2.25 Diesel head gasket rebuild starting problems

hi there, im new to the site and this is the first time ive had to post here.

a bit of history (what little there is), i recently bought my first landy, a series 3 2.25 diesel, picked it up with a years MOT and running, if not with loads of smoke, which made a cloud of fog appear whenever i stopped at junctions.

to remedy this i replaced the fuel filter, which did nothing to wuell the smoke, so after it overheated and left me standed on the 25 i decided to take off the head and replace the gasket. ive no previous experience (although i did rewire the thing with no major hic-ups (just two cab fires with overloaded wires) but it all works now)

got the head off, water pump off, cleaned the whole thing up, replaced the gasket, composite, (didnt get the head skimmed, it was fine) and replaced the head and reconnected everything except the exaust manifol the the exaust pipe as i need new bolts. havent put coolant back in yet either.

i tried to start it up last night and it started after a few tries, it turned over, kicked into life and with my foot down, gave it some beans and it ran nice and loud, with smoke pouring out of the exaust manifold, after about 5-7 seconds i took my foot off and it promptly died. tried again and same thing happened.

now i am stuck, i think everything vital is connected, just cant keep it running. HEELLLPPP!!!!

thanks in advance to any help given

(p.s. loving the landy life, geting greasy and learning how it all works!)

what colour smoke .does it use water ,have you adjusted valve clearances, good clean fuel supply,lift pumps fail commonly, blueish smoke burning oil ,worn bores/rings can be made worse by poor injectos,white smoke that disappears quickly water entering cylinder ,head gasket cracked head usually just between valves,white smoke that hangs about ,unburnt fuel ,poor injectors ,poor timing ,cam as well pump drive train,black smoke fuel burned with not enough air ,injectors ,restricted air supply

the smoke is white, and hangs about when i stop, and smells of diesel, so is probably unburnt fuel. is it hard to change the timing? and getting the injectors looked at, is it easier to get them fixed or replaced?

you can try turning pump ,slacken injectyors and turn clock wise to advance ,check timing mark are ther to start with if not scribe one so you know where you started, for cam timing it can be effected by chain slackening over time ,skew gear wear ,skew gear is under pump and held in place with grub screw behind oil filter housing ,but has to be fitted correctly as effects timing

that seems pretty involved, and i think ill have to look into it a bit more before i attempt to do the job, or find a guide online somewhere to do it, im already sick of that f**king haynes manual, i mite as well have a bloke standing over me saying "take that bit off".

after reading up a little more online, i think what has happened is that i have started it up with air in the system, the first time around i didnt prime the system at all, but i did bleed the distributor before starting the second time. i dont know how to prime the rest of the system and searching online doesnt seem to turn anything up.

is this problem inline with my symptoms?

bleeding till no air at injection pump is enough, main body bleed screw is the important one,air would give poor running and stalling but not white smoke

I nowthink it's the timing of the whole thing, I moved all the gear to do the tappets and again from looking online it seems able to be the problem, I have no idea how to do the timing and searching online just brings up more results tht are too complicated for me to understand, need a proper idiots guide but will try and do the job Thursday if I can get a good guide

you need a dti and a master spline tool for timing this engine !

Electricmarbles said:

... havent put coolant back in yet either ...
... i tried to start it up last night and it started after a few tries, it turned over, kicked into life and with my foot down, gave it some beans and it ran nice and loud, with smoke pouring out of the exaust manifold, after about 5-7 seconds i took my foot off and it promptly died. tried again and same thing happened ...

Click to expand...

Never, ever, ever run your engine without coolant in the system!! :doh: :doh:

Although you don't say how many times you tried it, without water in the cooling system, you could have completely knackered your engine!

However, if you have set your tappets properly, and made sure that their push rods are sitting in the correct position, the only logical reason for the white diesel-smelling smoke would be that your pump timing is too far retarded, (the cure for which was given to you not very long ago) so try advancing your pump by turning it clockwise.

OSD

water in the tank ?