p38 diesel lack of power

hi
p38 2.5 td manual g.box
it has no egr or maf
it seems to be ok when cold.....but as soon as its warm...its undriveable zero power,but stays running...revs up ok hot or cold when not under load.turbo is boosting well.it can be ok for a few min...then nothing....leave it off or ticking over for a min or two then she will go again........then back to no power,etc.........
has had the air suspension removed and steel fitted.has asr manual on dash when you start it. has no other msg's on dash.
does not rattle/knock/chuck out black smoke...........ticks over fine...had it ticking over for 20 mins......coolant gauge in the dash does not work.
has had in tank fuel pump,new fuel lines,new air and fuel filters...has also been pluged in to lap top.....0 fault codes in memory

i tried the fuel feed check 180ml after 10 seconds . that was fine...think it was nearer 200ml
dropped the fuel tank.......
removed all fuel..........was a milky green....
removed the in tank pump.cleaned the filter at the bottom (full of crud) blew all the fuel pipes out
emptied the fuel filter.........1/2 full of water and crud.....was ment to have been changed only a few days ago.....right my arse so i cut it in half to have a look and it was black inside..........
ran the fuel through an new filter i had lying around.......not a rangie one think it was off a 2.8i capri
the fuel is now as it should be.....green/blue and you can see through it.
tried to burn some of the unfiltered fuel....was a cow to light and it was spitting like mad and smoked like mad.....(loads of water in it)
tried the filtered fuel.........easy to light and burnt clean
re fitted the tank ...........re filled with the clean fuel
can't road test as i need to get a new filter tomorrow and while i am there a new thermostat as the engine don't get warm................

only paid £625 for the rangie.... 2.5dt manual with full unmarked black leather interior and 6 mths mot...............

For £625, I think you can expect a few 'surprises' with it....

Great bit of detective work, if it is still down on power check the MAP sensor and the little pipe leading to it!...

the pipe was the first thing i checked.......i did a bit of homework b4 going to collect it

is there a way of testing the map sensor?

rousecapri said:

the pipe was the first thing i checked.......i did a bit of homework b4 going to collect it

is there a way of testing the map sensor?

Click to expand...

Only real way is by live data on diagnostics....

Other way is to drive it, then disconnect the pipe and drive it again, should be a noticable power difference.

rousecapri said:

the pipe was the first thing i checked.......i did a bit of homework b4 going to collect it

is there a way of testing the map sensor?

Click to expand...

Diagnostics, or if you can use a DVM it's possible to do a rough test.
You had water and bacterial growth in the tank, I would suggest some injector cleaner and a water absorbent. Some add 5litres of petrol to a full tank as a cleaner but I have never tried it.

If you have found what you did in tank and cleaned everything out. I think you have found your problem. I suggest you use the diesel you took out for killing weeds and put fresh fuel in. Unless you have purged FIP it will still have some crappy stuff in it, you could do to disconnect fuel return to tank from pump, run lift pump to get rid of it. Maybe a bit messy. The stuff you had in the tank possibly had the calorific value of a postage stamp.

road test earlier...................still the ******* same :violent:

i did notice no heat inside the car........stat out...was very old but working.........pulled water pump......impeller had fell off..........
does the ecu shut down the power if the engine is over heating.......even though it showed no signs of cooking .....................new pump and stat will be here tomorrow................. if not the pump will be removed and sent to a diesel place