Hi all. I acquired a 2008 TD4 SE manual in July, as an Ebay purchase for what I considered a good price for its overall condition. The seller was a small outfit, specialising in LR vehicles. The Ebay listing had plenty of decent pictures, showing the vehicle from all angles, and straight away gave me that "that looks well cared for" vibe. The seller said the engine had a misfire, and thought it could be an injector.
I bid £2250, finally winning it for just £2k. So on collection I did a did a quick check of the vehicle, and all looks good for the year. However the engine definitely had a misfire, which was clearly caused by low compression on one, possibly 2 cylinders. Anyway I paid my £2k and drove it the 103 miles home, very happy with the condition of the car, and the way is behaved on the road. It feels tight, without any knocks, clunk's or too much transmission noise. Apart from the misfire, it seems perfect as a family car.

I set about starting to sort out the misfire a couple of weeks ago, I'm in no hurry, and will be doing the repair work as and when time allows.

The first thing I did was a general compression test, this showed a 30 PSI on No1 (gearbox end) 0 PSI on No2, and about 250 PSI on No's 3 and 4. I also noticed that the front inlet port on No1 was allowing the compression to escape, which was visible from the port on cranking.

It was also very obvious that the engine has been worked on very recently, it has a reconditioned cylinder head, the gasket marker tabs are like new, there's a new timing belt, water pump and tensioner. The inlet manifold looks very clean too, so I suspect it's also more recent than 2008.

As I removed the injectors, it was obvious that those were reconditioned, as they're spotlessly clean on the body, with minimal carbon fouling on the tips. The engine has also been fitted with 2 new glow plugs.

So with all this recently carried out work, I'm thinking what is causing the poor compression on 1 and 2?

I get the head off and the cause is obvious. No2 piston has clearly been smacking something solid, the mangled remains of a nut was sitting in the bowl of the piston.

So my theory is that the engine ingested a swirl flap, which required a head rebuild. Only the person going the work dropped a fuel filter crash guard nut, or an EGR pipe nut, (that's what the mangled remains looks like) down an uncovered boost pipe, only for the nut to enter the engine a short time later. I think at this point it had a new set of injectors fitted, in the hope that those were causing the misfire, but obviously that's not the case.

So I'm now in to fixing the engine, which I'm pretty sure will be perfectly useable once it's back together.

I've picked up a second hand piston and rod, which will go in the block, once I've de-glazed the bore. The head has been cleaned up and the valve seats are ok, thankfully the valves took the pounding, so the head can be reused once new valves are fitted.

I am having trouble finding the torque specification for the rod cap bolts, so any with that would be helpful. Also I could do with the bearing running clearance, so I can select the correct shells to use.


Here's a few pictures.

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Just checked my Haynes manual in which most torque settings can be found but guess what...

It says:

“Although the design of the cylinder block components appear to be conventional, no information concerning the dismantling, reassembly, torque wrench settings or tolerances of these components is provided by Land Rover. Consequently, we can only advise that should these items require attention, seek advice from a Land Rover dealer or specialist before attempting any dismantling procedures.”

It does give all cylinder head related torque settings so it may be worth obtaining a copy.

Thanks for taking the time to look for me.
I've got a copy of the LR service maintenance manual (SMM). Unfortunately I don't have a copy of the LR service repair manual (SRM), which will list the torque settings I need. Haynes manuals are a waste of paper IMHO.

I'll keep digging, as a copy of the SRM must be about.
The engine is nothing special, so maybe I should be looking for the PSA or Ford repair manual instead.

error Jules

I've found the big end cap bolt tightening torque, if interested.

Use new bolts. LR001233 qty 2 of.

Stage 1: tighten to 10Nm.
Stage 2: slacken off 180°.
Stage 3: tighten to 23Nm.
Stage 4: tighten a further 46°.

Hope this helps in the future.

I'll post updates as and when I get the Freelander running again.

Christ. 46° is a bit specific, isn’t it?  Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

Good luck with the rebuild. Mine is still going after having gone through the same process.

Steve D wrote:

Christ. 46° is a bit specific, isn’t it?

Luke G wrote:

Good luck with the rebuild. Mine is still going after having gone through the same process.

The only drama I had with mine after putting it all back together was bleeding the fuel system. It had been off the road for some time and despite using a priming bulb to pump the fuel up from the tank it just wouldn’t start. I ended up using a brake bleeding kit attached to an air compressor and dragged the fuel up through the system by attaching I it to the return end of the fuel filter. After doing that it finally started (much to my relief). I knew the timing was ok as I had been using aerostart and it would run for a few seconds before stopping.

Luke G wrote:

Good luck with the rebuild. Mine is still going after having gone through the same process.

I got away without replacing it. I was lucky, the nut got sucked in on starting, I stopped the engine engine straight away knowing something was wrong and when I went to start the motor again the nut was sitting on top of the piston stopping the engine from turning over and taking out the fusible link on the battery cable. Below is a photo of the piston prior to being carefully filed with sandpaper.

That was lucky. Mine actually stopped the engine cranking too, but not until I'd got it home.

Mine has now entered a "CRASH" code in the CJB, as the voltage dropped so low when the engine locked. So even once I've sorted the engine, I'm still not sure the engine will start, until I clear the crash code.

All good fun. Not.