300Tdi Piston proud and gaskets.

On a 300TDi engine, I have a piston proud of 0.85mm, can anybody advise if I can get away with using a three hole cylinder head gasket?

I am tempted to file down the top of the cylinder so as to enable the three hole gasket that I have to be used, is this feasible? there seems to be plenty of meat to do this.

The problem came about when the workshops (yes in Spain!) shaved too much off the block when fitting new liners.

Tony G

Reply to
Griffith
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Let me see if I understand you properly. The workshop skimmed the engine block when fitting new liners and now your pistons protrude by 0.85mm at the top of their stroke. Is this right?

According to the 300Tdi engine overhaul manual you should use a gasket without any holes :-

Shaving more meat off the liners will result in the pistons protruding more than they are now.

HTH

Reply to
SteveG

Thanks for your information. I was thinking of filing of something like 0.10mm off the top of the piston heads as oppose to getting a 'no- hole' gasket. This should not have any effect provided I treat all the pistons the same. It may sound crazy but it is lateral thinking.

Griff.

Reply to
Griffith

I should think there is a major effect to be seen from doing what you are thinking of and that's piston failure. The piston is that thickness for a number of reasons; not least to withstand the compression of the mixture and it's subsequent explosive expansion. In addition to the increased mechanical stresses you would create there would also be higher thermal stresses too due to the reduced volume of material to carry away the heat of combustion.

Rather your engine than mine, I think.

Reply to
SteveG

In any case wouldn't the raised height of the piston body still put the valves perilously close to the top of the piston in the recess? Derek

Reply to
Derek

Excuse my ignorance, but I didn't know you could sleeve tdi blocks. Is the 300 an ally block, not cast iron like the 200 ? Genuinely curious.

Steve

Reply to
steve

On or around Sat, 20 Oct 2007 06:55:50 -0700, Griffith enlightened us thusly:

if the no-hole gasket is within spec, then I'd be inclined to fit that. As others have said, I wouldn't mess with pistons.

If I *did* want to mess with pistons, I'd be looking at putting them in the lathe to skim them - you're not going to file 'em satisfactorily to remove

0.1mm
Reply to
Austin Shackles

I do not disagree with any of the comments above, getting Landrover Parts quickly is a problem in Gibraltar. There are two Land Rover dealers close (one in Gib and the other in Spain) but their prices are high. I have used UK Factors and their prices are more reasonable being about less than half, but take time in the post (up to three weeks).

I have seen 'no hole' gaskets available somewhere on a web site but cannot find it, does anybody know of one? I did come across one where 'Gaskets made to order' was advertised, but they must be expensive.

Turning back to the engine block, I have noticed that the head has not been machined 'square' to the cylinder bores. This is noticeable as one side of the piston proud is higher that the other (across the width of the block). The lower side being about 0.50mm proud, I do not think that this will be a problem, the gasket should line up and the push rods and everything else can accommodate the error.

Griff.

Griff

Reply to
Griffith

Christ! What mickey mouse outfit skimmed the block?!!?

Tim..

Reply to
Tim..

Thats not skimming, its butchery.

Steve

Reply to
steve

I learnt a lot from what happened: So where do I get a 'No Hole' gasket from to cure the problem. ?

Reply to
Griffith

at 1.6 mm could this be the one?

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from our good friend Richard
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Reply to
Derek

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Derek

Derk,

Thank you for the information, I will give them a call tomorrow.

Griff

Reply to
Griffith

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