Thread: replaced turbo, flushed intercooler - white smoke??

Alex do you have an extremely over full sump??
Is the oil diluted with diesel this could explain it and the failed turbo

2 further questions:
1. how do I tell if the sump is contaminated with diesel? Its not overfull, & when the turbo died it ate most of the sump contents.
2. with unburnt fuel coming out the exhaust (white smoke) - could it just be I need to adjust the wastegate for more boost?
TIA
Alex

Alex be careful in case there is a danger of it running away
Adjusting boost wont get rid of white smoke if you didnt have enough boost you would have black smoke.
Are you sure its not just residual from the clean up?
I recall Andy having a white smoke issue with a TD5 and someone had put unleaded in the tank
White smoke is either oil from the new turbo (unlikely) or raw fuel/ oil from the clean up or maybe a cracked head (hopefully unlikely)
Does the oil smell like diesel? from memory Blacknight had a tutorial involving oil and paper to check dilution on the forum somewhere.

Hey mate.
Fuel contamination is preaty obvious. A strong smell of Diesel from the oil, rub some sump oil between your fingers, then compare with fresh oil of the same type. Or you can have an oil analysis performed to determine the extent of the contamination. The oil level should be below the full mark and not move. Issues could be leaking injector O rings or a crack around the injector mount in the cylinder head.
Boost pressure should be checked with a gauge or Nanocom.
Hope this helps as I have been through the fuel in the oil thing. Not fun and expensive.
Regards
Robbo

Originally Posted by djam1

Are you sure its not just residual from the clean up?
I recall Andy having a white smoke issue with a TD5 and someone had put unleaded in the tank
White smoke is either oil from the new turbo (unlikely) or raw fuel/ oil from the clean up or maybe a cracked head (hopefully unlikely)
Does the oil smell like diesel? from memory Blacknight had a tutorial involving oil and paper to check dilution on the forum somewhere.

I hope its just residual from the cleanup - I only ran it about 10 minutes

I also had the white smoke issue from unleaded in the tank (I feel so stoopid) but this was accompanied by massive loss of power, whereas now it drives fine.

I'll have to check the smell of the oil (or rather get someone to do it for me as I have virtually no sense of smell). That's a job for tomorrow

Remove the exhaust side pipe off the Turbo after giving it a small run and look for oil, may be getting to much oil pressure to the Turbo and seeping through the seal

smelt & felt the sump oil & got SWMBO to compare the smell with fresh engine oil, diesel, & used engine oil from the commodore.
The engine oil felt the same as the fresh oil, & SWMBO agreed with me that there was no smell of diesel in the sump.
However, the engine has only been run about 10-15 minutes since filling with fresh oil (approx 5L) after the turbo sucked most of the oil out when it self-destructed.
So there may not have been enough time for a distinct diesel smell/feel to appear from contamination.
Since I won't be driving it with the way its smoking, is there any other way to confirm/deny the fuel in the oil theory?
Or are there any other possible causes (if its not leftovers from cleaning the intercooler)?
TIA
Alex

You could try the blotting paper test to test for fuel in oil. There was a thread on here a while back which had the following site as a link.

FAQ's :: Valvoline ::

I pretty sure blacknight also posted a description as well.

Steve