Td5 watertight engine

So I've got a td5 90, I'm looking at preparing the engine for wading.

Where abouts in the engine bay do I need to make water tight? I know I need to seal the snorkel and airbox in but what about the engine itself?

Thats pretty much it, no cambelt of injection pump to worry about.

Glenroy said:

So I've got a td5 90, I'm looking at preparing the engine for wading.

Where abouts in the engine bay do I need to make water tight? I know I need to seal the snorkel and airbox in but what about the engine itself?

Click to expand...

Need to put wading plugs in the bottom of the bellhousing under the clutch, and be sure all gearbox and diff breathers are supported above the water, remember ECU is under the drivers seat and should be kept dry.

Glenroy said:

So I've got a td5 90, I'm looking at preparing the engine for wading.

Where abouts in the engine bay do I need to make water tight? I know I need to seal the snorkel and airbox in but what about the engine itself?

Click to expand...

Standard wading depth on that is probably good, and a bit more with extended intake and breathers. I doubt if a Td5 likes having its electronic gubbins submerged very much, but that would need several feet deep.

Carry a good supply of wheel bearings and suchlike if you are going to drive through deep water, you will need them. And remember it may fill your chassis with mud!

raywin said:

Need to put wading plugs in the bottom of the bellhousing under the clutch, and be sure all gearbox and diff breathers are supported above the water, remember ECU is under the drivers seat and should be kept dry.

Click to expand...

Is there a hole for fitting a wading plug on the TD5?

Cheers

neilly said:

Is there a hole for fitting a wading plug on the TD5?

Cheers

Click to expand...

Yes there,s one on mine you need a plastic bsp plug, not 100% sure what size it is.

1/4 inch bsp from memory, either ebay or any plumber merchant

There's a plastic junction piece on the lowest point of the air intake pipe that has holes in the bottom branch. It might be apt to suck water up. If I was doing this I'd get a new length of intake tube and go straight from the air filter box to the vent on the wing (presumably there's a snorkel involved) and bypass this completely.

I have pretty much done as Brown describes above, the original pipework would need a good few tubes of mastic to get it close to sealing. There is an oblong slot in bottom of the bellhousing on my TD5, so no drain plug...still mulling over how best to address this. There is also a drain thingy on the underside of the air box which will need to be sorted before deep wading. Axle and gearbox breathers all now routed into the airbox. All depends on how deep for how long. After prolonged wading in the Suffolk floods many years ago I was shocked at just how F**ked my V8 hybrid was by the experience...

Im not sure running your trans breather pipes into the airbox is a good idea as you are creating a vacuum in the trans casings.
Depp water work used to shag my 90 wheel bearings double quick and the pas pump and the clutch and the inj pump and the alt brushes wore away as fast as anything.

There's no vacuum in the airbox on an unthrottled (Diesel) engine, at least not enough to measure with my Nanocom. Have been running it a year or so now and no issues to report, no sign of oil from breathers into airbox.

The ECU itself is apparently water tight, what isn't is the connector plugs going into it. At least according to an ex LR mechanic... The suggestion was to use a silicone sealant where the wires run into the connector block.

Breathers as mentioned, Front & Rear Axles, Gearbox, Transferbox. Run them all into a multi plug in the engine bay and run one or two lines to the top of your snorkel. Also have a fuel tank breather which I ran into the rear of the interior and sealed up the hole it came through. Don't bother with buying there ridiculously expensive 'wading kits' from LR sellers or ebay, just buy the parts from an air line supplier, cost me £12 for the whole lot not £70 some charge!

I'd also remove any carpet if you have any and move anything valuable off the floor. Even with a good bow wave water still comes in!

After many years of having my Defender I wont go in muddy water anymore it just isnt worth it, wrecks so many things!