Rangie 2.5dti Excessive Smoke on Startup

Hi guys wonder if you can help

Just bought a 1993 K Reg 2.5dti Rangie and i'm having a few problems. On startup when it is cold there a lot of smoke and it wont rev over 800 rpm , have to keep the throttle down for a few mins while loads and i mean loads of smoke pours out of the exhaust . Then all of a sudden it will clear and seem to run ok all be it still smoking a little .
It then drives ok but struggles to get past 3,000rpm ( maybe this is normal i'm used to driving petrol cars )
I have put some diesel treatment in to see if this solves the problem .
Anyone got any ideas what the problem could be, someone said it might clogged injectors .
I think the smoke is more diesel than oil

This is my first 4x4 and have bought it to have some fun over the winter and to do some off roading .

Any advice on the above and any other general advice about these beasts would be great

Cheers

Stu

What colour is the smoke?

All I can think of is that its some sort of engine temp control on the ECU, and its reading incorrectly, then its reaching a certain temp and fueling properly, thus giving you the sudden clear of smoke.

If your new to diesels then I will say this, Diesels like to work, keep the rev's down and change gears earlyer than you would with a petrol...

The smoke is grey , and smells very diesely

gray aint that good to identify really, the 3 main colours you look for in smoke is black: fuel, "overfueling" white: water "headgasket" blueil "leaking or burning the ****. gray is prob just light oil mate, would need to see it really.
as for the starting probs as has been stated it maybe the cold start on it and it wont rev due to a wrong mixture, it not backfired or anything while trying to pussh the revvs past 800?

Grey... eh white then, and smells of diesel, its unburnt diesel... So... still going to stick with a fuel issue related to temp sensor...

Thanks discomania and RAZ for your pointers Took it out again last night . It starts first turn of the key , still lots of smoke but it climbed past 800 rpm quicker last night . It seems to chug and splutter a bit then there will be what i can only describe as a pop from the engine and then it will clear and be fine .
Someone mentioned a possible blocked breather pipe ??
Its going in to the garage tomorrow to change the oil and filters and so they can try and investigate futher .

It does smell very diesely thats why I guessed unburnt diesel .
What other signs would there be if the head gasket has gone ? There isn't any signs of water/oil mixing .
I know a bit about cars but i'm no mechanic and this is my first diesel .

Where is the temp sensor ?? Can I disconnect this easily and see how it starts without it ?

i'm guessing/hoping its only a minor problem becuase as I say once it clears it seems to be ok and drives fine . Still smokes a bit under heavy accleration and when pulling away from roundabouts etc but I have been told this is normal practice for old diesels

get the garage to do a pressure test on the cylinders then while its going in mate but i very much doubt by the sound of it its a head gasket, more like a weak mix of fuel when the engine is cold. hard to say when we are sat here and the motor is there though but am trying lol

Thanks RAZ know what you mean very difficult to tell what the problem is when you can't see it, also hard to describe it lol , but thanks for the info so far .
Will try and get a pressure test done at the same time if they have the time

The smoke is caused by unburnt fuel in one or more cylinders. If it is unburnt then it has not got the right conditions to get burnt.......

Low compresion caused by leaking valves rings, blown gasket,
fuel not being atomised properly - dicky injector, failed glow plug.

After it has run a while, the heat built up in the bad cylinder will help overcome these ignition problems and lead to smother running.
You realy need to get a compresion test to start with, and if this checks out look at the glow plugs ( these are quite cheap and might be worth re-newing anyway ) Last of all get the injectors checked out - this needs to be done at a diesel specialist. Good luck and keep us posted.

even more problems now, dropped it off at my mechanics house on fri night, when i turned the key to turn the engine off it kept running once the key was out for about 10 seconds .
Got it back last night and it was still doing the same thing so i took it for a 25 mile run got home , turned it off and again it kept running for about 10 seconds.
Went out tonight to see how it was and now it won't start its just turning over I suspect no diesel getting through but i'm wondering if it could be the glow plugs reading the advice from rewmer . Someone is supposed to be looking at it for me on sat and doing a compression test but now i can't get it to start .
It seems to be going from bad to worse

Could be a faulty fuel shut off valve, or the engine running on its own oil - V bad !

could be the shut off valve as it now won't start at all . Anyway I can get to the shutoff valve to change it does anyone know
Or is this a job for a mechanic

I have bought a set of glow plugs to see if this helps ( for the sake of 20 quid thought it was worth it .)

To fit these is it just a case of undoing the electrical connection on the current plugs then unscrewing them and fitting the new ones ?

UPDATE

Got the AA out last week to see if they could get it started but no luck . Mr AA man said there was no diesel getting to the injectors and that the lift pump didnt seem to do anything .

So I rang a local specialist and arranged to tow the car into him yesterday .
Did this and dropped it off . An hour later he rings me and says . I have just turned your car over and there is a knocking noise coming from the engine sounds like something has let go .
So I said , ok I haven't heard this when i was turning it over what could it be .
He then sighs and said ...well I don't know would have to take the head off to investigate and then you are in to a lot of time and money .I think he is too busy and can't be bothered to look into it
Arghhh , picking it back up today and tempted to unload it on ebay for parts .
But can an engine just 'let go' as he put it , I assumed the problems I was having were fuel related as once it was warm it drove fine . up until that night when it continued to run for a few seconds once the ignition was turned off . But there was no bang or anything to show the engine had gone .

Anyone got any final advice before I bang by head against a wall very hard and get rid

Hi Biggeezer

I'm no landrover expert but it could be the fuels shut off valve sticking as stated in this post.
This would be the reason for the grey smoke looking like unburnt fuel, if the valve is semi stuck open it would act the way your engine has been with low revs and lack of power until the engine pops back and the valve fully closes giving full compression and more response, engine running ok.

And the other senario of when the engine is turned off if the valve is semi stuck in the on position the engine continues to run, and maybe now the valve is stuck in the closed position stopping it from starting?

As I said I'm no expert but this is how it looks and sounds to me, anyway good luck


Plague

if worst come to worst just drop another engine in it thats if it actually is ****ed mate.

Cheers Plague , what you are saying makes sense to me and another mechanic i asked said exactly the same thing so am going to look down that avenue

RAZ good point but i'm afraid i'm not that handy with a spanner to be able to do that . Have helped fit an engine to an MG and a Golf but wouldn't want to attempt it on my own

UPDATE . well after trying numerous ideas to get it started and then paying for it to be taken to a specialist and them having a look I still didn;t get anywhere

The guy I took it to was really helpful and had a good look at it for me, took the head off thinking it might be the gasket but it didnt seem to be . He was honest and said he could send the head off for skimming and then replace the head and gasket but he couldn't guarantee that would fix it and as I had already spanked a fair bit of money I didn;t really want to spend another 300 odd quid to only find that it hadn't fixed the problem .

So i got rid of it for parts . Got 300 quid for it but adding up i lost over £500 in total but hey ho you live and learn

So i'm now on the look out for another one ( a fully working non knackered one this time )
Would like one that maybe has had a bit of offroad prep done to it already but nothing major .
My budget isnt huge but if anyone hears of one or is selling one ...or a disco feel free to PM me with the details

And thanks again for all the adivce I was given hopefully I will be back with better stories soon