2l dramas

[chuckles]

have a mate with a 88 2l lux last week he done the head gasket on it,it went between 2nd and 3rd cylinder he said it didnt get overly hot before he noticed the temp gauge climbing , he parked it and waited for it to cool down then filled it with water when he restarted it he noticed steam out the back so got it towed home. he pulled the head off and could see where the gaskit had blown between cylinders then he took the head to a mech mate of his and had it looked at he ran a straightedge over it and said it wasnt warped no visible cracks so old mate grabs a vrs gasket set and a new set of head bolts and a new timing belt and puts it back together bleeds it and it starts firt go then over the course of 5 - 10 min she atarts to run rough then stops and wont go again so he rings me i travel down to his place to give him a hand (as you do) ok first things first pull the rad out timing belt cover off to check he had a print out from repco for the timing mark set up cam wheel mark at 3 oclock pump mark at 12oclcok crank at 12 oclock on comp stroke, he was one tooth out on the injector pump no worries so we reset it rotated it 6 times clockwise at the crank every 2nd time the marks line up, all good then we pulled all the glow plugs out and give it a good spin to bleed it ( he was having a hard time doing this on his own) got all the air out of it , you could see the diesel mist coming out of the plug holes .throw the plugs back in give her a kick and she would barely turn over give hera jump start not much better wtf so we give it a tow and away she goes but shes got a nasty rattle up top and blowing shit loads of white smoke so we crack the inj nozzles one at a time to get any air in there out and it still a bit in there let her warm up then check and adjust valve clearances still rattly and bulk white smoke. anyway i had to leave to get back for work today so im at work and remember reading somewhere that there are three differant thickness head gaskets avaiable , if he has got a thin one in there that would explane the rattly noise , valves just making contact with the pistons but that dosent explain the white smoke. so any thoughts, explanations any help appreciated cheers shayne

[Sic Lux]

Yeah could be valves hitting pistons could be pistons just touching head too. could be a heap of things did it get hot again and then blow smoke and also was thermostat done could have cooked it again just throwing it out there keep the info coming i've never lunched one so wouldn't know the series of event's some one out there must have tho

[chuckles]

the rattle and smoke was evident on start up / cold. its got me stumped. i havnt heard back from him today, ive just got home and logged on hoping to get some response, anyone? cheers shayne

[chuckles]

no takers? surely someones got an idea what this could be. cheers shayne

[trains]

Well something is amis there. *(understatment of the century)*

White smoke is usual indication of poor combustion temp, thus you see it when its cold, a whif of white smoke till the pot warms up.
Or the timing is out, thats another white smoke issue.

Without hearing the rattle, it could be anything. i would check the compressions, and the timing again, and let us know what they are.

Without seing what condition the head was in, and how clean it was before being fitted again, it could be any number of things gone wrong, how were the precomp chambers etc??.

If it was running ok to start with, and then went bad, my guess would be that the gasket has failed in some way, thus low comp, low temp, poor running white smoke.

Ive never had any good results fitting a head that wasnt faced to ensure flatness, and a good seal again with the gasket.

Trains

[chuckles]

thanks for the response trains , will be going back down and pulling the head off and having a look in the next week. this has got me stuffed, i didnt see the head when it was off but he did get it looked at and checked for flatness with a straight edge maybe he cocked a precomp putting it back on. the timing is right we reset it twice. will let you know how it goes in a week or so.cheers shayne

[RUFF]

For starters im pretty certain the cam should not be set at 3 O'clock. It should be at 6 O'clock. There are marks on the timing case that you need to line everything up to. Look carefully they are there. Then there are also 3 different head gaskits available foir the L series diesel. You need to make sure you have the correct one. To work this out you need to measure how far out the top of the block the piston pokes at Top dead centre.

Also you will not pick cracks in an L diesel head every time by eye. Thje y are as common as to crack. I just replaced one recently that i could see 2 cracks by eye but then had it crack tested and it came up with 6 total. Crack testing is usually only worth $25-$30 and is a good investment.

[chuckles]

ruff when he bought the parts from repco they gave him a print out with the timing marks shown on it that showed the cam gear timing mark at 3 o,clock the pump at 12 and the crank at tdc on the comp stroke if it was meant to be at 6 oclock would it not run at all or smash the pistons. will definatly check the piston heights when we get it apart again and getting the head crack tested is definatly a good idea. cheers shayne

[trains]

Re the timing marks.

There can be 2 locations for the cam timing mark depending on which motor you have.
Please check which type of timing cover you have to determine which timing mark to set it at.

Pics in scans

I have just looked at my timing belt book, and my toyoda manual, and they both clearly show for the 2L and 3L diesel motors the cam timing mark is set at 6 o clock.

The cam sprocket has a mark, and the plate behind the cam sprocket has an arrow at 6 o clock.

Have scanned an image of the timing belt book page for you.

Trains




Let us know what type of timnig cover you have, and then you will know what timing mark to use.

Trains

[chuckles]

trains its definately the bottom one with the cam over to the left cheers shayne

[trains]

Excellent.

So how did the head gasket look once you took the head off??

T

[chuckles]

just had a call from the owner , he has pulled the head off and there is no visible damage to the pistons,valves ,precomps ,nothing . gasket still in good nick. this has got us both stuffed. whats the chances of a crook injector over spraying and putting too much fuel into one cylinder? this would explain the white smoke issue but would it cause a rattle like noise from being unable to burn that much fuel. he is going to pull the injectors out tomorrow and have a look for any obvious signs of damage to them, probably wont be able to tell much just by looking at them unless its severe find out tomorrow

shayne

[trains]

What were the compressions before he took the head off??

That will tell us if there is a lazy pot or 2 there.

T

[Dzltec]

It sounds like a timing problem. Is number one injector line at the top oulet closest to the engine on the pump. Then top outside is number 3, bottom outer is number 4, bottom inner number 2. It could be that previously someone has done something to the pump and not reassemble it correctly.

Timing mark on cam is at 3 oclock lines up with the gasket face of the rockercover.

Make sure when reassembled number 4 valves are rocking, and you have fuel coming out of number 1 injector line.

Hope this helps

Andy