what if Crankshaft/flywheel timing is off a tooth?

Hi all,
I have a "new to me" '05 defender TD5 that is seriously lacking power in gears 3-5, hates hills. tops out at 90kph on a flat.
MAF is good, new stock turbo (oil leek in old one & shop cracked housing when trying to repair), EGR has been blanked, engine compression is 400psi, injectors are in proper position. New fuel, air & oil filters.
It looks like the crankshaft & flywheel timing holes might be off by 1 tooth at TDC. not sure how that may have happened..
what would you expect as an effect if this is the case? it starts, idles and runs w/o knocking.

any ideas on what else to investigate would be greatly appreciated!

low power ,more smoke have you got a proper crank pin so you are sure they are out,cam can be done by eyeball or a drill bit

L9FS said:

Hi all,
I have a "new to me" '05 defender TD5 that is seriously lacking power in gears 3-5, hates hills. tops out at 90kph on a flat.
MAF is good, new stock turbo (oil leek in old one & shop cracked housing when trying to repair), EGR has been blanked, engine compression is 400psi, injectors are in proper position. New fuel, air & oil filters.
It looks like the crankshaft & flywheel timing holes might be off by 1 tooth at TDC. not sure how that may have happened..
what would you expect as an effect if this is the case? it starts, idles and runs w/o knocking.

any ideas on what else to investigate would be greatly appreciated!

Click to expand...

I don't think it has happened. Does it run normally?

The flywheel is bolted to the crankshaft, how can it be out a tooth?

These engines have chains, doubt anyone will have messed with it. How have you arrived at this "timing" issue?

If you think the crankshaft and flywheel are off by 1 tooth at TDC how are you setting the engine to TDC? By the mark on the flywheel or the mark at the front on the crank?

Thanks for the reply!
I don't have a proper pin, maybe i should invest in one.
bad photos, but looks like with the cam centered, the other slot is noticeably off.
It does smoke a bit but not too bad. I've run 2 tanks of injector cleaner through it w/o much improvement before noticing this.

Recent thread on here where guy had same issues, and it was cam timing out, think he had recent head gasket?

Thank you Lynall, seller did say head gasket was replaced. will have a look for that thread.

Unsure on TD5 but on other Land Rover engines the 200tdi and 300tdi the flywheel will only bolt on in one place, so the Flywheel mark is impossible to be wrong.

Cam would be likely to be off out of the variables available

But a timing pin kit for a start cheap enough

and double check from there start at flywheel and work forwards and then upwards

Cavey_P38 said:

Unsure on TD5 but on other Land Rover engines the 200tdi and 300tdi the flywheel will only bolt on in one place, so the Flywheel mark is impossible to be wrong.

Cam would be likely to be off out of the variables available

But a timing pin kit for a start cheap enough

and double check from there start at flywheel and work forwards and then upwards

Click to expand...

thank you will get a pin & go through it all. cheers!

discomania said:

I don't think it has happened. Does it run normally?

The flywheel is bolted to the crankshaft, how can it be out a tooth?

These engines have chains, doubt anyone will have messed with it. How have you arrived at this "timing" issue?

If you think the crankshaft and flywheel are off by 1 tooth at TDC how are you setting the engine to TDC? By the mark on the flywheel or the mark at the front on the crank?

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I appreciate your response & offer my apologies Discomania, my wording / description was off..
when the camshaft alignment hole is aligned to the hole in the head, the hole in the gearbox (for threaded alignment pin) is not aligned to slot in crankshaft flywheel.

L9FS said:

I appreciate your response & offer my apologies Discomania, my wording / description was off..
when the camshaft alignment hole is aligned to the hole in the head, the hole in the gearbox (for threaded alignment pin) is not aligned to slot in crankshaft flywheel.

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if you get a proper pin ,then you can adhust the cam, theres no key so its a matter of slackening bolts then turning cam then retightening bolts(easier said than done)

jamesmartin said:

if you get a proper pin ,then you can adhust the cam, theres no key so its a matter of slackening bolts then turning cam then retightening bolts(easier said than done)

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Thank you! I’m not sure how things could have gotten out of alignment, but hopefully this solves it. I’ve ordered the pins, Will be 10 days or so to get them to Canada. will avoid highways & hills till then! (Assuming it’s safe to drive).

Have you checked out Mike from Britania Restorations, he is the landy man in Canada, appreciate it a very big country,

His Utube channel is excellent resources for land rover owners, lot of us members on the forum are big fans

Britannica Restorations Ltd - YouTube

L9FS said:

Thank you! I’m not sure how things could have gotten out of alignment, but hopefully this solves it. I’ve ordered the pins, Will be 10 days or so to get them to Canada. will avoid highways & hills till then! (Assuming it’s safe to drive).

Click to expand...

Get yourself over to Mike at britanica restorations.

L9FS said:

Thanks for the reply!
I don't have a proper pin, maybe i should invest in one.
bad photos, but looks like with the cam centred, the other slot is noticeably off.
It does smoke a bit but not too bad. I've run 2 tanks of injector cleaner through it w/o much improvement before noticing this.

Click to expand...

A crank and cam misalignment I can see, you said flywheel and crank which is the same thing.

This is more feasible.

discomania said:

A crank and cam misalignment I can see, you said flywheel and crank which is the same thing.

This is more feasible.

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Where I work the written defects are so poor that you have to pick out key words to have an idea where to start looking, thus when i saw the thread title I knew what the op meant, and did not even bat an eye at what he had written.

Cavey_P38 said:

Have you checked out Mike from Britania Restorations, he is the landy man in Canada, appreciate it a very big country,

His Utube channel is excellent resources for land rover owners, lot of us members on the forum are big fans

Britannica Restorations Ltd - YouTube

Click to expand...

I haven't checked him out, but will now! thank you

mick the builder said:

Get yourself over to Mike at britanica restorations.

Click to expand...

I just placed an order with Mike, it's nice to be able to get a few things here "locally" . I appreciate your help

L9FS said:

I just placed an order with Mike, it's nice to be able to get a few things here "locally" . I appreciate your help

Click to expand...

Nice one, he is a top bloke, I have had some business dealings with him over the last few years. He is some man.

Quick update, still waiting on timing pins...
In meantime have read a lot about the MAF & checked mine. (I don’t have nanocom yet)
-Running w/ MAF plugged in or not, makes no difference.
-voltage output at idle is 1.9 volts
-voltage at full rev is 3.45 max
am not sure if I have a problem or not based on these two posts in different threads:
1) “should have 1.5-2v at tickover, under hard fast revs you should see 4-4.4 volts, if it’s only around 3 the maf is dead. Unplugging the maf that is out of calibration and not totally dead normally doesn’t show a difference”
2) “as long as the maf inputs are between 1 & 5V everything works fine ... as long as the EGR is removed” (which mine is).
Given I don’t get more the 3.5V out of mine, Is a new MAF a rabbit hole I should also go down? Thanks in advance!