Anyone an expert on the 14j/15j, please?

Hi, All.

Recently purchased a late SIII SWB which has had an engine transplant. After the timing belt broke I need some advice from anyone familiar with these lumps, please. I was told it was a 2.5NA "probably from a Sherpa..." and from the research I've done this sounds right; it has the 'tin plate' timing gear cover which seems to be the distinguishing feature. Having looked in all the usual places I have been unable to find an engine number anywhere to confirm. So, my questions are:

Is there any way of telling the engine type other than the 'tinny' cover (could it be something else), and is there a material difference between 14j and 15j versions?

Having put a new 124-tooth timing belt on, I am unable to start it. I have, I think, correctly primed the injection pump: I fitted a new lift-pump and have used this to bleed the system in the order Filter banjo (with new fuel filter fitted), bleed screw on the side of the IP (larger), bleed screw on IP cover (smaller), injector unions (one at a time). I have also replaced the injectors and spill-pipe assemply, as well as the glow-plugs. I have determined that the glow-plugs operate correctly and following the procedure above I seem to have good air-free fuel flow at all of the 'bleed points' mentioned. I believe that the solenoid is working as I can hear the 'tick' at the pump as it is switched on. Have I done everything correctly?

After the belt snapped I replaced all of the pushrods (6 were bent) and the valve-spring 'toppers' and re-set the clearances to 0.25mm. I seem to have good compression but how likely is it that I may have damaged valves? The concensus seems to be that the push-rods are the more 'sacrificial' part and that valve damage is uncommon when a belt breaks - does anyone have any different experience?

In order to set the timing I have used the 'E]P' mark on the crank pulley and the dot on the camshaft sprocket. I have tried both the dot and the 'F]' marks on the fuel pump sprocket. Each has been lined up precisely with the corresponding arrow on the timing gear casing behind. The engine simply spins over on the starter but shows no sign of firing. Is this the correct timing set-up (and should the fuel pump be set to the dot or the F mark)?

Any advice would be very gratefully received as I have been working on this for several hours now without success and am starting to lose heart!

Many thanks

Shaun

Wod said:

Hi, All.

Recently purchased a late SIII SWB which has had an engine transplant. After the timing belt broke I need some advice from anyone familiar with these lumps, please. I was told it was a 2.5NA "probably from a Sherpa..." and from the research I've done this sounds right; it has the 'tin plate' timing gear cover which seems to be the distinguishing feature. Having looked in all the usual places I have been unable to find an engine number anywhere to confirm. So, my questions are:

Is there any way of telling the engine type other than the 'tinny' cover (could it be something else), and is there a material difference between 14j and 15j versions?

Having put a new 124-tooth timing belt on, I am unable to start it. I have, I think, correctly primed the injection pump: I fitted a new lift-pump and have used this to bleed the system in the order Filter banjo (with new fuel filter fitted), bleed screw on the side of the IP (larger), bleed screw on IP cover (smaller), injector unions (one at a time). I have also replaced the injectors and spill-pipe assemply, as well as the glow-plugs. I have determined that the glow-plugs operate correctly and following the procedure above I seem to have good air-free fuel flow at all of the 'bleed points' mentioned. I believe that the solenoid is working as I can hear the 'tick' at the pump as it is switched on. Have I done everything correctly?

After the belt snapped I replaced all of the pushrods (6 were bent) and the valve-spring 'toppers' and re-set the clearances to 0.25mm. I seem to have good compression but how likely is it that I may have damaged valves? The concensus seems to be that the push-rods are the more 'sacrificial' part and that valve damage is uncommon when a belt breaks - does anyone have any different experience?

In order to set the timing I have used the 'E]P' mark on the crank pulley and the dot on the camshaft sprocket. I have tried both the dot and the 'F]' marks on the fuel pump sprocket. Each has been lined up precisely with the corresponding arrow on the timing gear casing behind. The engine simply spins over on the starter but shows no sign of firing. Is this the correct timing set-up (and should the fuel pump be set to the dot or the F mark)?

Any advice would be very gratefully received as I have been working on this for several hours now without success and am starting to lose heart!

Many thanks

Shaun

Click to expand...

tin cover means its the sherpa variant,basically the same engine apart from front end its timed at ep and uses the f for freight rover on ip pump dot is for lr variants,belt is different than the std lr belt,fine adjustment of ip pump is done through the side after removing the plug theres a disc edge on to the hole and you adjust the pump after slackening the 3 pump securing nuts till a cutout in the disc aligns with the hole
do all the tappet adjusting nuts have the same number of threads exposed above the nut

jamesmartin said:

tin cover means its the sherpa variant,basically the same engine apart from front end its timed at ep and uses the f for freight rover on ip pump dot is for lr variants,belt is different than the std lr belt,fine adjustment of ip pump is done through the side after removing the plug theres a disc edge on to the hole and you adjust the pump after slackening the 3 pump securing nuts till a cutout in the disc aligns with the hole
do all the tappet adjusting nuts have the same number of threads exposed above the nut

Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the prompt reply. Confirmation of some of the points is really helpful. I'll check the exposed threads as soon as I can get back to it. Cheers.

Got some pdf's if any help used to have a 15J in my series 3.
The actual manual will not upload to here if you pm me will probably be able to email to you around 6mb

Blackburn said:

Got some pdf's if any help used to have a 15J in my series 3.
The actual manual will not upload to here if you pm me will probably be able to email to you around 6mb

Click to expand...

Fantastic. Thanks so much. Will pm you shortly. Best wishes

Shaun

Jamesmartin, Blackburn and anyone else who may be able to help... here's the latest:
Using the Leyland DAF manual so kindly provided by Blackburn I have once again bled the fuel system, and then set the crank pulley to the E]P position, the camshaft pulley to its dot and the IP pulley to both the dot and F without success. (Interestingly, Jamesmartin, the manual covers both 14j and 15j engines without mentioning any differences at all between them other than saying that a 14j should be timed to the dot and the 15j to the F mark. I still have no way of knowing which engine I have). The engine still fails to start.

Turning the engine over by hand has actually resulted in bending some of the new set of pushrods I had fitted! I will clearly need to be more careful next time I do this as I would not have said there was any more pressure applied than I would normally expect to feel just from engine compression.

Whilst bleeding the IP the smaller bleed screw on top of the cover sheared off (with only a tiny amount of pressure applied - I've been really cautious with these bleed points). This resulted in a very impressive squirt of diesel straight into my son's eye, so on the upside it looks as if I've got good pressure at the pump. Not sure he saw it that way, though!). Anyone know if these bleed screws can be purchased anywhere as separate items?

Things have (possibly) now got even more bizarre; Having looked through the threaded hole in the flywheel cover the 'slot' appears in the hole at an entirely different point to when the crank pulley is at E]P. Can this be right? I'm not sure if the slot on the flywheel has any relevance when the flywheel housing doesn't have the timing marks fitted to other versions but would have expected it to be in the same position on the flywheel relative to the crank pulley mark. Am I right in thinking that the pulley can only be fitted in one position and so the E]P and TDC marks on it must be correct? (i.e. if the flywheel mark should also line up with the hole on the cover then it must be the incorrectly fitted component).

Jamesmartin - I believe that the tappet adjusting nuts had slightly different numbers of threads above them originally. I have now slackened them all off though to refit the rocker assembly prior to resetting the gaps if I ever reach that point!

So... any further assistance with how I get this thing to run again would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

If the pushrods where not bent to start with and are now that would suggest valve timing way out ie piston hitting valve.
How many pushrods bent and where they all inlet or all exhaust , or just one cylinder?
Take the rocker assembly out completely remove glow plugs so no compression .Turn engine to where you think No1 cylinder is at top dead centre check to see if both pushrods are at the same height ie showing both valves closed when assembled.
Worth checking down holes taht pushrods fit in to see if followers are damaged should be a round indent taht they sit in but they are brass and can get damaged with belt failure.
If you remove all of rocker assembly and put a straight edge over valve stems are they all level.
From manual can you find TDC for no 1 cylinder I would suggest taking glow plugs out and rotating crank without valves opening to establish if both pushrods for that cylinder are at equal height at that point .