Thread: Need some help - sick 200Tdi

Andy,

Don't rush off to the turbo place yet, I would suggest the amount of oil in the intake pipework sounds pretty normal for all 200Tdi defenders I have seen. All have a fair bit especially in the airfilter, it is a low point where the oil 'mist' will settle into. 200Tdi Discos don't seem to be as obvious IME. I have had them dripping oil out of the breather pipe when I disconnect it and hang it down, and even LR suggest to flush and clean intercoolers out due to oil circulation etc. I would say it may well be a byproduct of the crankcase pressure issue rather than a turbo seal issue.

When these have turbo seal issues they get smokey (Blue oily smoke) and worst case will run on their oil

JC

Hi there,
well I went for a run down and up the range (long , steep hill!!)from Toowoomba to test out the renewed cooling system and it passed with flying colours. The LR temp gauge didn't move from its normal position, the engine saver saw an increase in temp to the mid ninetys but this quickly came back down after getting back on the flat so I'm happy with the new radiator.
There wasn't any oil spray from the filler either although I'm not convinced yet, perhaps cleaning the Provent filter did the trick.

Anyway the radiator guy had recommended a turbo expert to go and see so after that good news I went off to get the bad - or so I thought. He spent almost 45 mins looking over my motor and giving advice. In short the turbo is OK and the breather system is at fault. When he looked at (and in)the Provent he reckons it was plumbed in wrong with the engine breather connected to the top and the pipe to the air filter connected to the bottom of the unit so I've swapped them round and will see what happens.

I've still got the intercooler to clean but I guess its good news all round hopefully.

Andy

Originally Posted by AndyK

...

In short the turbo is OK and the breather system is at fault. When he looked at (and in)the Provent he reckons it was plumbed in wrong with the engine breather connected to the top and the pipe to the air filter connected to the bottom of the unit so I've swapped them round and will see what happens.

...

Did he miss the big arrows on the unit?

It is designed for the inlet (from the engine) to be at the top and the outlet to the intake to be the lower connection. Plumbed the way you have it the relief valve in the cap and the overpressure valve in the oulet won't be working.

The way it is now could also cause issues as the crankcase pressure and the drain pressure will be the same, so you may get blowby gases bubbling up the drain line - but that depends if your drain is above or below the oil level.

Dougal had some issues with his - likely because his was mounted quite low) and changed the plumbing, but also changed the vales IRC.

Hi there,

Well thanks for all of the advice, all seems well now thankfully.

The problems were all from a poorly radiator, the re-cored radiator now keeps the coolant at a lower temp even when the engine is working hard, the LR temp gauge doesn't go any higher than half way now. The engine block temp still rises as you'd expect when working hard but the new radiator can cope quickly cooling it back down.

The oil spray from the filler cap was due to a blocked filter element in the ProVent, the pressure relief valves didn't seem to do anything.

Here's my thoughts on the plumbing of the ProVent.

Firstly I've looked on the M&H website so I know the way I've plumbed it in now is not to their instructions but:-

the ProVent is primarily an air filter not an oil filter. With oily air going in the top, the oil mist filtered out has to pass through the filter element then drip down into the bottom of the unit. Therefore oil and air have to pass through the filter media. Also as air is sucked out through the bottom these drips could be sucked into the turbo inlet. The way I have plumbed it only air has to pass through.

if you look at the filter element itself the filter media support (metal mesh) is on the inside, so the inside of the filter element should be at a lower pressure than the outside causing the media to be "pushed" against the support (as I have plumbed it in) and not blown away from it (as per instructions.)

if oil mist goes in the top, there is a smaller surface area of ProVent and filter media available for the oil to separate than if it were to go in the bottom.

if oil mist enters through the bottom, oil which deposits on the Provent side and filter element can drop into the drain without having to migrate through the filter media which in turn leads to blockage.

the way I have it plumbed the ProVent in there is an oily side (the bottom of the unit) and a clean side (the top of the unit) from which air is drawn into the turbo. Plumbed in as per instructions, oil has to drain through the oil cleaned air!

After a four hour drive which included fast highway driving, hilly city work and a couple of minutes of full throttle climb up a steep hill, I had no oil spray. When I checked the ProVent filter element there were a few droplets of oil that stood proud on the surface and not in the filter media.

I realize that this is still early days but I'm happy with the way I've plumbed the ProVent in.

So there you have it, comments? (please be gentle!!)

Andy