discovery overheated and siezed

hi guys and girls, my mate has just ran dry a 300 tdi discovery on the motorway,after cooling it will turn over but will not start and wants to know if the engine will go again or scrap it.its done 130 000 and needs to know if maybe it needs new head=gasket any help would be much appreaciated.
budgie

Should think it needs a new head

budgie said:

hi guys and girls, my mate has just ran dry a 300 tdi discovery on the motorway,after cooling it will turn over but will not start and wants to know if the engine will go again or scrap it.its done 130 000 and needs to know if maybe it needs new head=gasket any help would be much appreaciated.
budgie

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All down to how hot it got, could have picked up on the pistons and damaged the bores. Take the head off or get a scope down inside a have a look if there are lines running vertically up the bores then the engine could be fooked, get some body with a good eye to look at it. You might get it to go again but if the pistons are damaged then it's a short term fix because its going to fail because the piston rings get stuck in the groves due to the friction caused by the overheating and later fail.

It turns over but will not start.

Does it turn over FASTER than it used to and / or smoother?

Is the cambelt still in one piece and turning the cam and pump?

Loosen all the unions on the injectors.
Turn the engine over on the starter.
Does fuel spurt out at each pipe?
If YES, engine not running probably means loss of compression.
Think Rings, head gasket, valves or clearances, that sort of thing.
If NO then find out why Injection pump isn't working or isn't getting fuel.

LOGIC ..... think the process through one step at a time.

CharlesY

CharlesY said:

It turns over but will not start.

Does it turn over FASTER than it used to and / or smoother?

Is the cambelt still in one piece and turning the cam and pump?

Loosen all the unions on the injectors.
Turn the engine over on the starter.
Does fuel spurt out at each pipe?
If YES, engine not running probably means loss of compression.
Think Rings, head gasket, valves or clearances, that sort of thing.
If NO then find out why Injection pump isn't working or isn't getting fuel.

LOGIC ..... think the process through one step at a time.

CharlesY

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Good points, but an overheating seizure usually results from either the pistons grinding to a standstill or the head gasket blows and it fills with water and dies that way. It would be unusual for the cam belt to break but I guess if you take the rocker filler cap off you can see if the valves are turning. Personally the guy who roasted it is a plonker and if you came to my workshop and told me it siezed I would probably start with the head off. I would imagine the head gasket is blown and the head is warped to death. Why did it toss all it's water out anyway, head gasket, water pump, radiator, hose ???. It's normal for the engine to turn again after cooling down but my guess is it's fooked. Good luck

quote: Personally the guy who roasted it is a plonker :unquote

Perhaps he is, or perhaps he's a perfectly reasonable guy just driving along, or perhaps the garage that was supposed to check his car out didn't bother with the water level or ................. we just don't know.

We certainly don't know enough to say the poor owner is a plonker.

He only said the guy ran the engine dry - he didn't say it tossed all the water out, so it may have just gotten too low, so circulation stopped. This would heat the head a lot, but perhaps not melt the block too much.

But on the other hand, lots of engines can stand a seizure, and come back to life without much trouble.

Worth spending half an hour checking out the easy simple things I think.

Charlesy

i concurr wiff charleswhy on this. my jag spat all its water out and due to the nature of the road i was unable to stop and safely get out and check the engine. this wur due to the speed and amount of traffic, lack of safe place to pull over,,twisty road and drainage ditches 3ft from road edge and me daughter was wiff me( no sure way to ensure that a 6yo would stay in the car when told to)
so i drove it to the nearest lay by which was about 4 fooking miles away by which time the head wur well and truly warped. noo bastid hose and HG second hand head and its bin fine since.
in my case i would have bin a right plonker to have stopped and got out to check as it wur like brand bastid hatch on that road

300's are well known for picking up on the bores when they overheat, rip the head off, it'll be well fooked, guaranteed, especially as it siezed.

Prophets of Doom .....

CharlesY said:

Prophets of Doom .....

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I think the guy said he seized it charley, thats more than a hot cylinder head.

The statement plonker is a light hearted remark for somebody who drove his vehicle to a grinding standstill, siezed.

If the timing is ok and I guess the best way to check that is remove the rocker cover, then wd40 or brake cleaner down the intake should get it firing, if it don't then head off, but I would pull the head off first anyway, how else can you check or guarantee the integrity of the gasket or damage, if any to the bores.

Filling it with water if it goes could fill a cylinder and hydraulic it, if the head gaskets away and blown the flame ring to **** right over to the water jacket.

If you want to check valve clearances, injection pump etc then that's your handle on it, and I respect that, and I think I said that.

I'm not a prophet and I can't walk on water either.

Slob, Jags take some right ****, I drove a V12 XJS that decided to turn into a V11 from Birmingham to Stourbridge. When the head came off there was a big hole in the top of No 9. Smoked a bit mind.....

Rob

they dint take as much **** as a cast iron lump.. my holden van is oz went fer about 20 miles with no water cos i'd holed the rad. bunged both full tubes of aradites over the large hole and it wur fine, even thou the temp was in the low 40°'s it never missed a beat.
me jag on the other hand only managed about 1 mile before it started dying, it wur on its last legs when i pulled up and the head wur banana shaped