Loss of power and LOTS of smoke

**Brett1066** · 11th March 2016, 05:05 PM

Hi all, hope someone can help me out here. Driving to work this morning and all was good until I was about half way to work (which is only 7km from home, so had done 3-4km) when I lost all power and started blowing lots of white smoke. Pulled over, thinking I had maybe snapped the belt or something, but all seemed good under the bonnet, couldn't see anything obvious. Started it up, idled ok, tried to drive but couldn't go faster than about 5-10km/h. Limped in to work.
Up until this morning she had been all good, driving well (well as good as you could expect from a 1994 300 tdi) The night before though, I did add some engine stop leak to the oil to try and stop a couple of small oil leaks I have until I get around to fixing them in a few weeks time.
Things I have checked so far - alternator is all good, charging at ~14.2 volts. Batteries are also all good. Turbo hoses are the blue silicon ones, about 3 years old, all feel OK. Pulled the top hose from the intercooler off, bit of oil inside but not de-laminated. Can spin the turbo by hand with minimal resistance. Checked the air filter, which is only 3 months old, all good. Not losing coolant and coolant isn't milky or have oil in it.
Put an engine oil flush through and dumped the old oil and replaced with new, just in case the stop leak crap that I put in had anything to with it - couldn't see why but seemed like too much of a coincidence.
Still no joy.
What I have found though, is that the car idles ok and drives ok until the engine temp reaches 50 degrees, then I lose all power. Up to 50, the turbo still boosts up to 15psi, but once I hit about 50, no boost at all on the turbo and absolutely no power, even with the foot to the floor. And copious amounts of white smoke. Smoke has a diesel smell to it (I think, have a cold at the moment so sense of smell not the best) so I am guessing it is unburnt fuel.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Had to leave the car at work and will be Sunday morning before I can go get it and look at anything else, not willing to try driving it in traffic at the moment so will get up very early Sunday morning and nurse it home through the back roads.

**justinc** · 11th March 2016, 05:36 PM

Try disconnecting the intake pipe from the aircleaner to the turbo briefly and try it. If the pipe becomes soft from all the oil leaking all over it eyc over the years it can collapse inwards under high airflow/ suction when it also gets hot/ softens up.

Jc

cafe latte · 11th March 2016, 05:42 PM

Never heard if it on any of my cars, but I wonder if the turbo is seizing as it gets hot?
One thing that could be going on is a turbo hose could be collapsing starving the engine of air. I also had a problem with a Perkins where the rod that shuts off the pump was sticking so it was almost off, I hit a bump and the motor died and limped along at 10k an hour. That had me scratching my head for a while.
Chris

cafe latte · 11th March 2016, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by justinc

Try disconnecting the intake pipe from the aircleaner to the turbo briefly and try it. If the pipe becomes soft from all the oil leaking all over it eyc over the years it can collapse inwards under high airflow/ suction when it also gets hot/ softens up.

Jc

Great minds think alike

I was typing when you posted..
Chris

**Brett1066** · 11th March 2016, 05:54 PM

Will try that sunday after i nurse her home. Visually when the engine was running and was over 50 couldnt see any hoses that looked like they were being sucked inwards but not to say it wasnt happening. Pretty sure that hose from the air filter to the turbo is still the original hose, so it definitely has seen better days.

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**jboot51** · 11th March 2016, 07:08 PM

Lots of white smoke could be an indication of poor compression.
The smoke would be the non combusted, atomised diesel from the injector

or

Coolant getting into the combustion chamber.

A restriction in the air system should show lots of black smoke/ unburnt fuel.

**Brett1066** · 11th March 2016, 07:24 PM

Reasonably, but not 100%, sure it not coolant. Have only the smallest loss in coolant level and pretty sure that is coming from the p gasket (which i changed only 3 months ago due a bad leak, obviously didnt do it properly). But, wont rule anything out just yet. Seems very strange to my un landrover educated mind that it is temperature related. Most of the symptoms i am seeing i would expect either from a cold start or all the time, not once it warms up. But, landrovers don't always abide by logical thought.....

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**jboot51** · 11th March 2016, 07:52 PM

As the engine warms up the pressure in the cooling system increases, this might force coolant through a crack.
try removing/ loosening the cap from the expansion tank and see if there is any difference

**Brett1066** · 15th March 2016, 10:56 AM

Justinc - tried removing the hose from the air cleaner to the turbo - definitely not collapsing inwards.
Jboot51 - loosening the expansion cap didn't seem to make any difference.

OK, stupid question time. Is it possible that the stop leak crap that I put in the night before this first happened has anything to do with it? Could it have gummed up something that shouldn't be. Wondering if I should put another engine flush through. Odd that it does it once the temp starts to rise, because if it was the case that something was gummed up I would have thought it would be more pronounced at the colder temps. When nursing it home Sunday morning, it didn't play silly buggers with me until the engine temp got up to 60 degrees, and then yesterday when I was trying to work out what the hell is going on, it didn't pack up until the engine temp was 67 degrees. (Which given that the ambient temp was 40 yesterday didn't take long to get to) Temps are measured on the block so are engine temps not coolant temps.
Could the settings on my injection pump have changed somehow? And what does that wire that is connected to the fuel pump just below the throttle do/for? Am I right in understanding that the Bosch VE injection pump on a 300tdi is purely a mechanical pump and therefore nothing can be telling it to dose the wrong amount of fuel into the donk?
I suspect my crankcase pressure is on the high side as I have oil leaking from the cyclone and the crankcase breather hose. Cyclone and breather hose are new, but hoses on the cyclone are old so oil may be seeping out of these, not sure. Could this have anything to do with it?

**jboot51** · 15th March 2016, 04:13 PM

The wire to the injector pump is the fuel stop solenoid.
It has 12v from the ignition to open the solenoid to allow fuel flow.

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