New Power Steering Pump.

Power Steering Pump Died.

Driving back South on a dark and bleak Sunday night, it was weird coming off the motorway for the A road home and the steering was very heavy, thought it was a maybe a puncture but I pulled up and all the tyres were hard so carried on and it seemed as though the PAS had failed, but it was still running, albeit with a swirling in the PAS reservoir, so I carried on only for the pump to seize solid and snap the belt.

It was late and I was tired, called the AA road recovery service and about an hour and a half later a guy turned up and fitted one of those "cut to fit" get you home V belts that connects in the middle and needless to say, it didn't last more than 10 minutes.

Lets pop the hood and dive straight in.

The humble shoe lace that kept the water pump spinning over to get me home. 

This  is the pulley that powers the PAS pump and transfers power to the alternator, it got very hot when the pump seized and damaged the alternator belt.

Damage to the alternator belt can be seen here, I wouldn't risk running this belt again, it's been compromised by heat from the PAS belt slipping and ultimately snapping.

Brand new pump £200, another £30 for belts and £40 for fluids, dear old game this lately.

 Not sponsored so all my own dollar 😒😒😒

Alternator off first to gain access to the pump, remembering to pull the battery clamps off, the alternator wire is live so when it's hanging free it's dangerous.

The pressure feed off the pump is 16mm and usually a pain to get off as it will have been on there a long time.

Make sure the oil drain pan is under there to catch the oil as it flows out the pump and reservoir.

Make sure you realise that the reservoir is still going to have fluid in it and it will need emptied out.

Next to remove the PAS pump, the pump is mounted to the plate that adjusts the tension of the belt, 3X M6 flange headed bolts hold the pulley to the flange and 3X m8 flange headed bolts locate and tension the adjuster plate, 4X M6 flange headed bolts hold the pump to the back of the plate and it's a wriggle and a wiggle to get the flanges through the plate.

Swap over the reservoir feed pipe, it's a ball ache trying to undo the clips with the pump in situ so it's easier to leave it in place until you get it out.

I opted to pour a litre of fluid through the return line to at least flush some of the bad fluid out of the steering box.

Fitting the pump back in place.

Pulley replaced and alternator put back on and wired back up, new belts fitted, fluid all topped up and bled through.

I have now done 360 miles on it and it is great, no more groaning and whining with actual power in the steering, so much better.

I still need to drain and replace the fluid at least two more times and to fit an inline transmission filter to filter out any remaining debris in the system, I couldn't get one fast enough for my trip at the weekend so I had to take the gamble.

Thanks for looking and please feel free to comment.

Diesel Bleed Off Pipes.

 After blowing the head gasket and the extensive dismantling to repair that I had to disturb the diesel leak off pipes on the injectors, I had replaced the small rubber pipes years ago, probably back in 2014.

I got a whiff of something as I drove through the New Forest and stopped to find diesel spraying out one of the pipes.

No drama, had some washer jet pipe in the spares and put it on as a temp fix.

You can see the new braided pipe and new clips just under the oil catch cyclone, job done in about a half hour.

Thanks for watching....

Blown Head Gasket

Blown Head Gasket Replacement

My Saturday went well after fitting the new alternator and belt, but my Sunday didn't work out well at all.

Went something like this.

So that will be coolant all over the forecourt of the garage, not good, get her home and start stripping it down for investigation.

Second alternator off and the coolant hoses away along with the intercooler pipes it was time to strip off the inlet and exhaust manifolds.

Mustn't forget the thermostat housing and as they are getting quite a rare commodity they have to be treated with respect.

Exhaust manifold coming off now.

Now there's a bit of space, time to get the rockers out.

Rocker box cover off and injector pipes disconnected, pulled the rockers off and out with the head bolts, pop the top and see whats in there.

Oh dear.

Not surprised to find a cylinder full of water but it was far from a welcome sight.

The gasket had rotted out between cylinders 3 and 4, I would say the head is scrap.

Lots of cleaning and scraping to clean up the deck of the block and make it clean and ready for the next step of fitting the new head gasket and another head.

Found me a secondhand head, turns out I had to remove it from the engine myself, not what I had planned but hey ho.

Not in bad shape, nothing a good clean won't solve.

Head laid on the bench and I just couldn't get the third injector out, had to leave it with the seller to get it removed and popped back a few days later to pick it up.

Head finally home for cleaning and inspection.

Uh Oh, valve stem seals at the top of the valves means that the oil was working it's way down, not great and needs to be sorted.

 My goodies were amassing to facilitate the rebuild, Elring head gasket, top end gasket and seal set and a full set of silicone coolant hoses.

One of my best investments, valve spring compressor, couldn't have done it without this.

Injector puller to get my injectors out of my original head, popped straight out, doddle it was.

So the new head had issues, stem seals being one, but the carbon build up on the exhaust valves was horrendous and the worst I've ever seen.

Wire wheel cleaned them up and away we go for cleaning, lapping in a new sealing face and reassembly.

Friday night sat in the kitchen lapping valves, magic.

Now the valves are lapped in it was time to fit new valve stem seals, nothing fancy just a 13mm deep socket and a hammer to knock them on.

All fitted and on to the next bit.

Oiled the valve stems prior to fitting in the guides, fitted the springs and washers and used the valve spring compressor to help fit the securing colletts, great tool and worth every penny.

Head is now fully assembled and ready to go on.

Used a product called Well Seal to coat the head gasket both sides before fitting it and the head bolts went in good and easy, new set of head bolts as I didn't know how many times the others had been used, max 5 times, all torqued down and set with the angle gauge, happy days, injectors fitted with some copper paste and clamps torqued down.

Valve caps fitted with a dab of fresh engine oil, the rocker shaft was fitted and torqued down, the valve lash was set using the rule of 9, main reason for leaving the glow plugs out until the last was to allow the engine to run easily for the valve lash setting.

In my collection of new bit was the blue silicone hose set that I really liked, the originals had perished a little and needed replaced anyway and these were an expensive upgrade but they do look cool.

Brand new Bosch water pump going in too as I didn't want to risk the old one failing me after having gone to so much trouble with the head gasket.

And that's a wrap, all buttoned up and filled with coolant, injector unions fitted and the bleed off pipe banjos got new copper washers, glow plugs in and wires connected, hoo ya, time to start it up and get a test run out of it.

Test run successful and I will admit that I was nervous.

So far I've put close to 1000kms on it and it hasn't missed a beat, although some other things have happened lol.

The alternator was just the start of it......

The Saga From Hell, Started With The Alternator.

Oh it was a glorious sunny day, bimbling around the West Sussex countryside and this whole saga started with the alternator frying itself and overcharging, had to pull over to the side of the A27 and cut the alternator belt to save the rest of the system.

Ordered a new belt and a new alternator and half an hour later it was all done and dusted.

Don't take long to change the alternator, 2 13mm spanners, a 10mm and a 7mm for the wires and a crowbar/pry bar to lever the alternator to set the tension and voila!!!

Off we go again for the jolly out and oh dear, disaster strikes and it was all bad, follow the saga in the next episode lol 😂😂😂