Back to the blue smoke issue...

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sp33der

sp33der

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A Geordie in sunny Spain divvent ye knaa
Ok y'all, on the road again for a couple of weeks now, gear and transfer boxes changed and new clutch. Back to my earlier problem of blue smoke on start up which I think is getting worse.

I don't think there are timing issues, it starts and runs fine and steady but on cold start or when it's been standing for a few hours it chucks out a fair few clouds of stinky blue oil smoke. If I drive before I clear it, the engine will stutter or miss as it chucks the smoke out.

Once that 30 secs or so is done, it's ok, I travel up and down a mountain road 4 times a day for the school run so going up puts the engine under load and lots of overrun down the other side and it's fine; no visible smoke. I did 200km of motorway journey just yesterday and it was fine.

I assume/guess that this is going to be valve stem seals or turbo seals but how can I find out which it is? Or could something else be the culprit? As I say, I don't THINK that timing ids the issue as it runs fine apart from da smoke.

Cheers me dears for any more advice!

Rich

ps final thought, the battery is on it's way out I reckon; sluggish to turn over in the morning although it starts quickly and then it turns over fast after a run so I guess it's charging ok but not holding it. Don't imagine that's gonna make it smoke though......
 
engine oil levels is it using a fast amount of oil?
water levels is it drinking water.

would you say it stoped smoking randomly or when the engine warms up?
 
If it only smokes on start up and clears pretty quickly why worry? If it was smoking all the time fair enough but a bit of smoke on starting is hardly unusual for a diesel engine.
 
My money would be on valve guide seals too.

My petrol one kicks out a "bit of blue" when started/parked for a while and sometimes on overun when going down hill.

I'd also check all your glowplugs are OK , as this could cause white/blue startup smoke too, as could overfueling during starting.

Mark
 
Cheers. More than "a bit of smoke" is my problem, it's quite a vast cloud! But only for those 30 or so seconds after start up and only when the car's been stood a while like overnight or all day. Would I be right in thinking that if the turbo seals were going then there would be more smoke whilst driving rather than just at start up?
ta again
 
Thinking Glowplugs, have you checked they are all OK?

Smoke at startup is likely to be unburnt fuel.

Our XC90 diesel smokes white in winter, when first started, but then settles down, double operation of glowplugs improves situation.

Mark
 
Don't think it's unburnt fuel. Def blue smelly smoke, not white or black. Car starts pretty much on the button and smoke will start a few seconds later. Doesn't burst into life with a cloud of smoke, just starts easily, then a few seconds later as I rev it or drive away, will start smokin' for half a min or so.
 
I vote valve stem seals. Oil will drain passed them over night and sit in the pots, then you'll have a load of smoke first thing while the oil burns off.
 
technically I think its poss, with head on, but blooming tricky to get all back together again.

Valve spring compressers need head off, unless you've found a special one to clamp on the head bolts.


Mark
 
take the head off remove bolts in correct order mind , then you just aswell re-grind the valves in plus you can de-coke them you should have it all back together in a few hours forgot to add make sure you got a torque gauge as your need one to tighten the head bolts back up
 
sp33der said:
Ok y'all, on the road again for a couple of weeks now, gear and transfer boxes changed and new clutch. Back to my earlier problem of blue smoke on start up which I think is getting worse.

I don't think there are timing issues, it starts and runs fine and steady but on cold start or when it's been standing for a few hours it chucks out a fair few clouds of stinky blue oil smoke. If I drive before I clear it, the engine will stutter or miss as it chucks the smoke out.

Once that 30 secs or so is done, it's ok, I travel up and down a mountain road 4 times a day for the school run so going up puts the engine under load and lots of overrun down the other side and it's fine; no visible smoke. I did 200km of motorway journey just yesterday and it was fine.

I assume/guess that this is going to be valve stem seals or turbo seals but how can I find out which it is? Or could something else be the culprit? As I say, I don't THINK that timing ids the issue as it runs fine apart from da smoke.

Cheers me dears for any more advice!

Rich

ps final thought, the battery is on it's way out I reckon; sluggish to turn over in the morning although it starts quickly and then it turns over fast after a run so I guess it's charging ok but not holding it. Don't imagine that's gonna make it smoke though......
Click to expand...


Hiya matey, before you go too far down the valve seals road, can I suggest that if you haven't cleaned out the intercooler and it's associated pipes, that now is the time to do it? Also, have you de-EGR'd your motor? The last one I did has so much black tar-like substance in the inlet manifold that the entry was nearly blocked - and it would blue-smoke exactly as per yours.

After cleaning all the pipes, inlet manifold and intercooler she goes better and much cleaner with NO blue smoke. Costs nothing much to check it does it?
 
Hiya big fella, I did blank the egr some months ago (don't you read and commit to memory my posts then?). Not done nowt about the intercooler though cos I couldn't find any mention of that being the potential cause of me problem, so now may be the time! How easy/difficult is it to take the manifold off though? Is there a gasket? ......as I type this I'm thinking it must have been discussed in the past.....I hear voices....angry voices....saying "SEARCH!" :D:rolleyes:




ps Thanks to all others too btw!! :)
 
sp33der said:
Hiya big fella, I did blank the egr some months ago (don't you read and commit to memory my posts then?). Not done nowt about the intercooler though cos I couldn't find any mention of that being the potential cause of me problem, so now may be the time! How easy/difficult is it to take the manifold off though? Is there a gasket? ......as I type this I'm thinking it must have been discussed in the past.....I hear voices....angry voices....saying "SEARCH!" :D:rolleyes:

It's one gasket serving inlet and exhaust manifolds. I doubt your inlet manifold is blocked to that extent though, as it would be a constant problem then, not first thing. Dave's right though, it's a good job to get done regardless, but I think the stem seals are where your problem lies.

HTH,
Lew
Click to expand...
 
sp33der said:
Hiya big fella, I did blank the egr some months ago (don't you read and commit to memory my posts then?). Not done nowt about the intercooler though cos I couldn't find any mention of that being the potential cause of me problem, so now may be the time! How easy/difficult is it to take the manifold off though? Is there a gasket? ......as I type this I'm thinking it must have been discussed in the past.....I hear voices....angry voices....saying "SEARCH!" :D:rolleyes:




ps Thanks to all others too btw!! :)
Click to expand...

Hiya mate, when I did the last one I cleaned the inlet manifold via the entry hole that the intercooler pipe fits onto. Using a variety of different screwdrivers and other proddy things I was able to get the manifold into some sort of halfway decent condition. The intercooler itself was contaminated with oil and that is why - on this car - it would blue smoke after being started but only for a short while as the oil was blown through the intercooler.

Anyhoo, after cleaning out the inlet tract there has been no more blue smoke.
 
As big lad describes cleaning out the inlet manifold and intercooler and pipe work can make a world of difference!
I was having smoke issues so removed inlet manifold cleaned out with paraffin and toothbrush on Stick and dried using the mrs hairdryer, replaced turbo hoses and cleaned out intercooler and oh boy what a difference! Low end pull and top end speed drastically improved! £6 for 5 litres of paraffin and £20 for new hoses, couple of hours work and worked wonders!
 
sp33der said:
Ok, so is it possible to clean (or partly clean) the inlet manifold without taking it off? I'm assuming it's a bugger of a job to remove the whole thing? And would need new gasket?
Click to expand...


It's not that difficult to remove the inlet manifold, but it shares the same gasket with the exhaust manifold.

If you are lucky you can get the inlet man. off without destroying the gasket, but would you want to risk it?

There is no doubt that you will do a better job if it is removed as you will be able to access the individual inlet ports in the head. I didn't do it because I'm a lazy slap-dash so and so and I was worried about studs breaking, but it would be good to do, knowing that after the de-EGR it won't ever get in that state again.
 
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