300tdi diesel knock

Hi been away for a while worst thing i ever done was sell my old trusty 200tdi anyways ive got myself a 300tdi 1995 and noticed a noise like a diesel knock yesterday then i took it for a run now tonight seems to of got worst took the alternator belt off found still there cracked off injector one by one found cylinder 3 injector a bit weak but no enough to make this noise sound like its coming from fuel pump area in the timing cover any ideas will be good as i cant find were its coming from and it dont sound like its getting any better thanks

Possibly advanced timing. Whip off the cover on the timing case held on with three 10mm bolts, set crank to tdc and lock flywheel if you can. Should then be able to slip a pump locking pin (9.5mm drill but) into injection pump locking slot.

Thanks for the fast reply i will b off out there to have a quick look in a minute

Just striped all the timing belt down found tensioner failed and belt shredding itself caught it just in time before it wrecked the engine

Lucky Man,

you better go buy a lotto ticket this week.

Cheers

There ya go then, I was going to say it could be belt giving out if the knock is getting worse. Glad you've found it, lucky though, could of been in for bent push rods there

Had a go at timing it all back up after buting a new kit on last night and could not get it timed right when turing it over by hand it locks up the only probem i can see it been is i did a rear crank seal when i replaced my clutch and because im going off the timing mark on the flywheel if i have put the flywheel in a difrent postion is it posible to do that seen as i didnt mark it when taking it off and just put it back on not really taking much notice have got the rocker cover off push rods etc seem ok think its just a timing problem

Use the timing marks on the pulleys, I had the same issue.
from what I remember, pin in pump, theres a mark on the crankcase that lines up with the woodruff key on the crank, and marks on the cam shaft pulley.

I will be trying that tonight as im at work now i have a bit of a probelm with seening the timeing on the crank pully as have welded bolt on my winch bumper and winch so made it difecult to take the rad out an directly see the marks but will use a mirror an post my findings thanks

Just be careful with a mirror, it's easy to think its right, when actually it's not. With timing cover off, the woodruff key should be at 12 o'clock, cam on its marks etc. I would have thought there would be a dowel on the end of the crank for the flywheel to locate. There is on most engines, however up too now I've not had to pull the flywheel off any of my 300s luckily so I don't know for sure.

There may be two marks on the flywheel , a thick slot and a thin one. Not sure but the 200 tdi has.

Its the one nearest the point where the mark on the crank lines up any way. I locked the flywheel up by screwing a spare flywheel retaining bolt in the inspection hole and putting a little pressure on the flywheel, this stopped it moving while I got the cambelt on and lined up