XM 2.1 Rebuild

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steelcityuk
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Post by steelcityuk »

Here's how it looks with it's struts in place. I forgot to put the drop link in place before slotting the strut into the hub carrier, I haven't bolted it all up yet and as you can see there's a healthy smear of copper grease on the bottom of the strut so it shouldn't take much to pull it apart again.
Image

I managed to flare the brake pipe using a machine mart flaring tool. The Flare isn't perfectly symmetrical so I'm going to have to keep an eye on it.

Steve.
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Post by KP »

Looking good Steve :)

If you struggle with any hydraulic stuff just give you local Pirtek a ring as they are often quite helpful and have mobile crews that might pop by for some cash :)
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Post by davetherave »

That looks impressive!
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Post by steelcityuk »

Well it seems I've made some kind of mistake on the engine rebuild. Currently the engine will start reluctantly, try to cut out unless rev'd, knock like hell and smokes like a James Bond special. Adjusting the injection pump timing by rotating the pump has little effect. All the pulleys pin fine but what I'm wondering is if I pinned the injector pump using the wrong hole(s)? I suppose that the position of the woodruff key could give a clue if I knew what it's location was when the crank was pinned.

The pump and injectors worked fine when removed from the other engine.

Any comments on this?

Thanks.

Steve
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Post by CitroJim »

Hi Steve,

it's worth checking you're not 180 degrees out first-off. When the crank is properly timed and locked the keyway should be roughly at 11 o'clock when you look at it end-on under the wing.

At time, the pump should just be starting a pumping stroke and this can be felt as a 'compression' as you slowly rotate the pump. In fact the point at which it is in correct time (just before the 'compression') can make it hard to get the key lined up with the slot in the pulley if the pulley is already timed up on the cam belt. Also, at correct pump time the pump keyway will be at roughly 9 o'clock and the pulley slot should be at a similar time when indexed by the two bolts into the pump cradle.

The cradle will cater for both makes of pumps and there'll be six tapped holes but only three will have studs. If I recall correctly, the Bosch ones are the outer set that causes the pump to sit at about a 20 degree angle toward the engine whereas the Lucas set hold the pump just about vertical. This is why glowplugs are easier to swap on a Lucas equipped engine...

Hope that makes some sort of sense....
Jim

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Post by steelcityuk »

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the info, it's perfectly clear.

After tea I went and had a look at the spare engine, slotted on my none working pump and timed & pinned the engine, just like I have the one in the car. It's just as you say, the keyway is at 11 o clock so the rod slots into the flywheel, the cam pins with a single bolt and the fuel pump with two bolts. So I slipped the timing belt back on, tensioned it as per Haynes gave it another 2 turns of the crankshaft and it 'pinned up' in all three places without any trouble.

That looked just like I'd done with the car so, I stripped the car engine of the bit's and pieces needed to remove the timing belt covers then rotated the crankshaft until I could 'pin' the flywheel. At this the the other timing pins could be inserted into the camshaft and injector pump. No problems visible, no slackness in the belt, no need to 'jiggle' the crankshaft to get the pins in.

Next bit I checked was under the cam cover. with the engine 'pinned' the valves nearest the injector pump were fully closed (off the cam?). This seemed correct to me so I thought I'd check the cam followers visually to see that all was OK. They were but I'm not sure the hydraulic tappets are pumping up. On the valves that aren't 'on cam' the rockers can be jiggled around a little bit and the tappets slightly depressed. If these tappets aren't pumping up then wouldn't that lead to lower compression in the affected cylinders and in turn to poor or no combustion?

What do you think, does this sound right or would the piston be able to suck the valves open during the induction stroke? If the tappets are the problem is there a simple way to pump them up?

Thanks.

Steve.
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Post by KP »

Silly question but did you prime the tappets before putting them back in the engine??
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Post by steelcityuk »

No I didn't. At the time I just thought that getting up oil pressure before starting it would be enough, seems I was wrong. Elsewhere I've since read that it can take 15-20 minutes for them to fill under there own steam.

What a drip eh!

Steve.
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Post by CitroJim »

Yes, I reckon the tappets need to be primed first. If they aren't then as the valve goes to open the tappet will full;y compress and the valve will hardly open. The inlet suck will never suck a valve open - the spring is far too strong for that. Back in the vintage days there were 'atmospheric' inlet valves that opened under the engine suck but they had very weak springs on them.

If they're well dry they'll likely never self-prime from oil pressure alone.

Did you check that the pump is just starting a 'compression' stroke when the engine is in time? It should be possible to feel this without removing the whole pump, just by slackening the mounting nuts and removing the delivery pipes - you should then be able to feel the start of compression as you rotate the pump between the extremes of its adjustment slots.
Jim

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Post by steelcityuk »

Right then the course of action is clear, cam carrier off and tappets primed. I haven't checked the pump Jim, not since setup. During the initial setup the dial gauge seemed to indicate all was well but whilst the cam carrier's off I can double check this.

Any tips on priming tappets other than immersing in oil and operating them?

I'll post back when I've made more progress.

Thanks.

Steve.
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Post by KP »

Use a bucket and some mole grips with the right amount of spacing on them im afraid...

Any that are harder to operate could be failed units and need replacing really to keep the engine in tip top order.

Also use seomthing to protect the surfaces of the tappet or glue to said mole grip device as to avoid putting scratches onto the metalwork at each end of the tappet as its just something else that could cause drag in the system :)

I tried the method of priming the units upside down with some oil poured into them while pumping but it was just too messy. best with a bucket and then once its primed you can leave it in the bucket so it doesn't drain out in anyway :) gets the surface nice and slick ready to slide back into the head as well.

tools like these would be good;
http://toolspot-static.co.uk/i/2516z.jpg
http://www.stanleyimages.co.uk/CatalogI ... 3_prev.jpg
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Post by steelcityuk »

Thanks for the tips. I think I'll try waterpump pliers with rubber tubing over the jaws.

Steve.
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Post by steelcityuk »

Well after another two evenings the tappets have been removed from the spare engine and fitted into the engine in the car. They were given a good wipe over to remove all the existing surface oil before being given a liberal coating of new stuff and a few squirts into the casting holes. The top was rebuilt. The engine timing carefully done and double checked, all OK. Finally I was ready to start the beast and..... it's exactly the same. Hard to start, knocks like hell, smokes like the devil and dies after roughly 20 seconds of nursing it.

So back to square one. Are the piston rings sticking after being laid up for a year with couple of squirts of oil in the cylinders? Is it fuel problem, if so how, the pump/injectors and filter came off the other engine. Could it be that the head gasket supplied is the wrong thickness - but surely it wouldn't make that much difference?

Well I've bought a Dieseltune DX511 a compression testing kit so maybe that can give an answer.

A couple of points have occurred to me, I didn't use the injector pipes off the spare engine, this shouldn't make any difference but at this stage I'm clutching at straws. Another test could be to rig up a spare pipe and injector in a jar and check that there's a good squirt from them, not just pattern but power.

More news if it ever happens.

Steve.
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Post by Dommo »

Excuse me for not reading the whole thread, but did you start with a Bosch pump, and fit another Bosch pump?

If you went from Lucas to Bosch or vice versa, the injector pipes (on a 1.9TD at least) are routed differently, so it would only fire on two with the incorrect pipes.
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Post by robert_e_smart »

If you went from Lucas to Bosch or vice versa, the injector pipes (on a 1.9TD at least) are routed differently, so it would only fire on two with the incorrect pipes.
The same applies on the 2.1 TD. Also the mounting points for the pump onto the mounting bracket are different from Lucas to Bosch.
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