New D2 owner with woes

Hi to all,

I am new to land rover owning having got a 2001 D2 about 11 months ago and boy do the things get under your skin.

I have had a few of the usual problems that have been fixed quickly and my first off road experience was fantastic fun but ended with a piece of ice being pushed through the back of the rad by the fan. Ho Hum learned a bit more about the beast ;-)

I now have a much bigger problem. On Wednesday (28/1/15) my sump plug worked its way out and all the oil was dropped, the oil light came on and very quickly the ECU cut the engine having traveled about 1/2 mile before stopping safely. Don at Beamends my local supplier came to my assistance and with a sump plug in and 7 1/2 liters of oil the engine turn a bit then fired and seemed fine.

Fast forward to Friday and 6 inches of snow with wife due at an interview. I started the Disco and left her running as I cleared the drive and popped my kids round the corner to childcare, all fine. Wife and I got in and off we go not thinking anything about Wednesday's experience and trying to avoid the idiots make our way to the interview. Noticed a bit of loss of power on occasion but sometimes get that (sensor on air intake I think) but Disco ran fine and I dropped my wife off without stopping the engine. Drove onto the supper market and parked up, went shopping and on returning to the car check oil and water - all fine. Got in started fine pulled away got text asking me to get something else, parked went shopping.

Returned to Disco and on starting started getting a very loud hard knocking sound from the engine with no warning lights. Drove gently for about mile and pulled up where I could get a look and some help - she sounded like a tractor.

On inspection at the road side sound seemed to be coming end of engine near to the bulk head, is regular in timing and increases in speed with engine revs but gets quieter but still very obvious. When hot the exhaust was clear but when could it is very white. When driving the sounds are the same so I don't think it is the big ends, my guess is the main bearings.

Some advice please!

Am I right in thinking it is the main bearings.

If it is the main bearings should I buy another engine (not knowing its history) or repair the old. (Been 20 years since I did anything of this magnitude).

If I do recondition the engine how difficult is it and what else is it advisable to change at the same time?

Any advice and help will be greatly appreciated.

Hello and Welcome

Welcome to the forum.. I imagine advice will be along soon.. good luck with it..

Dunno about D2, but my 300Tdi D1 had a similar issue, which turned out to be a snapped exhaust manifold stud, the one right next to the bulkhead .. it'd be well worth having a good look at them, and trying to tighten the nuts, before ripping the whole motor out ..

Also check the exhaust flange on the downpipe (if it has one) ...

id buy another engine if oil pressure is low, turbo will be damaged as many other parts, ive paid £1000-£1500 for decent guaranteed used engines

Update!

Just been out to see if I can get any further. Had rocker cover off and ran engine for a couple of mins 3-4 times. Everything covered in oil but when running oil was not splattered across the engine as I expected just a bit of splashing.

Noticed that what ever position the cam was in the 2 exhaust valves were lose. On top is a small metal shaped 'tappet' type piece which never gets tight. On all other cylinders one will be tight and slightly loose or both tight.

I am starting to wonder if a valve has gone. The oil light goes out very quickly, and the sound with the cover off sounds near the top and is more like an old fashioned tappet.

Looking at other posts I am concerned about my oil pump as others report lots of oil pumped out when rocker cover off.

I know the square root of bugger all about the TD5 engine, however I do know a bit about running engines without oil.
Many years ago (late 1993 to be precise) I bought my first 4wd - a
Lada Niva.
This beast was only 3 years old at the time and was going for a very good price and from a main dealer.
I had a test drive of it and it seemed ok despite being a good bit slower than my then Reault 18. I did notice however, that the oil pressure gauge was reading zero during the test drive.
My rose tinted glasses put this down to cheap Russian instrumentation not working and I bought the thing.
I then drove it home at speeds of up to 70 mph along the M27 from Portsmouth to the other side of Southampton (about 20 miles at a guess).
The following day I was investigating my fine purchase and decided to dip the oil. None......so it put a litre in.....still none.....so I put another litre in.....still none.....so I put another litre in.....and had a show on the bottom of the dipstick and another litre bought it up to between the marks.
Oh bollocks.
Anyway this engine lasted for a year giving reasonable performance until it failed the MOT on excess smoke. I later stuck a 2 litre Fiat twin cam in it but that's another story.
Anyway, the moral to my waffling is that I very much doubt that the very short time that your engine was starved with oil would have done it any harm.
Plus you have good oil pressure.
And my typing finger now hurts.

Thanks Vince for that reassurance.

Got a couple of guys popping over later to have a gander - see what they think will post what happens.

Had 2 phone calls about the engine today.

First the guy tells me not to drive (well der) and have the head off at cost of £300 and Pressure checked at cost of £150. Local engineering company would pressure test for £40.

Second call from a trusted machanic who is well known to wife's family (wife actually grew up with him). He is popping round tomorrow but suggested it could be the injector in number 5 piston (he has heard it is common). Will see what he says tomorrow but todays thinking is to take the injector out and get it tested first. This fits with the symtoms - white smoke out of exhaust (over fueled) and knocking sound (diesel knocking).

Will post when I know more.

I have resolved the knocking noise - the big end bearing (shells) on piston for are knackered. When I had a Hawkeye and was watching the live data the piston vibration was much higher on number 4 than all the others. I took the sump off and put a screwdriver on the end of the conrod and could wiggle it about - not good. No movement on the others.

Moving forward I was considering recondition my old engine but have managed to drop on a spares/repair of the same year with an engine that has only done 74K and I still have lots of spare parts.

Any one needs any parts for a Discover 2 (excluding whole engine) then pm me.

Hello and welcome