300 tdi white smoke, loss of power, bit of a disaster really!

So there I was.... trundling along, and suddenly started missing badly, first thought was running out of diesel +but not that plenty left. Pulled over to look. Temp. near normal, oil level OK, coolant level lowish but I have a known P-gasket to attend to so nothing un-usual in that. Having established no immediate cause I continued on my way, noticed an increasing amount of white smoke and struggled for power on the hills. As I was late for my wood delivery (yep towing a good 3.5t) and it was just a couple of miles to go I carried on. Engine ticked over seemingly OK (white smoke excepted) while unloading, so I began to think fueling/injectors maybe ??? Even with the trailer empty things weren't any better power wise so I drove to the nearest village garage . They have rung me to say the injectors seem fine but the compression test shows three cylinders seriously down. Can the head gasket suddenly let go so badly???, can the timing belt jump??? What are the possibilities? all input gratefully received.

Yes head gasket can go Tommy Cooper[just like that]

Timing jump is usually quite rare, but it can happen, if the timing jumped it would be consistently running like a bag of nails

i had same problem it was a blockage in the fuel line. check you sedimenter disconnect fuel line at both ends and blow your lines clear if you can. take the sender out of your fuel tank and check that is clear, fuel filter change, disconnect injectors and see if fuel is coming through the pipes ok if it is it may be injectors blocked. pump timing been out would as dave 90 says give you all sorts of issues it once happened to my 2.5td and it was just a world of hurt till i sorted it. head gasket going would be doing this do usual checks, oil filler cap, coolent chemical check etc if you can

captain skellon said:

i had same problem it was a blockage in the fuel line. check you sedimenter disconnect fuel line at both ends and blow your lines clear if you can. take the sender out of your fuel tank and check that is clear, fuel filter change, disconnect injectors and see if fuel is coming through the pipes ok if it is it may be injectors blocked. pump timing been out would as dave 90 says give you all sorts of issues it once happened to my 2.5td and it was just a world of hurt till i sorted it. head gasket going would be doing this do usual checks, oil filler cap, coolent chemical check etc if you can

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:5biagree:

Thanks for the advice about the fuel lines, I had kind of moved on from there because of the low compression, but I guess it won't hurt to check.

towing that wieght with leaky p gasket its not surprising ,coolant level in tank doesnt mean engine is full ,300 tdi does need level checking with bungs out regulary ,and temp guage often doesnt give warning

jamesmartin said:

towing that wieght with leaky p gasket its not surprising ,coolant level in tank doesnt mean engine is full ,300 tdi does need level checking with bungs out regulary ,and temp guage often doesnt give warning

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Level checking with bungs out?

thermostat bung and rad bung ,

Just got a minute to have a look, and started by pulling the rocker cover off, just to see what the clearances were like. (bearing in mind the poor compression).
Found two valve caps missing from valves, found one polo mint shaped remnant, (hope the other one found a damage free route to the sump!) and a broken adjuster.
Spoke to a very helpful guy at AL Services Poole and he reckons its well worth putting new valve caps and a new adjuster in and trying that before tearing the whole lot apart, so thats what I'm going to do. Assuming its OK I can then do the P-gasket, and refill carefully, I've got new brass 'bungs' so should be a breeze!

jamesmartin said:

thermostat bung and rad bung ,

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Do you mean the bleed screws?

I think JM means the threaded (1/2" bsp?) hex headed filler plugs, one in the ally stat housing and one in the top of the rad. The originals are plastic and prone to damage on removal, particularly when they get old. Having had trouble with them in recent months I bought a couple of brass replacements. Try a search or google for ERR4586. Removing them during the level check reduces the possibility of trapped air affecting the level.