2.5 NA starters and fitting

Morning! Looking at replacing the starter motor in Sunny, often needs a good whack with a mallet to get going in the morning. Parts catalogue and websites show a number of different motors that are fitted to these engines (this block is a 14J as well just to complicate issues slightly). Are they all compatible?
And if so, is it an easy enough job to swap the whole thing out without removing the wing? The workshop manual is stupendously unhelpful in this regard.
Thanks!

Nick666 said:

Morning! Looking at replacing the starter motor in Sunny, often needs a good whack with a mallet to get going in the morning. Parts catalogue and websites show a number of different motors that are fitted to these engines (this block is a 14J as well just to complicate issues slightly). Are they all compatible?
And if so, is it an easy enough job to swap the whole thing out without removing the wing? The workshop manual is stupendously unhelpful in this regard.
Thanks!

Click to expand...

you can fit a 300tdi starter or any 4 cylinder diesel starter lr used earlier,should be straight forward on a non turbo engine

Perfect, thanks James

Swapped them out today (new one from Craddocks, actually branded their own - didn't know they did that. Presumably Britpart underneath).

Old one (Lucas branded, twice as big, weighed a ton) presumably original. Had a bracket to hold up the front end as well, not surprising at that weight.



Took ages to get the bolts out. 17mm spanners - one bolt straight into mounting (top nearest to block), one nut and bolt combo (top nearest wing) and one nut onto a stud (bottom). Awkward little space to get to and can't get the angles for a socket. Also a 13mm to take the cable nuts off and a 10mm for the nuts fixing the starter to the front bracket (removed as won't fit the new starter anyway).



Hour and a half to remove the old one, 15 min to fit the new one. SO much better starting now.

While I was there found the oil spray you can see in the second pic. Looks like it's being blown out the breather. I'll clean it up tomorrow so I can get a better look where it's coming from to be sure. Interesting as doesn't seem to be losing any oil (and it's not obviously contaminated with water or coolant either). Overpressure? Or a blocked breather?

Do u mean the oil all over the chassis etc? It looked fairly clean before you started but now looks quite oily. When you took the support bracket off did you leave the stud in? May not be the case but the stud probably seals the block.

The na engine is known to be a heavy breather so will appear a bit oily. Has yours got the cyclone breather to the rear drivers side or does it plumb straight into the air intake?

Hey Huddy
Yes sorry should have mentioned that the 'before' pic is one from a couple months ago when I was taking some pics of the engine bay - I forgot to take another one yesterday - the oil was already there before I took anything out so has appeared over the last few weeks I suspect. I did indeed leave the stud in (easier to fit it again if needed I figured since it wasn't in the way).

The pipe from the top of the rocker cover cap goes straight back to the intake manifold. Might explain why he's a bit smokey (getting slowly worse) on startup too! No smoke at all once you set off thankfully, but I do leave the neighbours in a cloud of smoke in the morning

Wonder about one of those Mann + Hummell Pro vent thingies, but doesn't solve the cause of the problem, just covers it up really. Have I over-advanced the injector pump - would that cause it?

If your engine is in reasonable health it shouldn’t matter too much. A mod to all the military ones was a cylindrical cyclone thing mounted rear left of the engine. Rocker gasses/vapour go to this, the cyclone supposedly drops most the oil out the vapour and pipes it to the sump. The air goes out the top and over to the inlet manifold.

Ultimately the cause of smoke could likely be overfuelling, mine puffs on startup but fine when running. You can buy the timing kit for the 4 cylinder engines (covers up to 300tdi) cheaply, you can use the pins in this to lock the flywheel and time your injection pump perfectly.

Try and trace where your oil is coming from. Could be dipstick? I rebuilt my engine as it turned out my compression was rubbish and I was getting a lot of pressure blowing by the pistons. In this state I had oil vapour coming out all over the place when driving, the engine looked like it was bleeding despite running ok.

I find it quicker to take the manifold off