Whoops - there goes the engine...

[Ben]

A cautionary tale...

A few months ago, I decided to get the 90 serviced. It had a leaky fuel tank, and was a bit manky, so I enlisted the help of a local independent garage.

When the 90 returned, resplendant with new fuel tank, I felt liberated, and started to use it loads, as I was bored of the Passat.

So, when I checked the oil at the end of the week (500 miles later) and found about half a litre of extra oil in the sump, I was a little concerned. I drained off the excess, and prayed.

It would seem that my praying either wasn't good enough, or frequent enough.

I was driving up to Sheffield this evening to visit the young lady (second date, so needed to make the right impression), and just as I was about to reach the Dronfield / Coal Aston roundabout, the engine note changed. It was at this point that it started to run on oil...
About 5 minutes later I'd managed to runabout 100 yds from the vehicle with my mobile, and was on the phone calling out International Rescue.
Now, when an engine goees onto oil, you usually expect a loud bang, followed by a con rod popping through the side of the engine. For some unknown reason, the engine slowed to a halt and stopped before this happened...

Some kind passer by thought that the rather black smoke coming out of the back of the 90 was the engine on fire, and a fire crew duly arrived after the engine had stalled. After convincing them it was all okay, they left in fits of laughter!

The engine still turns (when the 90's pushed in gear), so I'm going to have the head off and clean out the intercooler over the next few weeks. Hopefully it'll be okay. In order to combat Murphy's first law, I have arranged to buy a second 300TDi engine from a friend of a friend. The theory being that if there is a spare engine, then I won't need it, and can sell it on for a similar price to what I'm paying for it.

So, check the oil BEFORE you drive your Land Rover after it's been serviced. I've got absolutely no comeback on the garage, as it's my word against theirs. Suffice to say, I'll be doing my own servicing from now on the Land Rover.

Oh well, more expense. Just when I didn't need it - the Winch needs the second installment paying, and I've spent about £600 on the soft top over the last 3 months. I've got a 90SV Canvas for sale though which will help towards the cost of the engine... I guess that'll have to go onto eBay when I get back from my holiday!

Cheers

Ben

[nzrover]

My best guess would be leaky injector pump  filling the sump with diesel (thus increasing the amount of oil in there)

[Wanderer]

Isn't it normally the head gasket that causes it to run on oil. Head gasket usually leaks between pistons 3 and 4 allowing oil into the combustion chamber?

I may be wr.... wro..... incorrect.

Ed

Commiserations though Ben

[Sharpshooter]

I had this happen to me once on the motorway in a works van. The cause was the fuel pump as nz rover said. I was doing about 75 on the motorway, and then i was doing 90 with my foot off the throttle. ANOTHER PERFECTLY GOOD PAIR OF UNDERPANTS  "RUINED". I could do nothing, but knock it in to neutral and slow it down, and as you did RUN.

[Xtremeteam]

How much are u looking for the SV hood? sorry to make your pain worse but it happened at my work in a sharan thet had been filled with 7 litres of oil,now that was scary

[diesel_boy]

o yes  not fun at all   ive had this happen on a  40ton merc-benz truck  the engine  beening 440hp took off like a rocket  and the truck alshaveing a computer opperated g-box i couldent change down  and when i knocked it out of gear   and stoped it took  about 6-8 mins to blow  and it blew big style nice sound or fragmenting metal   and when the hot oil hit the turbo it caught light   and that was th end  of  a german pice of  engineering


also  i think ull bee puting in that 300tdi   and takeing urs out   !!!

[Ben]

Thanks for the supprt guys - I'm going to need kind words over the next few weekends as I try to put this one back together...

If it's only head gasket, then I'll be very very pleased. There's no sludge in the rocker cover area though - beautifully black oil... A couple of other theories have come to light after some further investigation...
There's a small amount of oil in the turbo air intake feeder pipe, although it's not obvious where it's come from as the unit on the side of the engine doesn't appear to have passed oil through to the braided pipe leading to the turbo pipe. According to other people I've spoken to, it could be the intercooler passing oil through somehow, or a piston oil control ring (although it would probably need to be all four).

There's a couple of plans on the horizon... I could either swap the engine's over, and assume that the new one will run, or I could try to sort this one out in situ, moving onto the new one if required. Sorting out will probably involve a head gasket upwards rebuild, with lots of new parts... The new one's about as well used as the current one (80-100k miles), and has been sat for a little while. It would probably be happier with a full rebuild, which would be an amazing learning experience for me.

The best bit? I'm off on holiday tomorrow. If someone nicks the thing while I'm away, then I'll just buy Ollie's rather nice looking 300TDi hard top, and hope that the insurance comes through! After all, it's only money!

v8_redline - I'm looking for £300 for the hood. It's got a damaged zip, so needs a bit of attention and will look superb after a clean! Apparently these things are over a grand new from Land Rover! I need that much to cover some of the cost of the new engine.

Cheers

Ben

[Wanderer]

Hi Ben,
Did you get the motor back home?
If not I can straight bar it back to Tibshelf for you. I'm only in Nottingham,

Ed

[Ben]

Ed

That's really good of you to offer - I managed to recover it almost as soon as it happened, and it's sat outside the house awaiting it's fate! I managed to con Adie (ex-GLASS Rep from Derbyshire) into coming to get me in his 110, and discovered to my delight that neither of my ropes are kinetic!!!

I'm away for a week now, so it'll give me a bit of time to work out what I want to do with it!

I was tempted with Ollie's 90 before this happened, so who knows...

Cheers

Ben

[Kenny]

Scary stuff and I thought it was scary getting an LPG blow back in the middle of Lyndhurst (New Forest) on a packed summers day. Suprised I did not a writ through for causing someone to have a coronary....

Good Luck

Damian

[stefan]

Scary stuff and I thought it was scary getting an LPG blow back in the middle of Lyndhurst (New Forest) on a packed summers day. Suprised I did not a writ through for causing someone to have a coronary....

Good Luck

Damian

Ha Ha, that reminds me of the time my V8 Disco backfired big style on LPG just as I was passing this guy on the pavement, when I looked in the rear view mirror, he was gone! I think he shot over a garden wall he was walking by!

Another time it backfired on the M3 at 80mph, I saw the bonnet lift as the lid of the airbox tried to go skyward!! A set of Magnecors sorted all that out, but then I digress.......................

Stef

[Ben]

Well, the 90 was trailered away last night to have a rebuilt 300TDi put into it. Hopefully it should be done ready for Peterborough  :D

Still keeping the neighbours happy though - my (not so) shiny, (not so) new Series 3's now got pride of place on the driveway!

Cheers

Ben