Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hi guys/
I usually hid over in the Nissan forums BUT:

I got dragged out to look at a 1995 300tdi manual 2dr Disco last night that my brother is looking a buying to replace his way to shiney 2dr Prado/Bundera.

It has 100,000miles on the clock (170,000K approx).

Engine sounds good, small amount of blowby and doesn't smoke at all.

The cam belt has been changed.

I did a search in here before i went out and looked at it so i didn't go in cold.

What are the common issues with these motors??
Things to look for??

I have asked the guy to get a compression check done for us.

I couldn't see what the cooling system was doing due to the type of system it runs, but the water looked pretty crap!!
Are these prone to cylinder head problems??

The drive line felt like it had quite alot of lash going on, but that could be normal for one of these??

There was play in the bearing on the front output flange on the T Case, and also on the rear aswell.
Didn't seem to be leaking oil, but i ssuspect the guy had given it the degreeser treatment.
Is this play to be expected??

The other odd thing is when you first start it up from cold, the gearbox/center diff makes a hell of a racket untill you actuate the clutch and then release it. It then goes quiet again.

When hot you can hear it when starting momentarily too.

Whats the story with that??

The gearbox bearings are absolutly silent when idleing in neutral, clutch pedal released.

Any thing that i should be looking for specifically on the vehicle??

Any help appreciated!!!

Cheers,
Peter

2 door Peter?? Dont get bugger all of them in NZ (if its in miles I guess its a UK import)
Backlash is common especially at that milage. Not too many head problems that Ive heard of/seen.
That noise could possibly be the spigot bush in the back of the crank. My 110 TD5 is doing that first thing in the morning when I take off, but dissappears straight away. Not something Im worrying about as I cant be bothered with 5-6 hours labour to remove gearbox to replace a $4 part. Thats all assuming that is what that one is doing.
Where abouts are you again?? (having kept up to date in offroadexpress for a while)

Rex

I'm up in hamilton these days.

Yeah, it sounds the same, first thing when its cold, depress the clutch pedal and release, and its gone.

I presumed the lash was pretty normal for a landrover, we have had a few in the family over the years, but for some reason i was surprised to find it on a 95 Disco.

Yep, its a UK import.

Only rust i could find is what seems to the usual place on those, around the alpine windows in the roof.

i had a horrible overheating problem with my 300tdi defender (same motor). It started with a stuffed welsh plug, because the redneck who owned it before me didnt run antifreze. I changed the head gasket 3 times, thremostat, viscous fan, got the head decked (which was warped) recoed the radiator, and it ended up being a warped block back at #4 (the only place i couldnt measure with the motor in the car). Moral - run anti freze (or stainless welsh plugs).

The backlash in the transfer could be caused by the gear between the transfer and the gearbox, this has a tendency to flog out (if you do buy it, pull it out and swap it for a cross drilled one - not a big job).

I can't help you with the rattle on start up problem, but ask the owner what type of oil he runs in his box, might be a start.

if you want to check a bit of driveline backlash, grab a screwdriver and remove a front dustcap off the wheel center and rock the car back and forth. There may be a bit of movement here (expected with those miles) nothing a set of maxidrive axle caps and new cvs wont fix, or like most other rover drivers - put up with it.

Good luck to your brother, rovereyetis is a hard disease to cure, and not many stop at 1.

Andrew

The rattle could be the thrust bearing.

Just an up date, the compression test came back with compression down alot on one cyclinder, and the rest were with in allowable tolerances.

I didn't like the trans noises and lash, so we passed on it.

Would have been a good buy for $4500, but $6500 was just a little to much.

Bear in mind though that Manula Diesels over here are hard to come buy, heaps and heaps of V8's though!!!!

Cheer's for all the constructive help!!

Never know, i may be back in here when i start on the engine rebuild for the 56 series one