Help 300tdi issues

Hello new to the group ,
I purchased a disco 300tdi couple weeks back that had been sat for 2months.
With absolutely no power a lot of grey smoke(Fuel) misfires when cold stutters when you rev it, misfires under light acceleration, feels like NA engine, I’ve owned 300’s before witch have gone pretty well in my thought.
Adjusted Fuel pump no improvement.
Replaced Fuel lift pump, bypassed sediment filter due to it full of crud , Replaced all injectors with known good ones.
it’s blown 2 turbos witch i think is down to excessive Heat
1st turbo was white when removed , 2nd lasted a couple of steep hill runs. Compression test have come back good

My next steps or replacing fuel pump, or whip head off and have a look inside.
Has any one els on here got any ideas
Would be much appreciated, hoping to get it on road before winter hits.

Thanks

Heath24 said:

Hello new to the group ,
I purchased a disco 300tdi couple weeks back that had been sat for 2months.
With absolutely no power a lot of grey smoke(Fuel) misfires when cold stutters when you rev it, misfires under light acceleration, feels like NA engine, I’ve owned 300’s before witch have gone pretty well in my thought.
Adjusted Fuel pump no improvement.
Replaced Fuel lift pump, bypassed sediment filter due to it full of crud , Replaced all injectors with known good ones.
it’s blown 2 turbos witch i think is down to excessive Heat
1st turbo was white when removed , 2nd lasted a couple of steep hill runs. Compression test have come back good

My next steps or replacing fuel pump, or whip head off and have a look inside.
Has any one els on here got any ideas
Would be much appreciated, hoping to get it on road before winter hits.

Thanks

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Is the timing set up correctly?

Easy and fast to replace the cambelt on a 300Tdi and certainly worth checking.

I’ve checked Fuel pump to crank witch is bang on , unless cams out there any way of checking cam with out stripping casing down or is that the only way.

Check cam belt and also look at weather the intercooler is blocked or hoses shot.

Heath24 said:

I’ve checked Fuel pump to crank witch is bang on , unless cams out there any way of checking cam with out stripping casing down or is that the only way.

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Yes you need to pop the crankshaft pulley off and open up the casing to check the cam timing but it would be good to replace the belt anyway while you're in there.

How do you mean, blowing the turbo? What happened to the turbos?

Have you checked the oil pressure (with a gauge - don't just rely on the light) as low pressure will kill turbo bearings along with the mains / big ends

Also worth taking the timing cover off to check the timing (including the cam timing) properly, may even be worth throwing a belt kit in there once you know if it is a good engine or not.

Al2O3 said:

How do you mean, blowing the turbo? What happened to the turbos?

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1turbo exhaust down pipe ended up white ,
The bearings went from no play and ended up with a lot of play , and turbine was catching on casing in the space of a day

Heath24 said:

1turbo exhaust down pipe ended up white ,
The bearings went from no play and ended up with a lot of play , and turbine was catching on casing in the space of a day

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Sounds like a serious lack of oil to me

Mick Guilbert said:

Sounds like a serious lack of oil to me

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I was thinking that I’ll double check feed and return ,

If there is excessive oil in the intercooler etc. then the turbo isnt draining right (but you would imagine still has oil, as it would be leaking out through the seal)
So, from what you say, its probably not the drain? Might still be the feed though.

Indeed, if you had a turbo in there that had so much play that it was whacking the case, then you would assume that the shaft would be stuffed, and that it would be leaking oil (if it had any) either into the inlet stream, or into the exhaust.

Either would smell like a stack of burning tyres once the engine was hot.

Into the first fault with no power and excessive smoke , just pulled turbo off , and to me that looks like water in the exhaust

Heath24 said:

1turbo exhaust down pipe ended up white ,
The bearings went from no play and ended up with a lot of play , and turbine was catching on casing in the space of a day

Click to expand...

Are you thinking it's going white due to the excessive heat?
It looks like the head gasket has gone. That does look like rust in the exhaust pipe. I'd agree with Kwakerman and suspect lack of oil to the turbo either due to head gasket, oil pump, big end bearings or a bit of all of them.

Update :
Replaced head gasket and cylinder head with new stem seals. Replaced turbo again , there’s oil getting to and from turbo , changed fuel filter head with filter and fuel lines , banjo bolts to pump with new washers.
Grey smokes (diesel) worst when cold
Still no power, crawling up hills
Misfires when cold/ somtimes Revs drop and then cuts out but then starts straight back up,

This is aside from the turbo / oil issues, but your lack of power etc. could be something as simple as air ingress.
Also, have you checked inside the actual fuel tank? If the sedimenter was full of junk when you started, it follows that there may be junk swimming about in the tank. If any of it is large enough, it could cause a temporary block on the inlet.

A bit of clear nylon air line between the filter head and the IP inlet (make up one with banjo fittings) will make air ingress easier to spot - although if it only happned under load that may be harder.

Again this sounds different to whatever was knackereing the turbos.

I had a 300 where someone had not tightened the crank nut hard enough, and the crank sprocket had worn against it woodruff key and become loose - just that small play would mean that it would idle fine, but just have no power under load at all. And because it was timed in one rotation the timing seemed fine when checked.

I mean thats unlikley for sure, but the symptoms were similar!

Also, this far in, it may be worth swapping the IP for another, and seeing what happens?

Have you still got an EGR valve or is it blanked off? If you have one blank it off, check your piping to the inter cooler as if this has delaminated which is a common problem your engine will starve itself of air, also when was the last time your intercooler was cleaned as these also gum up causing issues with power.

All timings good , just gone swap high pressure pump for a 2nd to see if that changes anything , everything els is fine , unless fuel lines from tank are sucking air witch. This things really baffling me