Have I cooked my engine?

Fellow Disco owners please HELP!
I was driving down the M3 at 90 in my 1996 300TDi when the engine went into the red and died. Lots of brown water from the expansion tank and white smoke comming from the oil filler cap.
Looks like a blown head gasket right?
Anyway once it'd cooled down and I'd topped the water up I tried to start her. She's not siezed but would'nt start and the sound of the engine turning over is a bit strained.
The AA man said it sounds like it'll need a new engine as I've probably dammaged the pots or worse.

I'm going camping at the weekend and need to get her running by friday so....
If I whip the head off to change the head gasket how can i tell if the rings, bores (or anything else) is mullerd?

My only other option is a recon engine from one of the london firms in Exchange and Mart but they're all quoting around £950 ouch!

any suggestions?

sounds exactly like what mine did when my head gasket went, the head pressure checked fine and they were able to give it a light surfacing cut and install a thicker gasket, the gasket had failed between cylinders as well as into the water jacket, I would not write of the bottom end, pull the head and have it checked before spending time finding a new motor..
good luck, mine cost about US$420 to get repaired....here in Tunisia

Giles Clayton said:

I was driving down the M3 at 90 in my 1996 300TDi .............

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You mean you were driving at 90 mph?

cipx2 said:

You mean you were driving at 90 mph?

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Poor disco! lol Hope it was that "private M3 that no one hardly knows of"

I am sure he meant he was driving down the M3 at 9.00 like the time of day

Surely no-one on this list would break the law by speeding ..... ?

CharlesY

CharlesY said:

I am sure he meant he was driving down the M3 at 9.00 like the time of day

Surely no-one on this list would break the law by speeding ..... ?

CharlesY

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Hi RGT,
Thanks forthe imput. You were right, the bottom end is still ok but no2 and 3 chamber have burned through to each other making the head totally un usable... so the search begins for a replacement!
You other lot, get back to your pipe and slippers and copy of the highway code

Giles Clayton said:

Hi RGT,
Thanks forthe imput. You were right, the bottom end is still ok but no2 and 3 chamber have burned through to each other making the head totally un usable... so the search begins for a replacement!
You other lot, get back to your pipe and slippers and copy of the highway code

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i smoke ciggies not pipes! highway code.... summat u never read it seems i recall the speed limit to be 70mph on a motorway

good call on the slippers tho, it reminded me to go find em

hope u fix it soon

isn't the UK metric? I assumed he was talking km/hr, the speedo in mine, though not for UK, I guess as its LHD, is in km.....I was running about 90-100km/hr...are your roads marked in km or miles? do you buy gas in litres, gallons, or imperial gallons? I was surprised when looking through this forum that someone was talking about miles per gallon, perhaps you guys are all right after all, if we could just teach you to drive on the right side of the road and get away from all that left handed shifting....