True, some posts should be in the rant thread
1996, 188.000 km
The past two days I've been reading about CRD issues, black death, failed oil coolers (interestingly I can't recall reading about it other than on this forum). And I've driven one yesterday, the owner regularly tows, beats the living life out of it offroad and it still runs great. He's owned quite a few VM's too.
I couldn't understand the lifter failure either. It made a ticking noise for the last 6 months. And on a few occasions it would run like it runs now but it only lasted 1-2 seconds. I posted about my problems:
http://www.ausjeepoffroad.com/forum/...d.php?t=131310
No clear diagnosis then, looks like it was a lifter.
New lifters, new head bolts, new head gasket, new pushrods and I would assume the valvetrain is good for another 50.000 km, at the very least. I'd throw around $400-500 at the car.
3rd disaster? I don't know, but I see a lot more blow-by than before the trip. Is it caused by the bad lifter? And I've seen a lot of oil coming from my rear main seal. Maybe that's the 3rd disaster
What's left to fail, engine-wise?
I'm eyeing up a new intercooler, with a better design (remember our discussions about boost / manifold pressure? the stock intercooler drops it by the amount we were fighting over). That would be taken care of.
Injection pump rebuild? Not extremely expensive but looks like nasty work to take off the cover. Or build the tool to hold the IP gear in place.