300tdi packed up on motorway :O

[chris_harvey]

was driving down to eastnor castle on friday for the land rover show and just before junction 2 on the m5 engine just lost all power and cut out strong smell of burning and smoke coming from bonnet and back of car ..... opened bonnet at side of m5 to cloud of smoke it had over heated managed to get off the motorway to the asda just off jct 2 and had a better look. thermostat has melted engine bay was red hot tried to turn it over was struggling a lot then started to fire to a very knocky noise and bellows of black smoke coming from what looked like the bottom of the exhaust manifold at the back like below the turbo .

i topped the coolant up with about a 1/3 of a pint of water as it wasnt really low just a tad someone has suggested as i didnt bleed the coolant after the little fill up its air locked over heated and cooked the head .

its just the smoke that i am unsure of from bottom rear manifold area

any suggestions as to what i am going to have to fix ???

[lambert]

At the least it sounds like head gasket and turbo replacement, but without looking and stripping the whole thing it could be much worse.

[chris_harvey]

i dont actually think the turbo is damaged the smoke isnt coming from the turbo its like lower down like from the bottom of the most rear part of the exhaust manifold

[Saffy]

probably melted the piston tops, scored the bores and sent molten metal through the turbo - replacement engine.

[Frankie-Boy]

I hope I'm wrong but from my own previous experiences with exactly the same, my advice would be to prepare yourself for the worst, I had to replace my engine when I had most of the above wrong with mine after overheating on the motorway, mine was caused by a failure of one of the heater hoses at the back of the engine.

I wish you the very best of luck and I have my fingers crossed for you.

[squaddie_fox]

I had the exact same as frank with a soft dash rangie.

[chris_harvey]

Well been in work today took head off head gasket looks ok valves look ok no visible cracks in head the smoke from bk of exh manifold was the bottom most rear bolt had fallen out do that was the smoke, only think I've found all the top rad hoses that I had to remove wer all dry !?
And the 2nd piston as you look from front of car is all pitted and a tiny bit missing of it all others look ok

Any ideas as where to go next ?

[Saffy]

that's the melted piston. crank it over and see that the bore has picked up and scored. check the other bores for alloy pick up too.
Compression will be way down and missing firing. Take the turbo off and see how much of the impeller fins are left.
While your doing that, start the look for a replacement engine. 300tdi do not survive overheating and not worth rebuilding.

[mattyme]

its gonna be more cost effective to drop another engine in, the amount of work involved with rebuilding and skimming etc would be a lot more. and as has already been said, 300tdi dont do well after overheating and rebuilding.
sorry to hear your bad luck dude!

[Range Rover Blues]

Agreed, don't like the sound of what I'm reading.

A second hand lump will be cost-effective and you can hear it running before you buy, they are loads cheaper than they used to be (I was offered one for £350).

Chuck in a clutch whilst you are at it.

You might get something for the head, otherwise they make a good doorstop.

[Frankie-Boy]

I got a good, running secondhand lump for mine, and the guy took it out of the donor car and delivered it to me for £200, bargain.