200TDI Land Rover head update

Well, If you have kept up with the saga you know there is no shortage of suspense. And so it continues.......

    I went down on Thursday to check on the welding and to my surprise it was done, $75. I picked it up and drove it over to the machine shop where it was dropped off with Dan. He was going to clean it and pressure test then let me know if it was good.

   I went home and by the time I got there the call was in and it tested good. So I called back and we discussed what to do. I then packed the new valves, valve guides and valve guide seals on my bike and took them down to Santa Cruz Auto. I decided to replace the valve guides even if the old ones were still good just so I would have that comfort of knowing the bits are all new. To my surprise he said it might be done later that day or on Friday. I was surprised because nothing has gone quickly with this project. A lot depended on having the right exhaust seats.

   So late Thursday afternoon and no call, OK tomorrow.........Friday comes and around 10am Dan calls and he's waiting on exhaust valve seats to come in and it will be done by 10am on Sat. Yay!

Saturday(today) around 8:30am he calls it's done! I finish breakfast and hop in the 88 and drive down and pick it up($565). On the way home I thought my friend Brett would like to see it so I stopped by. That's when we took a good look at it. For me less than stellar results as we found 2 cracks.

   So leaving Brett's I went to my daughters house to get a second opinion from her husband. He agreed with me and now I'm going to take it back to the machine shop on Monday and discuss the issues.

Here's some pics;

Before welding and machining on #1 cylinder;

After machining;

Zoomed in with magnifier;

Crack in the #3 glow plug hole;

ARRGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know but too me anything cracked in the combustion chamber needs to be fixed or I'm asking for problems down the road.

   So I took the time this afternoon to check which head gasket to use. To do this you have to find the TDC of each piston and measure the distance in height between the top of the piston and the top of the block. Then pick the appropriate gasket from the chart. Mine is still for the 2 hole gasket.

Chart;

Number of holes                     Metric               Imperial               Gasket

                                              0.60                        0.0196
       1                                        to                              to               ERR0382
                                               0.50                        0.0236


                                               0.70                       0.024
        2                                        to                           to                  ERR038
                                               0.61                       0.0275


                                                0.80                       0.0279
        3                                         to                           to                  ERR0384
                                                 0.71                       0.0314


     Here it is Monday morning and I talked with the machinist. He did see the cracks and his estimation is that they won't be of any concern. I'm thinking he's probably right and the engine will (hopefully) outlive me. Since it is raining I will wait until tomorrow to put the head on.

Latest update, on the 200 head

10.21.2015

So I ordered the head from Craddocks, payment was accepted and a week went by without hearing from them. So I sent an email asking what's up

Thursday am, Them; don't have one, can't find one no ETA.

Thursday pm, Me; I was told they were in stock(sent copy of email).

Fri am, Them; Would you like to send your head in to get refurbished?

Fri pm, Me; No, not cost effective to send from Calif to UK. If you don't have one can I get my money back unless you have other option?

Sat am, Them; We found one needing refurbishing would you like to buy it for XXXGBP? Then we will refurbish for you. Refurbishing cost on separate email.

Sat pm, Me, still waiting for the second email on refurbish costs. I also put in a query to GlobalLR^^

If I didn't have bad luck I'd have no luck at all.

After sending an email to Craddocks on Monday they sent me the recon cost sheet. Funny the recon + the head amounted to the same $ that I already sent them. I declined the offer on Tuesday. I asked for my $ back, it came this morning thru Paypal.

On Monday I took my old head to the local welding guru and he's going to grind out the cracks and reweld it for around $40. Then I'll take it to the machine shop for new seats and stuff.

I contacted Departing90 and his lead turned into a dead end unless one wants a complete 200 located in Southern Cal.

I also contacted Julian at Global Land Rovers. We talked yesterday and he has a head which will be reconned in the UK in 2 weeks.

So it looks like I will have 2 heads for about the same as the cost of 1 from Craddocks.

Now which one will be done first...................or before it rains.

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