Weird 300tdi oil smoke

Disco&Defender · Jun 13, 2019

Hi there all,

Got a bit of a strange issue going on. I've just spent about 6k restoring my 1997 300tdi. One of the things that was wrong with it when I got it was that it smoked heavily. This turned out to be the turbo forcing copious amounts of oil into the engine. I replaced the turbo with a used one as at that point I wasn't sure if I was keeping it but it had quite a lot of play when it arrived in the post.. anyways now I get quite heavy oil smoke (not as much as before) when I start it in the morning. This all but disappears after a mile or so which lead me to believe valve seals but now I have noticed a lot of oil leaking into the downpipe from presumably the turbo. There also seems to be oil on the intake side but I don't think this is from breathers as it only goes back 10cm or so. Is this turbo bad to??
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks

Henry_b · Jun 13, 2019

If the one you replaced was near enogh the same condition as the "new" one i would suspect that yes both units were ****ed.

Disco&Defender · Jun 13, 2019

Yeah it had as much play. Would an oil leak into the manifold cause smoke on start up? It's not going Into the intake now.

Henry_b · Jun 13, 2019

Prolly is sucking it in..

Disco&Defender · Jun 13, 2019

Henry_b said:
Prolly is sucking it in..

It's definitely not getting into the intake it's real dry. I think it's leaking streight into the exhaust when it heats up it expands just enough to seal. You think the egt's would be high enough at start up to burn oil?

Kev12 · Jun 13, 2019

Have you checked the cyclone and pipes?

Disco&Defender · Jun 14, 2019

Kev12 said:
Have you checked the cyclone and pipes?

Yeah. There a light bit but not much. There's a lot of oil on the turbo intake side but this seems to disappear in about 10cm (before the line from the cyclone filter atatches)

lynall · Jun 14, 2019

Disco&Defender said:
It's definitely not getting into the intake it's real dry. I think it's leaking streight into the exhaust when it heats up it expands just enough to seal. You think the egt's would be high enough at start up to burn oil?

EGTs are nothing when you start up the engine and stay low for some time until you either give it some beans or it warms up

lynall · Jun 14, 2019

Disco&Defender said:
Yeah. There a light bit but not much. There's a lot of oil on the turbo intake side but this seems to disappear in about 10cm (before the line from the cyclone filter atatches)

Thats most likely because your engine is breathing heavy, ie its worn.
If you dont do deep water off road work its worth trying routing the breather to the inner wing and putting a bolt into the blank hole in the inlet trunking and see how you get on.

ChrisBduck · Jun 14, 2019

Run the breather into a chassis rail. Cheap and easy rust protection

Disco&Defender · Jun 14, 2019

lynall said:
Thats most likely because your engine is breathing heavy, ie its worn.
If you dont do deep water off road work its worth trying routing the breather to the inner wing and putting a bolt into the blank hole in the inlet trunking and see how you get on.

The

lynall said:
Thats most likely because your engine is breathing heavy, ie its worn.
If you dont do deep water off road work its worth trying routing the breather to the inner wing and putting a bolt into the blank hole in the inlet trunking and see how you get on.

So I've got a bit of an update. Took the turbo off but left the oil feed and return on and then ran the engine with open headers. There is a decent amount of oil leaking from the turbo into the exhaust so I'm getting a new one. I'm sure it's not breathers now as when I ran it open headers with no intake etc I still get the smoke directly from the engine. There seems to be a bit of a misfire when the misfire occurs the smoke gets much worse.
It looks blue to me but could it be timing related? It's not injectors as the smoke comes from all exhaust ports. Any ideas? new to me I've had a few 300tdi but non with this.
Thanks

lynall · Jun 15, 2019

Disco&Defender said:
The

So I've got a bit of an update. Took the turbo off but left the oil feed and return on and then ran the engine with open headers. There is a decent amount of oil leaking from the turbo into the exhaust so I'm getting a new one. I'm sure it's not breathers now as when I ran it open headers with no intake etc I still get the smoke directly from the engine. There seems to be a bit of a misfire when the misfire occurs the smoke gets much worse.
It looks blue to me but could it be timing related? It's not injectors as the smoke comes from all exhaust ports. Any ideas? new to me I've had a few 300tdi but non with this.
Thanks

Sinple test is to run the engine until its warm and whilst ticking over loosen the rocker cap, if the cap takes off you have issues!

Disco&Defender · Jun 15, 2019

lynall said:
Sinple test is to run the engine until its warm and whilst ticking over loosen the rocker cap, if the cap takes off you have issues!

Yeah I've done that.pritty much no blow by. Cap sits there happy enough. I think it's something in the head.

lynall · Jun 15, 2019

Disco&Defender said:
Yeah I've done that.pritty much no blow by. Cap sits there happy enough. I think it's something in the head.

Well theres no much to look at tbh
Thers always oily snot on the glow plug tips when removed so if you see that ignore it, small cracks between the valves isnt unusual either.
The fact all 4 cyls are smoking as bad would get me looking at the fuel equipment, especially the timing, which can be advanced a little on the factoy setting.

Weird 300tdi oil smoke

Disco&Defender

Member

Henry_b

Think outside, no box required.

Disco&Defender

Member

Henry_b

Think outside, no box required.

Disco&Defender

Member

Kev12

Well-Known Member

Disco&Defender

Member

lynall

Well-Known Member

lynall

Well-Known Member

ChrisBduck

Well-Known Member

Disco&Defender

Member

lynall

Well-Known Member

Disco&Defender

Member

lynall

Well-Known Member

Similar threads