Re-bore 300tdi

[dimoven]

Hello everyone ,
  Since i bought my 300 tdi in Caspian blue a series of unfortunate events have occured.The  core plug situated against the bulkhead blew out,we replaced this not having the forsight to replace them all,result another above the exaust manifold blew so did the head gasket and cooked the engine just a little)Funny thing is when we took the head gasket off it didnt look the worse for wear.
  My question is where in south Manchester can i get the re-bore done for a resonable price including shells and pistons of course.
 
(Its a good job i kept my very reliable 200 tdi  or else i would be in stuk now)
   Cheers

[Les Henson]

Are you sure you need a rebore? You can tell by the size of the 'step' at the top of the bore (clean the carbon ring off first and see how bad it is).
The 300TDi engine is a bit prone to cracking the head - especially if the engine has been cooked, so a crack test would be wise and will only cost you about £40. Of course - if you are set on a full engine rebuild, then you will end-up with what is essentially a brand new engine.
A piston complete with rings and pin is only £30 from Paddocks, but I would be cautious of the make - some are real rubbish.
Did the core plug pop out, or did it rot through? A rotten core plug is down to the lack of anti-freeze (it's also a rust inhibitor). If the plugs popped out, then this would indicate compression loss into the water jacket from a crack or leaking gasket.

Les.

[dimoven]

Thank you very much for your advice Les i will take another look at thehead and let you know incedentally when we replaced the first core plug we did not put anti freeze in thinking it would be more economical to run it for a few days on water to see if it was okay then put anti freeze in if there were no snags, no such luck!
 Iwill get back to you tomorrow.
   Donn