Tdi

I collected the 200Tdi last night. It took 4 hours for Colin Argent and me to remove the engine from the Discovery, but his wife’s hospitality was extraordinary – numerous teas and an unexpected hot dinner made things seem much faster. A big thank you to them both.

The engine and its ancillaries were loaded into the Sankey trailer to come back home. I did have a practice in the afternoon before heading down as I had never towed a trailer before. Reversing was a little fiddly at first, but I had the basic hang of it within a few minutes.

Thankfully, Colin’s crane was tall enough to lift the engine clear out of the Discovery’s engine bay and into the Sankey without any messing about. The crane that I am borrowing from Alun Williams, continual helper of mine and donor of the Sankey, is not quite so tall, but by raising it as high as it would go and tipping the trailer rear down as I pulled it forwards allowed the back of the body to pass under the engine.

The engine was then sat onto the driveway (with a little rubber matting to prevent sump damage) and stabilised by the crane while it was degreased and jet washed. A few of the larger assemblies were removed outside for further degreasing and washing, namely the starter motor, flywheel and flywheel housing.

Colin was kind enough to lend me his engine cradle, so this was set up for the back of the engine. The crane was then used to lift the engine with the cradle plate into the cradle’s upright.

Once the whole lot was moved into the garage, a little more work was undertaken to remove and clean the alternator, power steering pump (now in Alun’s garage for his Lightweight PAS conversion), the mounting for those and the water pump. I’ll be continuing tomorrow.

So far, items that will definitely need replacing are the seals and bearings, head gasket, timing belt, clutch pressure plate, fuel pipes (except leak off and injector), oil filler cap and spigot bush. The radiator need a re-core as most of the fins are gone, and the injector pump will be reconditioned with the HD parts for SVO use. Still, not bad for £300.