Piston rings, late 2 1/4 diesel...

Had a very odd noise from my engine on Friday... a loud clattering noise, running as ruff as hell and down to only 3 cylinders when I revved it up. Lots of smoke. Got some red glowing bits out of the exhaust (straight though silencer). Not good! So, on Saturday off came the head as I was expecting valve or pre-combustion chamber trouble... nothing. Took the timing cover off wondering if a key had sheared.... nothing. Just taken off the sump and found some bastard has bolted a bloody big steel plate across the bottom of my engine! I know landrover beefed up the engine in the last years of its life as a 2 1/4 with 5 main bearings but I can't find any reference to this plate! Looks like fun to knock off... just got to hope I don't drop it on my head. Anyway, going to pop the pistons out and check the rings and bearings whilst I'm in there. Think I'll stick new rings in and hone the bores too. I'm getting a bit disturbed by the lack of carnage that I was expecting given the symptoms.... any ideas? Thanks! Toby

Had a very odd noise from my engine on Friday... a loud clattering noise, running as ruff as hell and down to only 3 cylinders when I revved it up. Lots of smoke. Got some red glowing bits out of the exhaust (straight though silencer). Not good! So, on Saturday off came the head as I was expecting valve or pre-combustion chamber trouble... nothing. Took the timing cover off wondering if a key had sheared.... nothing. Just taken off the sump and found some bastard has bolted a bloody big steel plate across the bottom of my engine! I know landrover beefed up the engine in the last years of its life as a 2 1/4 with 5 main bearings but I can't find any reference to this plate! Looks like fun to knock off... just got to hope I don't drop it on my head. Anyway, going to pop the pistons out and check the rings and bearings whilst I'm in there. Think I'll stick new rings in and hone the bores too. I'm getting a bit disturbed by the lack of carnage that I was expecting given the symptoms.... any ideas? Thanks! Toby

Hmm... mystery deepens - All the rings are ok but slight warn patches on the big end shells where its gone thought to copper but noting really hideous. Turns out that bloody plate is held on to the bottom of the block by ridicules stud setup which go thought the sump as well arrgh! Come back 3 main bearing engines. all is forgiven! But I do have a cunning plan to hold the plate to the block with short Allan key bolts and then drill and tap the plate for new bolts between the existing holes to hold the sump to the plate. Sorry if this doesn't make too much sense as it is midnight and I've had a bad day! Hell.. this started by trying to find a bad noise and has turned into nearly a full rebuild! Anybody got one of thoughts old fashioned cylinder boring machines which clamp onto the block whilst its still in the vehicle? Actually. no, on second thoughts don't bother answering that! Toby

That'll be an ERC2429 internal sump guard thingie, which means you should have a an ERC2209 sump as well. The guard is mounted on spacers, and there should be two sump gaskets - guess what - they are different to the standard ones - ERC2434 is the number.

All this was an option - though what for who knows, maybe just "heavy duty" sump protection. Interestingly, the ERC2209 sump has two drain plugs, of different sizes!

Cheers Richard

Thats intresting! I've found the pasinger side has two sump 'plugs' wich are half way up the sump.. I did wonder if one of these might have been for an oil drain when they introduced the turbo diesel. There is also the normal one on the drivers side. Unbelevable that this was an option.... having had to remove the sodding thing I'd quite like to cause grevus bodley harm to the designer! Can I just put a standard sump back on with a nice, normal gasket (like the one that's in my gasket kit!)?? Thanks! Toby

On my old ex-military FFR the higher one has the oil temp sender screwed into it.