Thread: Copious white smoke = head gasket?

Check you have not got a bad batch of fuel AND get a hands on diagnostic.

A couple of us Landy nuts were moving a mate a few years ago and the TD5 amongst us started bellowing white smoke. The common thought was that it was terminal, but IIRC, it was bad juice.

ZD 534 was the owner/driver of the TD5 ATT, so a pm to Glen might shed some light on it for you.

drop the intercooler hose off of the manifold and start it up...

if the smoke stops its not internal to the engine.

From memory, white [ or white-ish ] smoke could be turbo seals [ oil] , unburnt fuel [ injectors] steam [ head gasket]. Check for white sludge under your oil filler cap, [ gasket] , and check the expansion tank for oily sludge. Are you losing coolant? Apart from that, I have been told a bad batch of fuel has been known to cause white smoke, although I have not experienced that. A diagnostic device may shed some light on the problem. Bob

I have had a car (not a land rover) lose transmission fluid into the manifold via a faulty pressure sensor letting oil through. Lots of white smoke as soon as you re-fill the auto transmission. Rebuilt the motor on that one for no reason I have a manual TD5 so I'm just saying. This is the sum of my white smoke experience

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

drop the intercooler hose off of the manifold and start it up...

if the smoke stops its not internal to the engine.

So I did this (thanks Blknight), got marginally less smoke when I revved it, & a whole lot of black oily gunk coming out of the intercooler.
This gunk could well be left over from the last turbo dying as I didn't flush the intercooler before fitting the new turbo.

I've been losing coolant & losing oil, but there's no sign of cross-contamination between the two.

So if I read this right I need a new head gasket?
TIA
Alex

next step, remove the harness plug crank it and see what comes out.

then remove the 4 glow plugs and check the 4 pots you can check.

alteratively check the balance numbers

you can also try a leak down check to ensure you're not just loosing compresiion out the vavles. (still means new head gasket but you know in advance what else is causing problems so you only fix it once)

does the smoke go away when the engines warmed up and hows the blow by both hot and cold?