300tdi Head Gasket

C

cullenm

Member
Hey everyone. It's been about 15 years since I owned my last land rover. Ever since i sold it, @jymmiejamz has been texting me a land rover that's for sale once a week. What better time to buy a finicky vehicle that needs work than during a global pandemic and economic crisis? I picked up a 1999 discovery 1 from will tillery a week ago. It needs a couple things to get it going, the first of which is a head gasket.

After chatting to a few folks, i've got my shopping cart ready to go from Turner Engineering. Have I got the right things here? Anything missing? Anything unneeded?



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C

cullenm

Member
Maybe not! we haven't pulled the head yet. I just figured...better safe than sorry. maybe im being overly cautious here. If we do pull the head and get it machined, how can i tell which gasket i need now that the clearances are different?
 
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Red90

Well-known member
You can't choose a head gasket until you remove the head and measure the piston protrusion. Unless you are in a big hurry, I would pull it apart first. It only takes an hour or so.

Have a good read through the manual to understand what you need to do. If the head is warped, do not machine it. It will blow again.
 
jymmiejamz

jymmiejamz

Founding Member
Callsign: KN4JHI
Red90 said:
If the head is warped, do not machine it. It will blow again.
Click to expand...

Ive never done a Tdi head gasket, so keep that in mind, but can you elaborate on why it would blow after being machined flat? I know some cylinder heads aren’t meant to be machined, but my experience has been it affecting timing, not The head gasket itself.
 
jymmiejamz

jymmiejamz

Founding Member
Callsign: KN4JHI
My very organized parts department (courtesy of @javelinadave) might have a set of head gaskets, but it seems like ordering all of the available ones to have on hand would be a good idea.

Cullen lives in NYC and will be coming down to Virginia so we can do the work. I have the disco here. Ideally he’ll be able to drive it back.
 
R

Red90

Well-known member
jymmiejamz said:
Ive never done a Tdi head gasket, so keep that in mind, but can you elaborate on why it would blow after being machined flat? I know some cylinder heads aren’t meant to be machined, but my experience has been it affecting timing, not The head gasket itself.
Click to expand...

They warp due to being overheated. This appears to affect the metallurgy of the casting as they soon warp again.

Also they are not meant to be machined as stated by Land Rover.
 

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jymmiejamz

jymmiejamz

Founding Member
Callsign: KN4JHI
I know for a fact this was overheated, so it seems like just getting a new head is the way to go. I can’t imagine an aluminum head would not be warped .08mm or more after overheating.
 
Napalm00

Napalm00

Technical Excellence Contributor
To make it easy on yourself also use the old style head gasket and set the MLS one if you're not planning to run this thing hard. The old style gasket will definitely seal a lot better without having to do machine work
 
Napalm00

Napalm00

Technical Excellence Contributor
Yea you can pick by engine year or just get the one that comes with the retrofit parts ...I forget what one that is
 
acheck

acheck

Well-known member
If you are doing the whole head i'd either get new/reman injectors or send yours out for reman while its apart.

at the same time, i've had good luck just replacing the gasket, re-using the bolts, putting it back together and driving it. they run and maintain these things in africa without a stack of new cylinder heads and rovers north support.

pretty soon you'll have convinced yourself to just get a complete engine from turner (in which case let me know, i'll buy the cooked 300 complete)
 
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