Engine issues

Hello

I'm new to Land Rovers and 4x4 so might need a lot of help over the coming months.

I looked at a few Discos before I bought, in my price bracket most were in a terrible state. I narrowed it down to two options, one which was mechanically in great order, but the body work needed loads of work and was unsafe (definite MOT fail), and one which had the best body I had seen but had engine problems.

I as I hammered the one with the engine problems down in price, guess which one I bought:doh: 120000 miles on the clock, partial service history to around 70000 and receipts for regular oils changes. It also had £1200 spent on it recently mostly on bakes and suspension and came with a 12 month MOT (no idea how it passed the emission test)

The main problem is its low on power struggled to get over 50mph and smokes a bit when revved and is quite smelly if your in the car behind.

The smoke is light blue and it stinks. The turbo spins up and sounds like a drill on fast spin at about 2500rpm but disco just didn't pick up. There is about 1mm of movement on the turbo spindle, and the pipes to it look original and I'm betting the intercooler is full of gunk.

There is a slight leak on the cylinder head gasket near the bulkhead(it might be from the rocker cover I need to check).

The oil was way over filled but didn't appear to have any diesel or water in it and no emulsification, the water in the radiator expansion tank was also clear.

It idles at around 1100rpm even when warm, which I'm guessing could point to a timing belt issue, I can't find any mention of it being replaced in the receipts.

After a 20 mile journey home with it I took of the oil filler cap and it wasn't smoking to bad which I understand means the engine isn't breathing to heavy? So I'm hoping the engine is OK.

I know next to nothing about diesels or turbos, I mostly tinker with old triumphs so I need all the help I can get.

I'm hoping a good clean of the intercooler and a couple of new turbo hoses will help what do you think?

Where should I start.

Thanks for any help

Jonnym

Pop in to the introduce your self thread and say hello.
As for the rest of it,sit back and im sure someone will be along soon to take the p-ss out of you and then you will get some helpfull advice!

:welcome2:

+1. Welcome to the wonderful world of Land Rovers. MWAAHAHAHAHA!

Best suggestion is give it a serious service according to manufacturers schedule & best practice. The get rid of the egr valve (I assume you have a 300 Tdi) the fast running could be that someone has been playing with the injection pump,fairly easy to reset. The 200 & 300 Tdi's are, if looked after capable of serious mileage. There are issues that you will encounter, though there is pleanty of help on here. Please introduce yourself in the bit reserved for that & tell us where you are. There will possibly be a helpful member near you should you need extra assistance.

Thanks for the welcome.
I have tried to post in the introductions thread but it didn't display, possible because I linked to this post, I should have known better.

It is a 300TDI with the EGR already capped.
Is there and injection pump reset guide on here anywhere?

My big worry is the engine is knackered. Low on power, smoke and over filled oil, in the cold light of day it seem possible, but on a car with low mileage (checked on MOTs) and regular oil changes I would hope not.

I got to thinking it was the turbo...but now I'm not sure. I might be in the market for a decent 2nd hand engine:hurt: so if you know of one in bedford area give me a shout

Thanks again Jonnym

It is possible the engine has been seriously overheated and has knackered it. If its got original rad they are well known to become blocked with age and the water just stops circulating. Also the water pump is very high on the engine so if the water level drops and you dont top up then the pump is high and dry and the engine overheats. damage is usually on first piston at the back of the engine because that one gets hottest.Hope Im wrong

If the turbo spindle has that much play it might be worth checking the boost pressure....also...if the turbo lets go the engine can eat itself as im sure you know so it might be a place to start!

Yes anything is possible. It didn't over heat on the 20-30min drive home. But I did notice the water was a little low and didn't appear to have much antifreeze in it, you might be right. There is a little leak on the cylinder head gasket on the back cylinder also.

How would I check the boost pressure?

thanks again

Jonnym

Rev the engine and squeeze the turbo pipe from the intercooler. You should feel them go hard as the pressure builds up.This will tell you if the turbos working.

If its very smoky under power it might have been waded a little deep and sipped a touch of water. Not to much but just enough to make things rub other things inside that they shouldn't. I have seen one engine where it bent the con rods just enough. You see it a lot with diesel car in floods. People think I have a diesel I'll be fine, forgetting the air intake is low down to suck clean cold air. They get through but its smoking like a "female dog" and the engine fails not long after.... Its on the unlikely end of the suggestions but you never know... and light blue is def oil burning.. best of luck with it mate.:welcome2:

is easy to checkif turbo is passing oil by removing hose from turbo to intercooler ,you shouldnt see oil drip out as engines run

rollin danny said:

Rev the engine and squeeze the turbo pipe from the intercooler. You should feel them go hard as the pressure builds up.This will tell you if the turbos working.

Click to expand...

I will have squeeze at the pipes as soon as I get back to the Disco...then if its not the Turbo the Mrs will be squeezing my air pipes:emps1:

700Quid said:

If its very smoky under power it might have been waded a little deep and sipped a touch of water. Not to much but just enough to make things rub other things inside that they shouldn't. I have seen one engine where it bent the con rods just enough. You see it a lot with diesel car in floods. People think I have a diesel I'll be fine, forgetting the air intake is low down to suck clean cold air. They get through but its smoking like a "female dog" and the engine fails not long after.... Its on the unlikely end of the suggestions but you never know... and light blue is def oil burning.. best of luck with it mate.:welcome2:

Click to expand...

Now this can't be possible, every land rover I saw with a trader told me it only had one careful lady owner and had never been off roaded!

jamesmartin said:

is easy to checkif turbo is passing oil by removing hose from turbo to intercooler ,you shouldnt see oil drip out as engines run

Click to expand...

I did take the turbo intake pipe off to look at the spindle movement, not with the engine running though. The pipe was full of the black sticky stuff, got covered in it. I can't say it was dripping though.

thanks again everyone

Jonnym

Bit of good news. I started the engine held on to the intercooler pipe and revved the engine, there was no boost pressure at all. On closer examination the pipe wasnt attached at the inter cooler end, I reattached it and went for a spin. It was transformed! Smooth powerful great, then pop and wheeze and back to awfull. The jubilee clip had failed, a replacement clip and all was well.


Now the bad news. Its leaking oil from somewhere badly, but it is very over fill so until I've had chance to clean the engine down I won't know from where. Secondly the intercooler and intercooler pipe are dripping with oil.

Where should I start in problem solving the oil in the intercooler problem?

Thanks again guys I'm feeling a little less worried about my buy now.

Jonnym

P. S. I have recorded the engine but in HD, as I'm on mobile data at the moment I can up load it. I will try again tomorrow in a different format.

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 4

Maybe its not as bad as we first thought.If oil is over filled then unscrew the sump plug just enough to let a trickle out and put a bowl under it.Just keep checking the dip stick until its right level then tighten the plug. Dont drive with over filled sump.

I used the wrong tense in my post.
"is very over filled" should have said was very over filled. That's sorted out now and back to the right level.

I'm also looking for an explosion of the gearbox. Any clues where to find one?

Back to the oil in the intercooler A) is there a guide to removing them for cleaning B ) what else should I check/clean on the turbo system before considering a replacement C) how does the oil generally get in there?

The oil would appear to of been coming from the sump plug or sump pan. Although there is a drip from the from diff as well, the top of it looks wet with oil so maybe it's had some dropped on there when the oilfilter was changed, or there's a small leak in that area.


Thanks again

Jonnym

Here is the engine running from cold, what do you think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSmeZh8Tl_0&feature=youtube_gdata_player