Disco2 td5 white smoke top end tap low power hard starting SOLUTION INCLUDED

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Shanec

Active Member
Posts
277
Location
Central Scotland
new to forum and land rovers

Got a td5 disco 2

Posting here to help others who search internet with these symptoms

Put on genuine fuel oil and centrifugal filters and engine flush prior to new engine oil

Do not yet have nan/hawk/lynx etc

Drove disco for couple thousand miles after buying then began hard starting and smokey but not black over fuelling smoke and not blue oil burning smoke and not white coolant burning smoke

It ended up being in my opinion retarded combustion smoke?

After servicing myself as above was disappointed was still smoking at idle and whilst driving. In morning when engine stone cold would not start off starter motor but started within a second off clutch downhill.

Ran so smokey I created clouds at junctions and traffic lights

If left to idle for ten minutes for example and when pulling off there was a cloud of white smoke so dense you could not see through it


Anyway, onto the solution

Dipstick level hadn't been rising so didn't suspect injector seals but took engine top cover off to just check everything tight.

Number 5 rocker was loose and I could wobble freely

Injector plunger was also wiggled by myself

I didn't think this normal as the other 4 were tight

Opened the Haynes manual and learned to set the tolerances by screwing down until stops then backing off one turn and locking with nut. Read the Haynes manual and look at pictures.

All 5 needed adjustment. This may be because recently had a new head and perhaps not properly adjusted and or settled in. Had to adjust by several threads though so was a bit surprised.

Engine top cover back on and started engine to much dissatisfaction as white smoke still pouring out of exhaust.

Took for test drive and noticed mildly improved power

Decided to gun it and after just 1/2 a mile flat out changing up gears not before 3.5k rpm brown smoke exited exhaust all the way up to 90mph. In a friends fields off road of course. Looked like what I imagine a sandstorm would look like. Brown rusty coloured exhaust discharge. Never ever seen this nor read about it before.

Then it cleared. Stopped vehicle and idled. Got out looked at exhaust no visible smoke. Now when rev on full throttle get a nice mild puff of black smoke. Otherwise smokeless. Power back to normal too.

In my opinion looking back I think the white smoke was caused by retarded timing in turn caused by injector plungers being unable to compress fully. After adjusting rockers the extra available power may have allowed the injectors to clean themselves out by reaching fairly high revs under full load. Sounds really stupid but that's my story.


Very strange story I know

Hope it helps someone else who could only find information on maf inter cooler turbo injector seals etc

S Charlton
 
Last edited:
Hi
Interesting post and nice to see one with a solution!

Regarding the injector clearance, Im one of those now in the camp of "back off the screw at least 1.5 turns" Im still in the middle of rebuilding mine after No.1 injector pocket cracked, possibly because Id set the gap by the book and turned the screw back 1 turn.

Mark
 
Couple of weeks have passed now and motor still running as should.

Interesting point regarding cracked injector pockets. Saw an engineer advertising to repair by alloy welding and reshape for 150 sterling. Must be a common enough problem.

What symptoms did you get before discovering the crack?
 
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