on
the other hand.
I hope this engine "checkup" and repair and the fitment of the new coils
springs will bring it back to life....
Take care
Pantelis
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