2001 Berlingo top-end rebuild DW8

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CitroJim
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Post by CitroJim »

Interesting Tino. So does the DW8 have a ballrace on the end of the cam then? The XUD cam runs in all plain bearings and I thought the DW8 was the same?

Xac and I have seen a melt at the sprocket end bearing on a XUD head. That one was caused fairly and squarely by the cam breaking between cylinders 3 and 4 and flailing around as a result.

On your replacement head, were the cam caps the originals that belonged to the head or "replacements"? I ask as the caps are matched to the head and cannot be interchanged as they are line-bored as a set during manufacture. Using caps from another head can be a recipe for disaster, especially if clearances are too tight.

Another thought. You had oil pressure problems initially. Did you check the oil pressure with a gauge to confirm it was just a duff sensor? If there is low oil pressure for whatever reason, the cam bearings will be starved.

Yet another thought. The XUD head has a conical oil filter mesh in the head to filter oil going to the cam bearing gallery. If this was in less than perfect condition or blocked with skimming swarf, the bearings will be starved.

Good news is that the valves won't be bent. All the force was dissipated in breaking the cam.

The head is a write-off if the bearing journal is damaged or any cam caps are broken; inspect them carefully. A good machine shop might be able to reclaim the journals and line-bore any replacement caps needed and thus save the head.
Jim

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Post by tino »

Didn't mean to indicate the head had a full ball-race for the camshaft. It is plain bearing same as XUD head.

The bearing caps would've come from one of the three donor heads. I always assumed engineering shops knew what they were doing when it comes to this sort of thing. Clearly this bit about the line boring is crucial to the job being a good one. Will have to get some blank bearing caps for the replacement camshaft then!
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CitroJim
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Post by CitroJim »

One would have hoped they'd have been on the ball Tino but sadly, I think you have found the cause of failure now :cry:

New caps are not available as spares as far as I know. They can only be salvaged from other scrap heads and then undertaking a mix'n'match to get the most amenable ones before line-boring them precisely.

Do you have any "come back" on the supplier of the reconditioned head?
Jim

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Post by tino »

I bought the heads in one place - scrap dealer - and took them to a machine shop to have one good head professionally reconditioned out of the three. They managed it. But looks like some trouble with the camshaft. I'll see what they say when I bring it back to them. I suppose worst comes to worst, I've got two more heads, loads of valves, maybe a couple more bearing caps (although possibly not good ones) so may be able to get another head made up gratis on the back of this disaster.
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