Buggered 200tdi!

[HeadDamage]

Dam it... I'm the one that keeps saying that 50% of the 200 and 300tdi engines that get sold here in Canada are crap and sure enough, I buy one and it's buggered bang . Good running engine my ass, the bearings showed way too much wear for a low mileage rebuilt engine so I decided I better take the head off while I was working on it. The number one piston looked different to the others, had a shiny layered carbon build up on it, where as the other three looked nice with just a light coat of black soot. I took all the pistons out, or tried to. The funny looking one will not come out, the big end of the con rod is to wide to fit up the bore ??? What the heck is up with that? Only thing I can think of is a bent con rod, I hope nothing else is screwed up as this is way more of a rebuild than planned and the engine cost way too much just to be a heap of parts.

[HeadDamage]

If anyone is interested the engine came from [edited by moderator] and was sold as been rebuilt by [edited by moderator] in the UK.

The engine is in bad shape, the bearings show a lot of miles/ware, over 160000km I'd say, they where starting to show copper, and some other damage.
It could not have been running well as the #1 piston showed low compression, the con rod is bent enough that it can't be removed from the cyclinder and the oil control ring was broken.
I'm amazed the engine was running.

Also there was no thermastat.

Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out if the engine is rebuildable at this point. I have to figure out how to get the stuck piston out of the block. I'll take the timing cover off next and remove the crank. If the piston will not come out the bottom I'll have to cut the con rod off some how.

[Bill E.]

Hey Andrew, sorry to here about the rip-off. It begs the issue about whether we should be red flagging some of these scam artists dumping their crap on overseas customers. I hope [edited by moderator] intends to back up what they are selling, I'm sure they will. [edited by moderator] almost certainly want to preserve his good reputation.

[red90]

Oh man that sucks. As Bill says, I'd talk with the previous owner and then through to [edited by moderator]. IME, they are stand up guys. All very strange. Maybe you can get something out of it. In the least, it could help stop it happening to someone else.

Was the whole truck bought with the engine??

If you want a second opinion, let me know, I could drop by. At least you'd have someone to vent some frustration on.

I suppose you might as well do a full rebuild at this point.


It can never be worse than the amazing money pit bike (Suzuki GS650) that I owned in Australia....

1) An exhaust valve went... So I rebuilt the top of the engine myself. Head rebuilt, new rings, rehoned the cylinders. Left the bottom end alone... $1000 into it..

2) About a year later the right angle gear on the shaft drive breaks..... The dealer fixes it. Takes 4 months as the part has to come from Japan.... As the engine was out, I made a point that they check the bearings. They report back, no problems... Oh yah and $1500....

3) 6 months later, #3 big end bearing spins..... killing the crank. You can't get a used crank because....every single one of these engines spins the #3 big end.

4) Buy a different bike....

[HeadDamage]

I bought the engine from a local guy that bought the complete truck from [edited by moderator]. I bought it from him when he put a 2.8TGV into the 110. He had all kinds of problems with the truck and sued [edited by moderator] over it. The engine was running and had been looked at by a couple of rover shops in Calgary but they didn't think that was anything major wrong with it though I don't know how they could have missed these problems when they worked on it. Anyway I'm screwed as there was no contract to return it if if was buggered, I assumed that the machanics that had looked at it new what they where doing :roll: My best hope is that he block and such is good enough to be rebuilt.

I'll give you a call John. Right now it looks like I'll have to cut off the con rod or grind the sides of the big end down a bit to get it the piston out of the bore. On the bright side I'll be come very familiar with the 200tdi now and I also have lots of 2.5na spares like the crank which is the same as the 200tdi crank so I can use that if this one is messed up.

[Glenn D.]

Ouch.

I'm sorry to here that.

I took a chance with mine, and just stuck it in my truck. Aside from running a little hot it seems good so far. Now you make me afraid to look under the rocker cover!!
Best of luck with the rebuild, keep us all posted.

If it goes smooth perhaps I'll take a close look at mine!!

[HeadDamage]

Looking under the rocker was fine... looking at the pistons and bearings is when it became clear that something was rotten in denmark so to say. Checked bearing... they showed way too much wear for the stated mileage so to be safe I wanted to check the bores. That is hard to do from under the engine so I took the head off. That revealed that something was amiss with the #1 piston. So to see what is up with #1 out it comes only it doesn't come out... hence the discovery of the bent rod.

I guess that the fact that the engine apparently ran with a bent rod would sugest that they are quite durable engines but I'd sure like to know how it got bent in the first place. Likely was a blown head gasket allowing the cyclinder to fill with coolant, the claimed rebuild might have been replacing the head gasket in the past but there is no sign that the engine was ever rebuilt properly.

[Bern B]

That just sucks :evil:
Hope things work out better for you


After hearing all the bad stories of good used bad engines out there
I now have no regrets spending $13,000 on a new 2.8 TGV :D
It came with everything that I needed to install and have it running in a weekend it was a true drop in. And all new parts from intercooler rad to clutch complete,I only had to buy a stainless muffler.
All the best
Bernie

[HeadDamage]

I finished stripping the engine tonight and cut one side of the big end off with a hack saw. Piston and rod are out and on the bench... the bend is easy to see now that it is out of the block.

[red90]

http://www.landroveraddict.com/smf/Smil ... edpics.gif

Of course, I could just drive the 5 minutes and look at it......

How does the bore look?

[HeadDamage]

The bore looks good... will try to measure it this weekend to be sure. Dropped the crank and head off at the machine shop and the injection pump, injectors, and turbo off at the diesel shop.

[DaveB]

This thread has been edited by the moderator to remove references to a specific vendor. In accordance with our Forum Registration Agreement, no bashing or abuse of any user, individual or business will be tolerated.

Dave

[HeadDamage]

This thread has been edited by the moderator to remove references to a specific vendor. In accordance with our Forum Registration Agreement, no bashing or abuse of any user, individual or business will be tolerated.

Dave

Yes, well the problem with that policy is that I searched on here to see if anyone had problems with the vendor/vendors in question and I didn't find anything. Since I've started this tread I've found out that there are several bad engines from the vendor and that this vendor has a questionable reputation. If I had know this ahead of time, like when I searched for it, I wouldn't have touched the engine with a ten foot pole. Anyway I was not bashing or other wise abusing any vendor, I had just named the vendor/vendors that this engine come from/through as a side note in this tread. If anyone wants to know the vendor/vendors in question they can feel free to email me so that it is not on this board.

[red90]

Wow, I did not see any bashing either. It was all positive talk. Certainly, what I said was complimentary to them, but it was deleted.

So we can only talk of vendors through rose coloured glasses? Is this why you guys get so mad when I suggest BFG tires are not the greatest thing since sliced bread?

I've closely read the forum rules and I can in no way see how anything said here broke any of those rules. Nothing "abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening" was said about that business.

[Roverworks]

Hi Red 90

I will “take the bullet" here. I made the complaint about the posting. I have been encouraging the club to make the site safe for vendors and professional restorerers to enter discussions with out having to endure innuendo, or unnecessary/ unfair criticism etc. I contribute to this and other sites that have made rules to protect vendors and professional restorers as well-as knowledgeable people such as your self. The result has been a noticeably en-richened discussion on these other sites and improved participation. It will take a while and some encouragement but hopefully some of the other vendors/ professional shops/ knowledgeable individuals will enter the discussion.

If you would like to discuss this further with me I would be pleased to oblige.

Give me a call.

Alan Simpson
Rover Works B.C. Ltd
250-458-2447

[HeadDamage]

Just to be clear here the vendor in question is not roverworks, rover tech, or rock island rovers. The main problem seems to lie with the UK vendor with a name that sounds somewhat like a major body organ. It remains to be seen if the canadian vendor/middle man is at fault.

[red90]

...with out having to endure innuendo, or unnecessary/ unfair criticism etc.

But there was no innuendo or unfair criticism. I wholeheartedly agree that vendors should NOT be subject to this. However, they SHOULD be subject to facts and FAIR criticism.

Andrew bought an engine.....

Andrew took engine apart and found worn out bearings and a bent con rod.....

The engine was sold on the understand it had been rebuilt before being imported to Canada.

Andrew, at no point, laid blame on anyone. He was simply stating what he had found.

These are facts. There is no innuendo here at all. In addition, there are no forums rules being broken here that I can see.

The great thing about the internet is freedom of speech. I'm on a lot of different forums. Good vendors get good feedback. In addition, when they are criticized, they are defended to the death by their customers. Bad vendors get criticism and nobody comes to their rescue. It is the great equalizer.

I really wish this site WOULD allow discussion over vendors in a free and open manner. It would allow people to know who to trust BEFORE laying out many thousands of dollars. It would also give incentive for vendors to improve their level of service.

[Roverworks]

Hi Red 90

Probably best we let the club decide….Sorry we will differ on this point.

Alan Simpson
Rover Works B.C. Ltd
250-458-2447