cracked head or buggered gasket

G'day all,
Well tomorrow morning I'm going to pressure test the cooling sytem and be certain that the head is coming off.What I would like to know is:have many ZD30 owners experianced any gasket or head problems(cracked heads).I have heard that it is common with these engines.The other question is that are the workshop manuals off ebay any good,do they have the info of torque settings and tightening sequences associated with the engine.Any info would be great,cheers Seb.

to be honest i've not heard about any problems with the zd30 cracking heads. Happy to stand corrected but that myth is busted. Thats more a mitsubishi thing Just in my family (2 bros and father have them) there has been 3 mitsi motors crack the head all up. Dad is now looking at a nissan lol. It only took me driving datsun/nissan for 20 years without any real big issues to convert him.

hadricus has kindly uploaded the manual

http://www.navara.asia/d22-general-chat/3232-d22-navara-service-manual-download-97-08-a.html

plenty ZD30's crack heads. tho mostly in patrol, often found with holes in pistons

this is a D22,forgot to put that in there

Sab said:

this is a D22,forgot to put that in there

Click to expand...

kinda figured that with this being the D22 section
while the D22 doesn't have the variable turbo the patrol has, they still had problems early on.

to quote one of the local mechanics "all light diesels crack heads".

Well I took the head off yesterday and when I took it off I said "oh no".I found some glow plugs had fatigued and broken away and they had smashed themselves into the piston and head and aswell as that number two and four cylinders have gummed up and have pitting on the cylinder walls.now I have to sort out what I am going to do,I have only had it for 3 years and it's only got 128000 on the clock and I've only done about 25000 of them.F@#k I'm pissed.Anyhow thats the update.

Sab said:

Well I took the head off yesterday and when I took it off I said "oh no".I found some glow plugs had fatigued and broken away and they had smashed themselves into the piston and head and aswell as that number two and four cylinders have gummed up and have pitting on the cylinder walls.now I have to sort out what I am going to do,I have only had it for 3 years and it's only got 128000 on the clock and I've only done about 25000 of them.F@#k I'm pissed.Anyhow thats the update.

Click to expand...

Wow. Never been serviced? Ever?

sorry to hear the bad news

any chance of pics?
rather unusual for glows to break. just check it is glows that broken, rather than holes in pistons and resulting shrapnel has done the damage.

I will try and get some uploaded tweak's,the coolant had stained the cylinders and when I cleaned them up it had pitted the cylinders but it was the glow plugs that done most damage. I know that I will have a fresh engine after the rebuild.

Dion said:

Wow. Never been serviced? Ever?

Click to expand...

Dion,what makes you think it's never been serviced,ever. just curious mate.

Sab said:

Dion,what makes you think it's never been serviced,ever. just curious mate.

Click to expand...

Was just my first thought given you have only done 25,000 of its 180,000kms, so you can't be sure of its prior history. Sounded like maybe the oil was left in too long but I see you've tracked it down to coolant. Also the glow plugs should physically outlive their service life I'd have thought and should have been tested and replaced at service.

I'm sure you serviced it, I should have been more specific and said never serviced by the previous owner.

Sorry to hear mate.

Good luck with the rebuild.

Dave.

when i was trying to source a head for my d22 zd30, every head i got had cracks or were warped, went though 4 in total i think, ended up having to fix a head with light damage. Expect to spend a bit, sorry to say.

Good luck with it but!

yeah atleast I know it will have a fresh engine in it,it's a shame that it's happened so soon(128000km) but I'm happy that I took the head off and found the damage now,We are heading back home at the end of the year (Melb) with camp trailer in tow so better now than somewhere in between karratha and melbourne.It would have been a 4 week journey turned very expensive and very short.At the end of the day shit happens and you sometimes can't help it,yes it will cost me a few grand but she'll be right. : ) It might be worth changing out your glow plugs every 100 000kms or so..just to be sure.

I am sad to say my old girl has started loosing coolant somewhere now too. 140k km on the ZD30, regular (Over regular) servicing since I have had it for the last 40k km. Not going in to the oil, but coolant level dropping a few litres every 100 or so kilometres. I did think I was imagining a slight power loss in the last 5000km or so, but perhaps I wasn't. Have seen a white puff of smoke every now and again just now when I start it, which would indicate water I believe....
As I have never cracked the head off a diesel, is there any real differences I need to be aware of over a petrol? I have done plenty of heads on those....
If i am going to go to all this effort, I think it will be new injectors at the same time, and hopefully only head damage, not anything more.
Although my clutch is about stuffed too... I can hear dollars already....