2.25 Diesel (Series III) Major Problems

Hi All,

New to this forum so apologies if this is in the wrong section. I'm in over my head and was wondering if anyone any advice on where to go next?

My Aunt has a series 3 landy (1984) with 2.25l diesel. It originally overheated and had the radiator replaced, but it still wouldn't start. Unfortunately it then sat for a year or so in this state.

A friend of my Aunt had a look at it and told her recently he thought it was just the water pump and thermostat that needed replaced so at a family gathering over a couple of beers I volunteered to change those bits for her. I don't have much experience with engines but can normally figure things out and can follow 'how to' instructions.

Water pump and thermostat changed easily enough, but still wouldn't start, so cleaned air filter, changed oil filter and did an oil change. When pouring new oil in it sat in rocker cover for a long time so thought the oil channels must have been blocked. We therefore proceeded to take the head off. Gasket was still in good shape and it all looked pretty good, but there was something in one of the cylinders. It looked like a crystalline?? structure on top of one of the pistons and it had been hitting the cylinder head which had caused some pitting (sorry don't have pictures to hand). Valves still looked intact.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? It definitely wasn't just carbon build up, something had somehow got in there. The only thing I could think of was that a piston ring has slipped off (maybe while block was cooking) and got into the cylinder then been mashed? No scoring on the cylinder walls though. If this is the case (although I'm not 100% convinced) then I guess I have to take sump off and remove piston and get it skimmed as well as the head? I presume if piston has been hitting head the big end bearings need replaced too?

Any advice on where to go from here would be greatly appreciated. As I said at the beginning I am way in over my head now.

Thanks in advance

Is it not a hotspot fallen out of the cylinder head?
LAND ROVER DEFENDER DIESEL CYLINDER HOT SPOT PART NO ETC8620 | eBay
Or the end of a glow plug.

Rings can't just "slip off" pistons. If the upper part of the piston had somehow broken off, allowing the ring to escape, you'd have a lot more damage.

Pics of what you've found would definitely help.

Hi,

Many thanks for responding guys. Going to take some photos to post. Going to also take cylinder head to an expert to see if it is salvageable. Pitting might be too deep to get it skimmed.

Glad to her you don't think it's a piston ring too. That saves taking piston out. I think I'll have a go at scraping the piston in situe to see if I can shift debris.

Will follow up with photos.

are heater plugs ok
Have you tried bleeding the injector pump to rid it of any air, if that does not work remove injectors from head and reconnect pipes to check spray pattern, keep hands/eyes away while turning over engine

Crystalline deposit and previous overheating sound like head gasket failure. Start with that issue first. If everything is still intact inside i wouldn't get too worried about chasing a fault when you have already said it overheated.

If the headgasket had failed it wouldn't start because of the low compression. A diesel will keep running if you lose compression in a cylinder but wont start with a cylinder on low compression.

monkfish24 said:

Crystalline deposit and previous overheating sound like head gasket failure. Start with that issue first. If everything is still intact inside i wouldn't get too worried about chasing a fault when you have already said it overheated.

If the headgasket had failed it wouldn't start because of the low compression. A diesel will keep running if you lose compression in a cylinder but wont start with a cylinder on low compression.

Click to expand...

+1 on the deposit though it wouldn't cause pitting.

Pics of the gasket, head surface and piston would be helpful