oil level rising, smell of diesel

mreyeball · Jun 29, 2015

recently traded in my trustworthy 300 tdi for an 02 td5 D2, has 133,000 on clock and a good service history, had it 3 months now, for the first couple months oil level didn't rise, now not sure if its coincidence but a few weeks ago I replaces injection harness as I had small amount of oil in red plug, I had poor towing performance so did the harness in the hope of rectifying that, anyway checked oil level today and it was a good quarter inch over the full line and smells of diesel, no other symptoms, no smoke, no lumpy running, never overheated, have googled it and narrowed it down to two things either injector seals or porous/cracked head, obviously I'm hoping it just the seals, what are the chances of it being the head?
thanks

sierrafery · Jun 29, 2015

more likely the seals IMO

mreyeball · Jun 30, 2015

I'm going to order the seals and washers and do oil n filter change too, with regards to seals and washers should I get geniune, oem or britpart, dont mind paying the extra for geniune but not if its a waste of money,also what would people recommend for filters. Geniune orm or britpart?

DIFFLOCK66 · Jun 30, 2015

Genuine seals & washers for the injectors

Depends upon how often you change the oil - doesn't have to be oem.

markomate2 · Jun 30, 2015

mreyeball said:
recently traded in my trustworthy 300 tdi for an 02 td5 D2, has 133,000 on clock and a good service history, had it 3 months now, for the first couple months oil level didn't rise, now not sure if its coincidence but a few weeks ago I replaces injection harness as I had small amount of oil in red plug, I had poor towing performance so did the harness in the hope of rectifying that, anyway checked oil level today and it was a good quarter inch over the full line and smells of diesel, no other symptoms, no smoke, no lumpy running, never overheated, have googled it and narrowed it down to two things either injector seals or porous/cracked head, obviously I'm hoping it just the seals, what are the chances of it being the head?
thanks

Be very carefull about that oil level, in fact Id say dont drive it again until its fixed, if that level gets too high it could runaway, not fun!

Most likely seals. The Discovery2 website gives a very good guide on how to do it. I didnt use a puller to get injectors out, just very gently lever them out.

Make sure the pockets are very clean, especially where the copper washers sit. And double check injector plunger clearance!

Mark

Bardley · Jun 30, 2015

I just did mine this morning. It was notably clearing air on anything other than short trip startups, so was clearly an issue and getting worse.
The washers show signs of degradation, and I can see the small track marks in the copper.
My oil is OK, but its due a change in 400mls. Anyway.
Land Rover washers and 'O' rings used on mine..

I'd say do it now before it leads to anything worse.

mreyeball · Jun 30, 2015

Ordered parts, vehicle off the road till its done, got geniune seals n washes n oem filters, thanks foe the help guys

mreyeball · Jul 9, 2015

Got seals done today at indie land rover specialist, talking to the mechanic he said he sees more 15p engine with cracked heads than any other, I was under the impression the 10p engine suffered from from this and the 15p was fitted with a different head to stop it, anyway will do oil change now n cross everything that oil level stays where it should &#55357;&#56848;

markomate2 · Jul 9, 2015

The guy who welded my 15P head said its a routine thing to see cracked 15P heads now.

My thread in the TD5 section shows the crack mine had.

IMO its not an inherent fault, like the 10P, but probably to do with the injectors moving slightly if the cam clearance is too small.

BTW spotting a cracked head at the injector pocket is quite easy, its preferable to do it before oil is put back in.

Remove the rocker cover, turn on ignition, make sure you can hear the fuel pump running, do not start engine! Then spend a minute or two looking around the outside of the injector pockets with a torch, if the pocket is cracked you will see fuel slowly weeping out of the side of the pocket.

mreyeball · Jul 9, 2015

markomate2 said:
BTW spotting a cracked head at the injector pocket is quite easy, its preferable to do it before oil is put back in.

Remove the rocker cover, turn on ignition, make sure you can hear the fuel pump running, do not start engine! Then spend a minute or two looking around the outside of the injector pockets with a torch, if the pocket is cracked you will see fuel slowly weeping out of the side of the pocket.

my mechanic said they ran engine with rocker cover off to look for any leaks and didn't see any, not sire if they should have done that but I'm no mechanic and they are land rover specialists, les Potts in Sunderland

markomate2 · Jul 9, 2015

mreyeball said:
my mechanic said they ran engine with rocker cover off to look for any leaks and didn't see any, not sire if they should have done that but I'm no mechanic and they are land rover specialists, les Potts in Sunderland

Running it with the cover off and looking for leaks! Hope they had eye protection!

mreyeball · Jul 9, 2015

markomate2 said:
Running it with the cover off and looking for leaks! Hope they had eye protection!

I think that's what he said, he definitely mentioned looking for fuel leaking around injectors, maybe he meant just turning ignition on like you said,

markomate2 · Jul 9, 2015

mreyeball said:
I think that's what he said, he definitely mentioned looking for fuel leaking around injectors, maybe he meant just turning ignition on like you said,

That's probably what he meant, the engine doesn't need to be running, just the ignition on and the fuel pump running, that will pressurise the fuel rail in the head, good that they checked.

mreyeball · Jul 9, 2015

markomate2 said:
That's probably what he meant, the engine doesn't need to be running, just the ignition on and the fuel pump running, that will pressurise the fuel rail in the head, good that they checked.

and good that they saw no leak? To be fair they are a top notch company and at £67 + vat an hour they should be!!

ldrego · Jul 12, 2015

Now to throw a spanner in the optimism. I had mine changed and it was tested with the fuel pump running , cover off and no leaks were noted. The oil level still rose but it may be because we had to remove all the injectors as the first time they were put in, there was a leak from one seal. All seals were rechecked and refitted but we used the same seals and copper washers. I thought that the copper washer may have not sealed off as well as it did first time round. Anyway, it has all been redone now and I the process of retesting.
The car was starting to struggle a little when the fuel levels were dropping and smelt like burning oil so wondering if somehow oil had escaped into the fuel .

mreyeball · Jul 12, 2015

ldrego said:
Now to throw a spanner in the optimism. I had mine changed and it was tested with the fuel pump running , cover off and no leaks were noted. The oil level still rose but it may be because we had to remove all the injectors as the first time they were put in, there was a leak from one seal. All seals were rechecked and refitted but we used the same seals and copper washers. I thought that the copper washer may have not sealed off as well as it did first time round. Anyway, it has all been redone now and I the process of retesting.
The car was starting to struggle a little when the fuel levels were dropping and smelt like burning oil so wondering if somehow oil had escaped into the fuel .

how r u testing to see if it leaks again? I did my oil change on Friday evening, took disco for good drive Saturday, seemed to sound alot healthier and also seemed to have more power, been checking oil level a good few tines a day n there's been no rise yet!!! Only had the motor just over 3 months, bought from an indie dealer with no warranty, if the heads gone I'm up the creek without a paddle!!

markomate2 · Jul 12, 2015

ldrego said:
Now to throw a spanner in the optimism. I had mine changed and it was tested with the fuel pump running , cover off and no leaks were noted. The oil level still rose but it may be because we had to remove all the injectors as the first time they were put in, there was a leak from one seal. All seals were rechecked and refitted but we used the same seals and copper washers. I thought that the copper washer may have not sealed off as well as it did first time round. Anyway, it has all been redone now and I the process of retesting.
The car was starting to struggle a little when the fuel levels were dropping and smelt like burning oil so wondering if somehow oil had escaped into the fuel .

Not always a good idea to reuse copper washers. If you didn't find a bad o ring when you checked them, it could be a cracked injector pocket, but the cracks are very small, the fuel just weeps through it, so you may not see it for a minute or two. Have a look at my thread in the TD5 section, you can find a pic of a cracked head there.

markomate2 · Jul 12, 2015

mreyeball said:
how r u testing to see if it leaks again? I did my oil change on Friday evening, took disco for good drive Saturday, seemed to sound alot healthier and also seemed to have more power, been checking oil level a good few tines a day n there's been no rise yet!!! Only had the motor just over 3 months, bought from an indie dealer with no warranty, if the heads gone I'm up the creek without a paddle!!

If the level is now ok and not rising, then sounds like your head is ok.

Worse case budget figures below for info:

New head £ 1K +vat
Fitting kit £150
Plus labour, say 3-4 hours £300

Keep checking the levels though!

ldrego · Jul 12, 2015

mreyeball said:
how r u testing to see if it leaks again? I did my oil change on Friday evening, took disco for good drive Saturday, seemed to sound alot healthier and also seemed to have more power, been checking oil level a good few tines a day n there's been no rise yet!!! Only had the motor just over 3 months, bought from an indie dealer with no warranty, if the heads gone I'm up the creek without a paddle!!

I smell the oil . It will smell of diesel still but not so strong. I also check the oil levels every day. It's 5 days. Oil is pretty thin when it went in so hard to tell for sure if diesel is getting in but just need to monitor it best as you can.

mreyeball · Jul 12, 2015

Its the not knowing that's killing me, dont want to give up on the motor if there's a chance it'll be ok but literally not got the 2k to fix and wont risk a 2nd hand head

oil level rising, smell of diesel

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