300tdi Possible head gasket?

Recently I bought myself a 1986 90 with a 300tdi retrofitted
It wasn't in the best shape when I picked it up but it drove home the 100 miles fairly well, for the first 10 miles lots of blue smoke as it hadn't been used for a while.
Noticed over the next week doing maintenance and trying to find the many, many oil leaks that the coolant kept dropping.
Found to be the rad, so changed that as well as inter cooler as was also leaking, new coolant pipes all around and new header tank to the 300tdi variant as well whilst I was doing it. Thermostat as well
Still using coolant, after multiple bleeds the level in tank still rises, when running and sealed up the level in rad drops off as well as thermostat. Releasing bungs temporarily fixes this.
There's always been a little blue smoke when I first set off for the day which clears after 3 or so mins, But today when doing anything over half throttle there was a LOT of white smoke. Almost like a tank making a smoke screen. Didn't get out to check if it was a diesel like smell or not tho as I was in a bit of a rush to get around
It constantly overheats because the header tank will go dry, the back is filled with 5l bottles of water to top up every now and again when out and about, i try and not let it overheat but it smelt of burning today on the last leg home. When the temp starts to climp to 3/4 its normally time to pull over and refill.
So here's my question, Whats wrong with this bloody thing now? I have not stripped the engine down to see if exhaust ports are clean or not, and don't really know what the common signs are on these engines to look for.


Cheers everyone

Does sound like head gasket tbh

Any visible leaks? P gasket is always worth a look, the leak runs down the block so most evaporates before it hits the floor.

I Can't see any obvious leaks around the P, it all looks pretty dry around there,
Changing the head gasket doesn't look like it would be the most complex of jobs, but I am a bit worried of what I will find underneath, cracked or warped head in particular. The only thing I'm nervous is setting the tappets again
It seems to be that the Erling gaskets are the ones to go for?

An Update:
Pulled the head off, HG blown between Cl 2 and 3, No biggie they're not that expensive.
Cleaned off the head, Got out my engineers ruler, shone a light through, annndd its warped. Yay!
So new head ordered with head bolts, new thermostat housing gasket and a bundle of other parts.
Whilst waiting for this to be delivered I somehow managed to lose one of the dowels that helps line things up, I left both in the head but must have knocked one off, Can't find it anywhere.
Bolt the new head down, all going well, go to put the injectors in, Tightening the second one to 25nm and the bloody peg snaps. With rage I order some more and work on getting the rest back together.
This is where we currently now stand, More money in then I wanted to be, I think I might cry if something else has gone wrong when doing this job, I have managed to lose the 15mm Bolt on the bottom of the exhaust and the 13mm off the intake, Who knows where these might be, certainly not me at this point!

Bet you can still sell the old head, stating it needs a skim.

lynall said:

Bet you can still sell the old head, stating it needs a skim.

Click to expand...

Looking at the markings, I would say its had a skim before at some point in its life.
I will most likely sell it on to someone who wants to invest the time into it, it does need new valve stem seals as these were on their way out, They do get two of the injector studs included as I lost the will to live after snapping the second one and decided to abandon that part of the job and just order 4 more

An Update:
Head's on, All injectors in, managed to snap one of the brand new studs (again)
Started up after a little encouragement and cranking, cracking the injector fuel bolts and allowing it to prime helped it along massively.
Rockers were wayyyyy out so adjusted them using my amazing method, it it wiggled a bit then it was probably .2mm clearance. (Wouldn't advise, do it properly if you can)
I would say it actually runs better then it did before, Can't comment on power as I am awaiting a big box of nuts to secure the intake studs and the bottom exhaust stud, but the temp was completely steady for the 50 miles I drove it around yesterday.
No more blue smoke when coming off the drive first thing, When accelerating there was a bit of blue smoke coming out the exhaust, not really sure what that is but it got less and less the more I drove, Its quite a clean exhaust when accelerating.
When its all back together I plan on investigating if the injector pump has been fiddled with, I would like to have more power so I plan on changing the boost pin as well.