Help needed - black exhaust smoke, overheating, rattling hot engine, conking out

Bless me Landyzone for I have sinned - it has been five days since my last posting.

HISTORY
For those of you who had the good fortune not to read my opening thread on Landyzone, the background to my laughable story is that I bought a Defender on eBay and on the way home the turbo went nuclear in a 100 foot cloud of white smoke and died, so I got towed home. This week I was to replace the turbo, and after thinking about it, the cam belt and related updated pulleys etc, so in the interests of time I chickened out of doing that lot myself and got a mobile mechanic to come round and do it.

TODAY'S PROBLEM
That was this morning. I have just been towed home a second time. The new turbo bolted on fine but before putting the new cam belt etc on we took it for a quick spin up the M11 to burn out all of the old oil that couldn't be wiped away.

SYMPTOMS
13 miles into the quick spin finds us pulled over at the side of the road with no power and an overheated engine. The white smoke had gone but was replaced by black smoke when the throttle was pressed (more pressing = more black smoke, less pressing = less black smoke) - overall it's more black smoke than I would expect. The loss of power was gradual over say the last 5 miles. On the outward journey the engine tried over revving again but we believe it was still burning off old oil from last week's failure - the over revving stopped by the time we were on the homeward leg of the test drive. The new engine oil that was put in it before setting out on the test drive has mostly gone. Just before pulling over the engine developed a different, but regular, rattle.

DIAGNOSIS
The first mechanic who fitted the turbo said that it sounded like the engine had been damaged by over revving before I bought the car (when it over revved on me when first I picked it up I jammed it into gear to stall it, so it only over revved on my first trip for say 10 seconds). He thinks I need a new engine. He also said that the black smoke could be a faulty fuel pump and/or injectors and that this could also cause the over revving that we had on the outward journey.

The second mechanic who towed me home said that it still sounded like a turbo problem and that these engines rattle more when they heat up.

HELP!
Have any of you had any of these problems or have any idea what it could be? Grateful for your help.

PS - I just let the engine cool down and started it to drive it onto the driveway and it started and moved perfectly with a little bit of blue/white smoke.

Im not yet an expert of defender engines, but in general, oil gone, and over revving sounds like oil getting into the cylinders.
whats caused it i wouldnt like to say, the only time I had similar oil was getting in around the valve stems.

PS, what engine is it?

Hi, thanks for the info - it's a 300 TDI.

Black smoke means excess diesel being burnt. You said the cambelt was done, did the pump get adjusted and was it tighened up correctly? Have you had the engine compression checked to ensure no damage was done?

If some damage has been done you may find it easier to swap out the engine, 300's are easy to get ahold of (I have one for sale ) but before you think that get it checked out by a reputable garage...

Thanks Jongould -we didn't get as far as the cam belt as we wanted to get the turbo right first; the pump hadn't been touched before the test drive. I've got a couple of garages nearby but I want to be a bit clued up before I speak to them. I might be after you for that engine so can you PM me with some details. I've seen a couple on eBay but I'm having a crisis of faith with eBay at the moment.

chiefweasel said:

Thanks Jongould -we didn't get as far as the cam belt as we wanted to get the turbo right first; the pump hadn't been touched before the test drive. I've got a couple of garages nearby but I want to be a bit clued up before I speak to them. I might be after you for that engine so can you PM me with some details. I've seen a couple on eBay but I'm having a crisis of faith with eBay at the moment.

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Like I say get it checked properly before replacing the engine. Have you checked the pipe between turbo and fuel pump? It may be damaged and messing the fueling up. As a minimum I would compression test the engine to make sure its all ok inside.

sounds like the cylinders or piston rings are on their way out to me if it rattles as bad as you say when it warms up

Cheers Johnny - the rattle wasn't that bad, but I did notice it because it was different to the usual noises, but as I've driven this Defender for the sum total of 16 miles I don't have a benchmark for what's normal or not. The closest car I've driven to the Defender is a Merc B-class - and that's only similar because it sounds like a tractor. Now the B-class is a car that should be taken outside and shot.

I'll put the cylinders and piston rings on the list to be looked at.

if youve got the head off take a foto of the bores and put them up as i have recently unearthed my main problem with the black death smoke and it turns out my rings are all but worn out and the cylinders are heavily scored and glazed and needs a rebore on my series tratter injun

i just hope yours isnt as bad as mine is for yopurs and yer wallets sake

Will do. Engine is intact at the moment but I'll be posting what I see when I have it off (fnar fnar).

chiefweasel said:

Will do. Engine is intact at the moment but I'll be posting what I see when I have it off (fnar fnar).

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suit you sir

Sounds to me like it has been over revved and the pistons have picked up, it don't take long to get the head of and have a look see.

Thanks owl. What do you think about the black smoke? Is it possible I've got two faults going on here at the same time?

The black smoke getting worse when you press the go faster pedal sounds like no turbo boost, I had the same on my 300 when the turbo failed.

The rattling could be many things

Thanks Dave. I'll recheck how the new turbo was fitted. If something came progressively loose it might explain the diminishing power, it might even have been the rattling.

You say the new oil was gone, where? Did it leak out? Did they fit the turbo oil pipes wrong and starve the new turbo of oil? It might explain why it got worse, it would only last minutes without oil, if it was burning it there would be clouds of grey smoke.

That one is a mystery. No drips showing underneath the car anywhere, and only the residual blue/grey smoke from the first lot of oil. It could have all leaked out before we stopped if something wasn't connected properly, or the oil might not have been put in in the first place. I'll check all of the connections again over the weekend.

Thanks for all of the ideas everyone. Please keep them coming. If I can keep it out of a garage I'll be chuffed.

Talking of garages, does anyone know any reliable landrover/defender mechanics/garages in Essex in case I need to call in the troops. I'm in CM16. PM me if you don't want to go mention them publically. Foleys was recommended earlier today. Ta.

if those pipes were fitted wrong the oil could have been burnt and the tubo shagged in the one trip leading to where you are now!

sorry to hear of your woes, sounds like the first landy blues to me , you should do better choosing your next- most of us do