300 tdi I gas flowed my new cylinder head, after head gasket fail, 97 Defender pick-up Peggy

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Wagon Loon

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Location
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300 tdi I gas flowed my new cylinder head, after head gasket fail, 97 Defender pick-up Peggy
1714814161455.png

Head gasket on Cyl 3 leaked into water system and had white smoke :eek:
Here is a pic of the failed area
1714814593801.png

Done 140,000, and pic of engine
1714814729083.png

You may be able to see piston no 3 has been steam cleaned a bit.
I was in the middle of my woodland after a 12 mile drive there, which was a little spirited. However only had Peggy for a few months and rebuilt much of the rear Chassis, installed new standard Flat Dog springs, new bump stops mounts etc. So a recent running and using as a daily driver project.
1714815351069.png

She was driving beautifully before the gasket went, although I was noticing the need to top up the water very frequently and think the leak was ongoing for some time. My spirited drive just pushed things over!

Having a young woodland is great.
1714815809771.png

But it takes a lot of time and work. I have a 1974 S3 station wagon Gigi, and she’s been awesome helping me to repair deer fencing and lots of other stuff in the woods. But I got the 300 TDI pick-up to take the load off her because she was built 50 years ago and would like to take it more easy lol
1714815990745.png

There is quite a lot of work involved , not just sticking another head on, because we're always in such a rush.
I could have just stuck a new gasket in, and it would have been fine, quick and dirty. But a 300tdi doesn't care lol.
However, I’m retired and enjoy having some fun and learning stuff. I am lucky enough to be retired and have Gigi still plus a Subaru XV to which I recently fitted Cooper all terrain tires making quite a capable combination.

I’ve got air tools and bought a dremel tool and air die grinder, and did some indepth research about getting more from my new head.

The factory castings are quite rough through the air passages/Ports, which will obviously cause turbulence, which will reduce air velocity and increase resistance to movement; all of which impedes the free movement of my pistons. Because they have to overcome these resistances and this lost ponies and torque!
But I am no expert, I was never a drip under pressure, as my Dad used to define expert. Just some old guy with a few tools and decades of experience fixing cars.
I will walk through what I've done and briefly explain my reasoning for doing so. I know you can buy a flowed head from Turner engineering, and this would be a really good option. It takes their professionals about ten hours to flow a standard head for you, so a grand for the privilege is of great value. Also, after chatting with them on the phone, they're really helpful and really do know their 300tdi’s.
But I didn't mind working for 50 hours even swirl polishing the backs of my new valves, flowing the leading edge of the exhaust valves and lapping them in with fine 300 grit, then moving into 600 grit for more lapping. It was for fun and a longer term purpose, so just don't take me too seriously, I don't. But I think some folk may be interested to follow my process through and take something from it, like things that are likely not worth the effort or time.

I cleaned up the old head
1714817667159.png

and sold it on Ebay
1714817755118.png

I hope it does many more miles. But I wanted to start with new seats and guides etc.
I also cleaned and restored my sump pan, as figured it would tell a story and be full of gungy old oil.
1714817984115.png

It took a few hours, used two ball pein hammers to resett the bolt holes, cleaned treated rust and painted in 2 pak eurethanol paint for a long lasting tough finish
1714818129653.png

Followed by removing the pretty shine, because flat black radiates more heat than shiny black.
1714818284711.png
 
300 tdi I gas flowed my new cylinder head, after head gasket fail, 97 Defender pick-up Peggy
View attachment 316337
Head gasket on Cyl 3 leaked into water system and had white smoke :eek:
Here is a pic of the failed area
View attachment 316338
Done 140,000, and pic of engine
View attachment 316339
You may be able to see piston no 3 has been steam cleaned a bit.
I was in the middle of my woodland after a 12 mile drive there, which was a little spirited. However only had Peggy for a few months and rebuilt much of the rear Chassis, installed new standard Flat Dog springs, new bump stops mounts etc. So a recent running and using as a daily driver project.
View attachment 316341
She was driving beautifully before the gasket went, although I was noticing the need to top up the water very frequently and think the leak was ongoing for some time. My spirited drive just pushed things over!

Having a young woodland is great.
View attachment 316343
But it takes a lot of time and work. I have a 1974 S3 station wagon Gigi, and she’s been awesome helping me to repair deer fencing and lots of other stuff in the woods. But I got the 300 TDI pick-up to take the load off her because she was built 50 years ago and would like to take it more easy lol
View attachment 316344
There is quite a lot of work involved , not just sticking another head on, because we're always in such a rush.
I could have just stuck a new gasket in, and it would have been fine, quick and dirty. But a 300tdi doesn't care lol.
However, I’m retired and enjoy having some fun and learning stuff. I am lucky enough to be retired and have Gigi still plus a Subaru XV to which I recently fitted Cooper all terrain tires making quite a capable combination.

I’ve got air tools and bought a dremel tool and air die grinder, and did some indepth research about getting more from my new head.

The factory castings are quite rough through the air passages/Ports, which will obviously cause turbulence, which will reduce air velocity and increase resistance to movement; all of which impedes the free movement of my pistons. Because they have to overcome these resistances and this lost ponies and torque!
But I am no expert, I was never a drip under pressure, as my Dad used to define expert. Just some old guy with a few tools and decades of experience fixing cars.
I will walk through what I've done and briefly explain my reasoning for doing so. I know you can buy a flowed head from Turner engineering, and this would be a really good option. It takes their professionals about ten hours to flow a standard head for you, so a grand for the privilege is of great value. Also, after chatting with them on the phone, they're really helpful and really do know their 300tdi’s.
But I didn't mind working for 50 hours even swirl polishing the backs of my new valves, flowing the leading edge of the exhaust valves and lapping them in with fine 300 grit, then moving into 600 grit for more lapping. It was for fun and a longer term purpose, so just don't take me too seriously, I don't. But I think some folk may be interested to follow my process through and take something from it, like things that are likely not worth the effort or time.

I cleaned up the old head
View attachment 316346
and sold it on Ebay
View attachment 316347
I hope it does many more miles. But I wanted to start with new seats and guides etc.
I also cleaned and restored my sump pan, as figured it would tell a story and be full of gungy old oil.
View attachment 316348
It took a few hours, used two ball pein hammers to resett the bolt holes, cleaned treated rust and painted in 2 pak eurethanol paint for a long lasting tough finish
View attachment 316349
Followed by removing the pretty shine, because flat black radiates more heat than shiny black.
View attachment 316350
Nice work!
My sump pan started to ooze oil, so a stitch in time and all that!!
Well done!:):):)
 
The new head arrived and I set it to the side until needed. Not wanting to damage the machined mating surface.
This was a mistake as it turned out, because the couriers had been somewhat unkind to it. They had dropped the new head not once but twice causing some damage to each end.
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I realized if I fixed this and fitted it, there would be no come back warranty as it was damaged, even though I probably could have taken the damage back to flat.
So They very kindly sent me another one, which as it happens was a slightly better quality too, and I had two!
1714840599699.png

My caravan has provided a great space for bits and a clean area to sort things.
I took lots of photos so I could see how everything was. I have a great Official JLR Manual which has all the specs and info needed, and I made another box to keep many of the parts like pushrods which had been kept in order pushed into a piece of hard foam.
eg
1714840966297.png

Being a pick-up with an i for williams canopy was ideal as there was a place to store some really oily dirty stuff until I was ready for it
Being a pick-up with an i for williams canopy was ideal as there was a place to store some really oily dirty stuff until I was ready for it.

Once the old head was removed I used kitchen roll, bunched up, and stuffed all the holes from push rods etc. I began cleaning the pistons carefully to remove some of the carbon build up which was actually not too bad, and cleaned the cast iron mating surface. It was important to keep everything clean, and being outside, all the more so. So the kitchen roll stuffed into everything was soaked with WD40, which I also used with bodyshop scuff pads to clean deposits and surfaces on the block.
It was sprayed over with WD40 and covered with cling film, cardboard cut to size and a handy flat piece of 5mm steel plate each time I stopped.
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Cleaning took some time
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Cleaning up dowel pins
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The WD40 is really useful for cleaning stuff.
Small things like the rubber seal on the oil cap were sourced and replaced, in a bid to minimize the oil leaks we all get with Landys.
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The air filter support bracket was dismantled, restored and rebuilt using new rubber mounts, all freely available.
1714842602342.png
 
After some work, I ended up with a little airbox mount kit to build. It felt like being a kid and getting an airfix kit to paint and build.
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A couple of the mount rubbers were separating from the bolts so really did need replacing. But a most satisfying job.
 
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I was quite pleased to see the original honing marks still in the cylinder walls.
They are a little more worn off at the back of cylinder three, and this seems to fit with others opinions that no 3 cylinder gets more boost than the others, because of the inlet manifold design, which has the pressurized air thrown to the back of the manifold from the front producing this effect.
For fun I tried firing compressed air in the end of my manifold with pieces of paper hanging over the four ports, and no three were lifted the most. A rather simplified experiment which does prove the theory in a practical demonstration. Think I may have a pic somewhere. But here is a pic miktdis showed of his Fourby performance inlet manifold
1714986905990.jpeg

Which is designed to give more even boost to each of the cylinders
Thanks https://www.landyzone.co.uk/members/miktdish.82087/ for sharing your pics 👍, I hope you don't mind me adding them here.
1714987104761.png

I have made do with my original, but may add my name to their waiting list, or if I can master my Tig, make my own.
My old manifold took quite a bit of cleaning, and I’ve found cheap spray oven cleaner and a power washer to make the job easier.
0.99p at Home Bargains for a spray tin of oven cleaner :¬)
1714987445197.png


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I got it pretty clean and spent some time polishing its internals to improve flow generally, although I didn't smooth out cylinder threes as much, things being unequal and all.
Here's my di grinders
1714987688115.jpeg

The air die grinder on the left is smaller than their dremel with a longer reach and can go twice as fast, which was useful with a grinding stone to re-shape the ports, and create a shark fin shape to the back of the valve guide on the exhaust ports.
But for actual polishing the Alu, not much rotational speed is needed at all do get a great finish.
1714987954240.png

I didn't want to make the exhaust ports, (Left above _ inlet right), much bigger. Because this would reduce the gas velocity and this is needed for turning the turbo. But to reshape the back of the valve guide support material so it was more fin shaped as opposed to a big lump of round, and tapered down into slight valleys either side is all intended to increase the velocity while reducing turbulence.
Again I’m no expert, and my modifications are not extreme, but quite subtle, and aimed at small efficiency improvements while avoiding the risk of ‘going too far’, and making the wall between water and air too thin. That's the last thing I would want, so I very much got comfy, and took my time.
Here is my set-up,
1714988504499.png

Here is an inlet bowl behind the Valve as from factory
1714988624526.png

and exhaust bowl behind the valve, which has had some factory extra machining to improve flow
1714988774556.png

I suppose in use the exhaust ports will become smoother with deposited carbon and a little burnt oil.
 
On the exhaust manifold - in the global south anyway - some have coated the inside of the manifold with a "powder coating"

the stated objective of these peeps is that you want the temp delta between before the turbo to after the turbo to be as great as possible

don't understand it but they swear by it

but watching you with interest
 
300 tdi I gas flowed my new cylinder head, after head gasket fail, 97 Defender pick-up Peggy
View attachment 316337
Head gasket on Cyl 3 leaked into water system and had white smoke :eek:
Here is a pic of the failed area
View attachment 316338
Done 140,000, and pic of engine
View attachment 316339
You may be able to see piston no 3 has been steam cleaned a bit.
I was in the middle of my woodland after a 12 mile drive there, which was a little spirited. However only had Peggy for a few months and rebuilt much of the rear Chassis, installed new standard Flat Dog springs, new bump stops mounts etc. So a recent running and using as a daily driver project.
View attachment 316341
She was driving beautifully before the gasket went, although I was noticing the need to top up the water very frequently and think the leak was ongoing for some time. My spirited drive just pushed things over!

Having a young woodland is great.
View attachment 316343
But it takes a lot of time and work. I have a 1974 S3 station wagon Gigi, and she’s been awesome helping me to repair deer fencing and lots of other stuff in the woods. But I got the 300 TDI pick-up to take the load off her because she was built 50 years ago and would like to take it more easy lol
View attachment 316344
There is quite a lot of work involved , not just sticking another head on, because we're always in such a rush.
I could have just stuck a new gasket in, and it would have been fine, quick and dirty. But a 300tdi doesn't care lol.
However, I’m retired and enjoy having some fun and learning stuff. I am lucky enough to be retired and have Gigi still plus a Subaru XV to which I recently fitted Cooper all terrain tires making quite a capable combination.

I’ve got air tools and bought a dremel tool and air die grinder, and did some indepth research about getting more from my new head.

The factory castings are quite rough through the air passages/Ports, which will obviously cause turbulence, which will reduce air velocity and increase resistance to movement; all of which impedes the free movement of my pistons. Because they have to overcome these resistances and this lost ponies and torque!
But I am no expert, I was never a drip under pressure, as my Dad used to define expert. Just some old guy with a few tools and decades of experience fixing cars.
I will walk through what I've done and briefly explain my reasoning for doing so. I know you can buy a flowed head from Turner engineering, and this would be a really good option. It takes their professionals about ten hours to flow a standard head for you, so a grand for the privilege is of great value. Also, after chatting with them on the phone, they're really helpful and really do know their 300tdi’s.
But I didn't mind working for 50 hours even swirl polishing the backs of my new valves, flowing the leading edge of the exhaust valves and lapping them in with fine 300 grit, then moving into 600 grit for more lapping. It was for fun and a longer term purpose, so just don't take me too seriously, I don't. But I think some folk may be interested to follow my process through and take something from it, like things that are likely not worth the effort or time.

I cleaned up the old head
View attachment 316346
and sold it on Ebay
View attachment 316347
I hope it does many more miles. But I wanted to start with new seats and guides etc.
I also cleaned and restored my sump pan, as figured it would tell a story and be full of gungy old oil.
View attachment 316348
It took a few hours, used two ball pein hammers to resett the bolt holes, cleaned treated rust and painted in 2 pak eurethanol paint for a long lasting tough finish
View attachment 316349
Followed by removing the pretty shine, because flat black radiates more heat than shiny black.
View attachment 316350
I'm interested in the profile of your sharkfin, many decades back in a former life (and before computerisation) this apprentice toolmaker gas flowed the head of a BMC 1800 B engine for competitive use. It was all by eye and guesswork but worked.

I would expect my rudimentary knowledge of airflow in the mid 70s to be markedly different to the airflow knowledge today and I'd be interested in what the thoughts are now.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this as I've got two old motors to keep running 😊 (a 200TDi and 300TDi)
 
Enjoyable read. Was new head from turners? I’d really like a woodland. Have been thinking about it a couple years and have a young son who would benefit from it massively as would his mates! I’m fortunate to have a fair few shooting perms though which I put free time to when I can. I’d just really love to get a woodland functioning how it should.
An old keeper said to me if beaters aren’t complaining about trying to get through a woodland then the wood isn’t thick enough 😂. This is true as really woodland floor should be covered with all sorts of flora and fauna instead of ravaged by deer.
Keep us updated on both 👍🏻😎
 
PXL_20240308_132554550.PORTRAIT.jpg

All the internal parts of the ports are rough and casting joins don't quite match up so there's an bit of a jagged edge running the length of each port.
The valve guide supporting casting is shaped a little, but on newer vehicles these areas are better designed and harder too.prove on.
I knew if I made the exhaust ports volume increase significantly, this would probably slow the speed of the exiting hot gasses, which would produce less boost.
So it was important to not remove too much material. Also I didn't want to get to thin between the water jacket and ports. But having a spare repairable new head gave me the courage to go for it.I wanted to smooth the port so as to less impede the flow of gasses.
The exhaust is forced up and over and around the shoulder of cast alloy around the guide.
So with stones and a flappy sand paper attached to the tools, I smoothed the port from the bowl side first, and begun taking the round support away so the fast flowing exhaust gas would be sliced into two parts moving up over the guide supported casting.
I also created a slight valley for either side for the gas to flow into where the two initial alleys converged into one more subtle one. The idea being to increase the flow speed just a wee bitty.
I am rubbish at photographing shiny bits. The more reflections and shiny, the worse my pics make these parts look. So My apologies.

PXL_20240310_171034038.jpg
PXL_20240328_160436206.MP.jpg

It's actually much smoother than it looks. Hopefully you can get an idea.
 
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Mounting the valves in my drill and working with the dremel and air die grinder, I swirl polished the backs and with the exhaust valves smoothed off the sharp leading edge which gas leaving the cylinder would have to move around causing turbulence and slowing the velocity somewhat.
1716163166223.png

I’ve read this from people who live for any reduction in efficiency they can fix. This is just a common sense bit of an improvement to the stock Valve, and I hope it helps a little.
1716163339621.png

1716163409458.png

The inlet and exhaust ports all came out quite nicely
1716163955871.png

Although the valves and head are new, I decided to lap them in. I believe sometimes the cutters can get a wee bit of chatter cutting seats, so by lapping with a fine 300 grit I could check for this, and on one valve actually found some too.
1716164179380.png

This one was lovely, but the one below is not so good.
1716164266561.png

You can see how the grinding has dulled the surface of the valve seat, showing the contact area for a gas seal.
1716164388122.png

After correcting this and following on grinding with a superfine 600 grit I bought in, I had to clean the head very thoroughly, grinding paste wouldn't be a good thing to leave any behind and for the guides.
1716164698871.png

My caravan was the perfect place to grind in.
1716165090381.png

Finally getting it all back together, fifty hours of work, and it looks just the same as when I took delivery. All the work being hidden inside.
1716165233728.png
 
View attachment 317460
Mounting the valves in my drill and working with the dremel and air die grinder, I swirl polished the backs and with the exhaust valves smoothed off the sharp leading edge which gas leaving the cylinder would have to move around causing turbulence and slowing the velocity somewhat.
View attachment 317461
I’ve read this from people who live for any reduction in efficiency they can fix. This is just a common sense bit of an improvement to the stock Valve, and I hope it helps a little.
View attachment 317463
View attachment 317464
The inlet and exhaust ports all came out quite nicely
View attachment 317465
Although the valves and head are new, I decided to lap them in. I believe sometimes the cutters can get a wee bit of chatter cutting seats, so by lapping with a fine 300 grit I could check for this, and on one valve actually found some too.
View attachment 317466
This one was lovely, but the one below is not so good.
View attachment 317467
You can see how the grinding has dulled the surface of the valve seat, showing the contact area for a gas seal.
View attachment 317468
After correcting this and following on grinding with a superfine 600 grit I bought in, I had to clean the head very thoroughly, grinding paste wouldn't be a good thing to leave any behind and for the guides.
View attachment 317469
My caravan was the perfect place to grind in.
View attachment 317470
Finally getting it all back together, fifty hours of work, and it looks just the same as when I took delivery. All the work being hidden inside.
View attachment 317471
The finish on the valve seats and valves could be left matt. and/or you could go down as far as 1200 grade paste if you can find it. Have you tested them by seeing if they will hold petrol or paraffin? Or diesel as some on here say?

And what is this crud in between the shiny bits, it looks frighteningly like its cracking or summat! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
valve.png


Maybe it is just the picture!

Still you have done a great job, hope you enjoyed it!

I see the dog got bored and went off!!!!!
 
Lol, the dogs are aboot,
The valve seat got some junk from all the work between the hardened steel seat and alloy head.but this all got cleaned off before reassembly with the oven cleaner and jet washing.
The valves should all hold a pretty gas tight seal, there was just one that the lapping highlighted was not as good as the rest, and it got lapped in to a much better seal thanks.
 
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I needed a no hole gasket which is the thickest and the new head came with a 3 hole.


PXL_20240415_161219895.jpg


At last, it was begging it was beginning to feel like I was caught in a never ending time loop! And I really miss driving Peggy.
I f'd up torquing all the head bolts before fitting the restored air filter bracket which goes under two of them 😬.
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After stripping down cleaning and re painting with 2k,and getting new rubber mounts; I had a fun wee kit to build.prooerly felt ten again.
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I had to remove two of the thinner outer head bolts and was very concerned that I may cause potential damage. I was able to get them back to the same torque because of using the angle guage, so the bolts being a few threads less didn't impact.
PXL_20240415_172208846.jpg

It was 4 and 12 I had to redo.
I numbered all the bolts with paint pen, to make it more simple, like me lol.
 

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I decided it would be a good idea to remove the sump and scrape any built up gunge oot!
It has become rather rusty, and the contents would tell a story too, maybe one I didn't want to hear, but to get it really clean inside and restored outside makes sense
PXL_20240424_160917009.jpg
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In the oil there was no sparkles, phew!
The oil was not with any really thick tar like deposits also. Which would suggest the oil has been changed regularly. It's twin walled and after going over with the needle descaler to remove most of the rust, and with a good clean up using wire wheels ect. I treated the rust with a converter etch primer and painted with a good coat of 2 parts epoxy paint. An evening hung by the stove hardened the paint.
I also went over the bolt holes with two ball pein hammers, to resetting the shape of the fixing holes which had been tightened a bit too much and was slightly distorted; before paint.
PXL_20240425_191134097.MP.jpg
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To finish and since dull black radiates more heat than shiny black, I Took Off the shine with auto paint preparation pads cut from a huge roll I keep for auto body paint work.
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I had bought a composite gasket, then going by the manual realised I should be using RTV black silicone sump gasket maker.
I ordered some, and read others had had the compound gaskets fail. But I like the traditional gaskets, and figured since I already had it and that I would change the oil and filter after about 500 miles anyway, why not give it a shot.
I used the blue gasket joiner to the sump side and to stick the gasket in place, and some grease on the upper side, soI could remove it in the future when it failed lol.
I'm curious to see if it holds up too! Of course I didn't torque the bolts to spec, as this would be too tight for the gasket, but with a dab of the blue non setting gasket joiner to lock the bolts, tightened to a slight squish of the compound gasket,in the traditional way.i was using a torque wrench set to spec, and non of the bolts got quite to spec. When the RTV arrives it is not a bother to do it again, if needed. But I'm curious and hopeful it will be quite happy as is 🤞
 
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