Thread: 200tdi engine issues

Hello all,

I have done a fair bit of reading and asking around including my local land rover specialist but i havent been able to get a definate diagnosis from anyone yet so I am hoping that someone on here may be ble to help.

So i drive a 200tdi defender and i have been experiencing some different issues. Ill start with what work has been recently done.

20,000kms ago the head was taken off, machined and a piece of glow plug that had fallen off and carboned up removed. Along with this i obviously had a new head gasket, timing belt and water pump done. This work was done at a local ultratune that has since closed its doors.

A few thousand ago i had my injection pump removed, rebuilt and reinstalled by my local land rover specialist. This turned out to be a massive job as the pump (after 430,000kms) was absolutely toast. So everything was replaced brand new from top to bottom from parts they had to search around the world for. Also my water pump was leaking so they fixed that up for me

Now the symptoms.

After the pump install i have had white smoke coming from my exhaust when cold. When the engine gets warm the white smoke goes away and only black smoke on heavy acceleration. The injectors havent been done yet so i thought that it would just be a fueling issue because the injectors are probably as buggered as the pump was.

After driving it around still curious of the smoke i noticed my cyclone breather on my crank case had started to push oil through and into my filter housing. Eventually the oil makes its way all the way through to my intake. I could stick my fingers in there, remove them and have oil dripping from my fingers for a couple of drops. So a bit of oil. I decide it is the cyclone breathers fault and replace it with a brand new one.

Go forward a month or so and i start loosing coolant again. Not much to start with but progressivly got worse with no sign on the exterior of any sort of water leak. This is when i start to think it maybe a head gasket issue. I start filling water when it needs it and keep a keen eye on other fluids and symptoms that might give me more of a clue.

Go forward again to a week ago from now and i notice my water going down and my oil going up. Still the same amount of white smoke when the engine is cold until hot and then no white smoke(white smoke is constant at idle and worse under acceleration with the engine being quite rough, especially with some revs). The cyclone breather has started the same thing again. Pushing oil into the filter housing and all the way back into the intake. I immediately think my head gasket is gone.

So i do some other tests

No bubbles in coolant when running from cold to running temp.

Engine runs nice and cool not getting hot at all

Coolant drops kaybe 50ml in 4 days and in the next 2-3 days drops 200ml and in the same 2-3 days the oil level rises about a letter and a half higher putting it at the high marker now.

White smoke still consistent when cold and nothing when at running temp.

Now i ring the land rover specialist to get a quote on some gaskets to do the head. This is when he suggests it could be a number of things.

The raise in oil could be because of a diesel leak in the vaccum pump(yet to bypass the vaccum pump to test that theory) however the oil is not milky at all which i would expect if it was coolant.

The coolant drop could be a leak under pressure or a cracked head leaking coolant on the exhaust (hence no sign of any coolant leak) (yet to pressure test radiator)

Talking to others they have suggested maybe a leak in the oil cooler/radiator could mix the water and oil.

I dint want to jump in and waste time and money for something that doesnt need doing. Its a bit of a complex one for me to diagnose so i thank you in advance for any help that you champions may have for me.

I have only ever filled it to the seam so the coolant loss is below the seam.

Organising equipment to do some more testing and i will let you know the results.