oil in turbo air intake (Defender 90 w' Disco TDI)

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D

DanielGwalter

New Member
Posts
30
good evening,

whilst i am used to my landy bleeding from time to time and have grown accustomed to the periodic groans of "there's oil all over the driveway ... again" my latest "injury" appears a little more serious and suspiciously sinister!

the symptom is a splash of oil about 5cm round under the front passenger side steering rod.

on closer inspection this is coming from the air filter infront of the turbo (air from snorkel and hot air from engine on one side - air pipe to turbo inlet on the other)

I have removed the pipes and the pot lid (filter etc) and can see the bottom half off the pot has about a cm of oil in the bottom and that there is a rubber grommet/nipple in the bottom that lets the oil out (how nice).

i have a few questions

1) should the rubber "nipple be split (as mine is) and allow oil to deviously escape from the bottom?

2) I have run the engine with all the pipes off and there is considerable smoke from the engine breather pipe that would enter the pot (smoke a lightish grey stinks of exhaust etc). is this normal or indicative of a much bigger problem?

3) should I be getting oil in the pot over a period of time (and in turn overflowing etc) or should this pot remain dry.

important facts, the engine is at the 100k mark, the chassis is at the 190k mark.

i sincerely hope someone knows what the hell i am talking about.

thanks

Dan
 
ouch ... i hope that i have caught it in time and cleaned the residual oil up before it gets to the turbo and kills it ...

when you replaced your turbo i assume that was a byproduct of something else, what else did you discover?

D
 
I've yet to start her as I'm waiting for an exhaust bracket to arrive. I had a run away motor. When the turbo shop examined the turbo they discovered that the actuator piston was seized, the seals were worn and there was play in the bearings.

Not suggesting that you have the same but your symptoms are identical to the ones I had before it started playing silly buggers.
 
ok thanks, i am hoping its similar symptoms, but, my turbo appears fine, had a quick look and the actuator is clean and free and i can hear the turbo when accelerating.

i can understand how a lot of oil flow through the pot could kill the turbo but working back i still need to understand the source of the oil ... and the reason for its presence.
 
DanielGwalter said:
ok thanks, i am hoping its similar symptoms, but, my turbo appears fine, had a quick look and the actuator is clean and free and i can hear the turbo when accelerating.

i can understand how a lot of oil flow through the pot could kill the turbo but working back i still need to understand the source of the oil ... and the reason for its presence.
Click to expand...

your turbos failing as said when it gets bad enough and goes into the air filter the engine will run of its own oil and run away and die,the only way of stopping it is to stall the engine unless its a auto then stuffing something in the air intake might work you need to sort this asap
 
DanielGwalter said:
good evening,

whilst i am used to my landy bleeding from time to time and have grown accustomed to the periodic groans of "there's oil all over the driveway ... again" my latest "injury" appears a little more serious and suspiciously sinister!

the symptom is a splash of oil about 5cm round under the front passenger side steering rod.

on closer inspection this is coming from the air filter infront of the turbo (air from snorkel and hot air from engine on one side - air pipe to turbo inlet on the other)

I have removed the pipes and the pot lid (filter etc) and can see the bottom half off the pot has about a cm of oil in the bottom and that there is a rubber grommet/nipple in the bottom that lets the oil out (how nice).

i have a few questions

1) should the rubber "nipple be split (as mine is) and allow oil to deviously escape from the bottom?

2) I have run the engine with all the pipes off and there is considerable smoke from the engine breather pipe that would enter the pot (smoke a lightish grey stinks of exhaust etc). is this normal or indicative of a much bigger problem?

3) should I be getting oil in the pot over a period of time (and in turn overflowing etc) or should this pot remain dry.

important facts, the engine is at the 100k mark, the chassis is at the 190k mark.

i sincerely hope someone knows what the hell i am talking about.

thanks

Dan
Click to expand...
Yes th rubber tit should leak it is designed to lt splashes of water out.
Sounds like you have crankcase pressure, spitting oil into breathers, not good in the air intake, gives it a chance to eat its own oil!
 
Turboman said:
Yes th rubber tit should leak it is designed to lt splashes of water out.
Sounds like you have crankcase pressure, spitting oil into breathers, not good in the air intake, gives it a chance to eat its own oil!
Click to expand...

bugger wrong thread,though he said there was oil leaking from the exhaust gasket,could be back pressure chucking oil in as well either way engine could run away
 
ok, don't mind admitting the mixed answers are a little scary (so is engineers dog!)

so, the oil is coming from the breather side of the pot as i assume that the flow of air is breather to pot and pot to turbo (no opportunity to go the other way)

so what causes the back pressure in the crank?

D
 
DanielGwalter said:
ok, don't mind admitting the mixed answers are a little scary (so is engineers dog!)

so, the oil is coming from the breather side of the pot as i assume that the flow of air is breather to pot and pot to turbo (no opportunity to go the other way)

so what causes the back pressure in the crank?

D
Click to expand...
Worn out engine
 
What would generate that amount of crankcase pressure? That's a lot of oil to pass through the cyclone filter isn't it?
 
also, as i said earlier, i have cleaned out the residual oil from the pot, is this something that could build up over a number of months and show up only when there is enough oil to splurt out the nipple?
 
there is three pipes in the equation.

1 goes from snorkel to the pot, 2 goes to the pot from the top of the rocker cover (joins 1 and goes in the left side of the pot), 3 goes from the top of the pot to the turbo (big pipe)
 
the one that goes to the snorkel is the one sending oil to the air filter,this is worth a try at buying you some time, disconnect the one at the snorkel and tape a coke bottle or similar to it,it will fill up with oil with use,obviously keep it away from heat/moving parts,but it should prevent the engine from running away and blowing its self,this is not gaurenteed to work and you need to keep a eye on it but it might buy you some time until you find the cause of your issue
 
thanks for the feedback.

the volume of oil in the pot was about 2 egg cups worth with 1 egg cup on the floor (hens eggs not ostrich!).

obviously there is something awry but i have cleaned the pot out and wiped everything down.

drove it today for 5 miles and parked, no oil splash yet.

I think i will keep an eye on it as suggested and see if it gets worse.

worst case scenario i will put a recon in as i love the motor, the chassis, body work etc is sound.

as an aside question, the TDI engine was from a disco, i assume the gearbox is the original from the defender (5 speed no overdrive).

in the event of me fitting a recon, would the TDI gearbox slot straight in place or do i have to pair with a defender gearbox (obviously i want the overdrive!)

thanks

Dan
 
Wow quick to write off turbos and engines on here. Two egg cups is not that much if its been accumulating a while - the rocker cover attached breather/separator has a gauze in it that can get gunked causing oil to go into the intake instead of back down into the sump as designed. Flush it through with some spirit.

With the engine running take the oil cap off and hover your hand above the hole to feel if its breathing heavy. If you don't feel to much air passing your hand your ok for now.

If your turbo was leaking oil you would find a pool of oil in your inter cooler.

There were two TDI's. 200 + 300tdi. 200 had the LT77 you probably already have. The 300 had the R380. Both were 5 speed, none of them had overdrive.

I'm guessing you have a disco 200tdi on the defenders original LT77 5 speed g-box and LT230 t-box. Putting in a disco geared LT230 t-box will give you a higher high range - good for motorway, but still has the same low range gears. straight swap
 
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