diesel in the engine oil

i have a 300 tdi m reg discovery. i think im gettin diesel in my oil. does any know how diesel can get in to the engine oil on these engines ?
any suggestions will help.
the reason i think its gettin diesel in the oil is that i have a couple of oil leaks and it doesnt loose any oil on the dip stick, also when it gets near its service time it gets very top end clacky and an oil change cures it.
thanks

there is a hole under lift pump thats supposed to let leaky lift pump leak externally and not into cam gallery ,faulty injector ,what do you mean by clacky

hi what i mean by clacky is it sounds like all the tappets are out of adjustment.
thanks

Are you sure the leak is engine oil and not gearbox or steering fluid?

hi yeah im sure its engine oil as its black oil and have checked me gear box oil and its spot on.
thanks

could even be your injector pump leaking

hi how can the injector pump leak diesel in the oil, didnt think they had an oil feed from the engine?

Does it take a lot of turns to fire up? this could cause an excess of unburned fuel into the pots which could seep past rings into sump.

check your lift pump as the diaphragm could have a pinhole or small fracture causing diesel to enter the engine

The most common source of engine oil make up in diesel engines is fuel leakage past the piston rings, 'blow-by', if your engine has high miles, had a particularly hard life or poor service history, the rings could be past their use by date. Generally the engine will start and run ok albeit down a bit on power. Have a compression test done. Maybe an engine rebuild is on the horizon.

Ok , When i first bought my Disco it had 6 months warranty, 7 months and i had Diesel in the engine oil, Heres my story...

Going home from work and all of a sudden a loss of power, Pulled into a layby and tried to find out what happened, I tried to go after a while and it wouldn't let me go faster than about 25 -30mph and when i did the smoke that came out was unbeliveable.

Just made it to a garage and Bang the turbo went. Rac came out first thing they did was check the dipstick and i must of had about 6 to 7 inches of oil (Oil & diesel)

Took it to a garage next day, Bought new Turbo and had all the Injector Copper washers replaced and injectors tested, £500 later i was happy all was well and i collected the car with no problems

3 months later I noticed oil on my back door window, the smoke was the same, one of the plugs in the cylinder head popped off the whole engine was rattling around, Rac man said Pistons have had it, Engine full up with diesel and i'd need new engine

Found a 2nd hand TD5 engine 2005 with 42,000 on the clock, for £1400 and a further £500 to fit it.

Finally found out from Landrover the the leak in the fuel rail in the Cynlinder head the thinest part is less than 2mm and if this cracks for whatever reason its a new cyclinder head, it can't be repaired because of the position of the crack, On 2004 models and newer landrover re-designed the clylinder head to stop this from happening.

There was never a re-call notice, So please don't take changes it could cost you ££££'s

new engine in now nearly a year and alls well

Just had a new cylinder head fitted due to diesel leaking into oil sump but now when driving the vehicle lots of black smoke has been coming from the exhaust, it only stops when I build up speed in fourth gear. have been back to the garage many times they don't seem to be able to locate the problem that is causing this. They have recently suggested having the fuel injectors cleaned and tested, has anyone any ideas?

i had same on my escort 1600 diesel, that was a worn out injector pump, but then the engine just kept on running, just about stopped it before it blew up.