oil level rising, smell of diesel

mreyeball said:

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

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When I did my seals last year I had the same thing as you did, oil rising and cutting out after idling for a few mins. Did the seals, all perfect for 12K miles.
I didn't give it a second thought!

The issues with mine came about, probably, from too smaller clearance on the injector rocker causing the injector to move and crack the head.

If you haven't seen the level rising since the seals were done I think you should be fine. I bet 100,s of TD5 have had seals leak and oil level rise and they have been fine after.

My problem was because the filters were all,new, I didn't change them and hence the diesel oil mix has contaminated the new diesel and hence the smell and slightly thinner oil. Looks like I may have to,do the oils and filters again! Life sucks. Is it possible,to empty the filters of oil and reuse them?

ldrego said:

My problem was because the filters were all,new, I didn't change them and hence the diesel oil mix has contaminated the new diesel and hence the smell and slightly thinner oil. Looks like I may have to,do the oils and filters again! Life sucks. Is it possible,to empty the filters of oil and reuse them?

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i really wouldn't bother to try to clean them. I guess you could reuse the spinner filter as its not a filter as such but id renew the full flow filter.

For the cheap prices of the filters, it's worth doing them again

ldrego said:

My problem was because the filters were all,new, I didn't change them and hence the diesel oil mix has contaminated the new diesel and hence the smell and slightly thinner oil. Looks like I may have to,do the oils and filters again! Life sucks. Is it possible,to empty the filters of oil and reuse them?

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When I did my stripdown I was really surprised at how much oil was still left in the engine. According the the book, the engine can hold 1 litre of oil even after the sump is drained. So if your sump had a lot of diesel in it the new oil will be mixed with some diesel.

If you do decide to drain it again try to remove all the oil from under the rocker cover, it accumulates in the pockets on the left side of the head when viewed from the front. I got at least 1/2 litre from mine, best way I found was to use a flexi tube and suck the fluid up then drop it into a jar. careful you dont get a mouthful of oil though!

markomate2 said:

When I did my stripdown I was really surprised at how much oil was still left in the engine. According the the book, the engine can hold 1 litre of oil even after the sump is drained. So if your sump had a lot of diesel in it the new oil will be mixed with some diesel.

If you do decide to drain it again try to remove all the oil from under the rocker cover, it accumulates in the pockets on the left side of the head when viewed from the front. I got at least 1/2 litre from mine, best way I found was to use a flexi tube and suck the fluid up then drop it into a jar. careful you dont get a mouthful of oil though!

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Is that an auto you have or a manual and are they the same? Does the rocker cover,have a gasket that needs to be replaced?

ldrego said:

Is that an auto you have or a manual and are they the same? Does the rocker cover,have a gasket that needs to be replaced?

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Mine is a manual, shouldn't be anything different to auto though.

The rocker cover gadget frequently leaks but its usually because it gets snagged at the rear and twists slightly, if its not leaking from the sides its probably ok to reuse.

Little tip, before you refit the cover, pull the bonnet seal up and away from the area where the rear of the cover goes, that way you wont have to struggle to get the rear of the cover down which is when the cover seal gets snagged. (that wasn't very clear, ill take a pic when I'm working on mine this weekend!)

Ok guys, done a 100 miles since seals n washers were done n oil level has risen from half to just below full, before i scrap it is there anything else that could cause diesel to find its way into the sump other than a cracked head??

mreyeball said:

Ok guys, done a 100 miles since seals n washers were done n oil level has risen from half to just below full, before i scrap it is there anything else that could cause diesel to find its way into the sump other than a cracked head??

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have the crack welded,
LAND ROVER TD5 CYLINDER HEAD SPECIALIST CRACK REPAIR | eBay

johnlad said:

have the crack welded,
LAND ROVER TD5 CYLINDER HEAD SPECIALIST CRACK REPAIR | eBay

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+1 had mine done by Ebay guy. Hope to have it finally running tomorrow!

Dont drive it anymore, until its fixed.

Budget for DIY head job, £400 ish incl head welding.

If you get a refurb head from Turners (if they have one) it will be nearer to £1k

Also where are you? Anywhere near Bedford?

Mark

PS Just remembered you had the seals done by a garage.

Give them a call and see if they can do anything under warranty, i.e. can they recheck for leaks, without charging you!

Before you take a spanner to it, try to do a check yourself as well, do what I suggested before, cover off, clean away obvious oil, ignition on and just watch around the injector ports.

markomate2 said:

+1 had mine done by Ebay guy. Hope to have it finally running tomorrow!

Dont drive it anymore, until its fixed.

Budget for DIY head job, £400 ish incl head welding.

If you get a refurb head from Turners (if they have one) it will be nearer to £1k

Also where are you? Anywhere near Bedford?

Mark

PS Just remembered you had the seals done by a garage.

Give them a call and see if they can do anything under warranty, i.e. can they recheck for leaks, without charging you!

Before you take a spanner to it, try to do a check yourself as well, do what I suggested before, cover off, clean away obvious oil, ignition on and just watch around the injector ports.

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So it looks as if my oil has risen again. There isnt the obvious strong smell of diesel like before but I am pretty sure that is a definite rise in the oil level. On a positive note, the oil also feels thick on the the dip stick as opposed to the watery mixture I had before. I figure it may be a matter of time before more diesel makes it so. Anyway, I am wondering if I could remove the head myself or is it a very tricky job to do? I have only got as far as removing the injectors. Is there much more to do thereafter?
Oh and how was your repair?

ldrego said:

So it looks as if my oil has risen again. There isnt the obvious strong smell of diesel like before but I am pretty sure that is a definite rise in the oil level. On a positive note, the oil also feels thick on the the dip stick as opposed to the watery mixture I had before. I figure it may be a matter of time before more diesel makes it so. Anyway, I am wondering if I could remove the head myself or is it a very tricky job to do? I have only got as far as removing the injectors. Is there much more to do thereafter?
Oh and how was your repair?

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I think we may have hijacked Mreyeballs thread, if he doesn't mind, heres my reply!

Best thing is to call the guy on Ebay, he can tell you what he needs removed.

I stripped my head, cam off, valves out, etc.

Depends how bad the crack is, mine was bad!

Removing the head is not too bad, have a look at my thread in the TD5 section.

Download the RAVE manual for the Defender, the RAVE for the D2 is V8 only.

BTW RAVE is a bit of a pain to use, lots of cross referencing and endless parts repeated!

Give your self a day to remove it, day to put it back.

Try to use an engine hoist to take the weight, makes it easier.

Disconnecting the FPR lines was a total SOB! Also getting the inlet manifold off was a real pain.

Hijack away lads!! My oil after the oil change still had a smell of diesel, but did have some thickness to the oil, now it smells very strongly of diesel and is very watery, I had been in contact with the guy from ebay and a quote for him to to all the work, strip head, weld and reassemble came in at £850, but to be honest 4 years of land rover ownership has drained the coffers and I have lost complete confidence in my particular engine and a little in the actual land rover brand, an old mechanic friend us taking the d2 off my hands for a generous £1500 and I'm picking up a 10 plate Astra on credit tonight, gutted isn't the word and wished I had kept my old 300 tdi as although was a bit of a money pit it never threatened to bankrupt me, ill still be around on forums and off to billing Saturday and expecting plenty of **** taking as my 3 brothers all have landies are going too!! See you around guys and thanks for the help on this particular problem

mreyeball said:

Ok guys, done a 100 miles since seals n washers were done n oil level has risen from half to just below full, before i scrap it is there anything else that could cause diesel to find its way into the sump other than a cracked head??

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To be honest you can't yet rule out the injector washers, they were reused so could be the problem, slim chance but still a chance. Did they washers get annealed between refitting, that might have helped.

But like the other posters have said there are head welding services available, there's a really good guy on ebay. Only concern with these is what does all that heat going into the head do to it...

no they where brand new seals and washers

ldrego said:

All seals were rechecked and refitted but we used the same seals and copper washers.

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Yep sorry got mixed up with that guy, these new ? avatars are doing me nut.