Thread: White smoke from exhaust and oil filler (TD5)

Originally Posted by loanrangie

I agree, LR diesel heads do tend to crack. Wouldn't the workshop that skimmed it check it for cracks first ?

You would think so. Every head I have had done is crack tested first. I was rebuilding a HJ45 a few years back and I had two heads, both looked perfect so I gave them both for checking and one had three cracks. It would be a very poor machine shop that did not crack test first. One thought though any corrosion on the block? I had an issue a few years ago with corrosion on the block being the problem. The sudden nature of the failure though would point against this really.
Like I said before I dont know much about td5 engines, but I was speaking to a Landy specialist about pros and cons of 300tdi and td5, one thing he said is one of the problems with a td5 is when the head gasket goes they almost always need a new head which is very expensive on a td5. I have no personal experience here just saying what I was told.
Chris

The head guy pronounced the head "good" when he skimmed it. I saw him hardness test it, but I don't know what other tests he did - if any.

I think what happened is:
- turbo started leaking oil into exhaust and inlet (lots of oil on both sides of turbo when I pulled it apart)
- oil sucked into inlet => hydro lock => something broken

The engine now starts and idles fine but there is a distinct lack of power and as soon as it is loaded up huge clouds of smoke billow out.

Looks like I need to pull the bottom end apart :-(

Before you go pulling it apart again borrow beg or steal a compression tester, get one for a diesel though. If all cylinders are within spec you have not hydro locked it. If you bend a conrod that cylinder will have much lower compression. Have you changed the air filter and have you cleaned the inlet manifold and turbo pipes?
I had a similar situation on a dozer after fixing a turbo it kept blowing smoke and it turned out to be the inlet still having lots of oil in it. Clean the turbo pipes and check the filter too and then take it for a good run, you might find out as I did with the dozer that the smoke stops.
Chris

I think the key to a solution is to determine whether it is oil smoke or water vapour from the exhaust as there is some confusion from the info provided.

Nick

I think the smoke is oil now. It is blueish until I really load it up.

There is a large amount of oil in the exhaust pipe from the turbo failure. It blew a litre or so when I started it and it is dripping from the tail pipe. I thought running it would blow out the oil and burn off residue, but it seems like too much smoke for that. I drove it for about 5 Ks with about half of that up a steep hill and it got worse as I drove on not better.

I cleaned out the manifolds and intercooler while I had the head off. EGR has been deleted.

How do you test compression on the TD5? There are 4 glow plugs so I can't test number 1 cylinder. Do you remove injectors?

Yep you can only compression test 1-4 via the glow plugs but it would be the simplest first test option. Is the engine oil level going down as you would expect from a cylinder or head problem?

Nick

Oil and coolant levels have not changed noticeably, however I only drove 5 Ks. The smoke cloud is too embarrassing to drive around and is likely to upset the neighbours if I'm not careful.

I might try blowing the exhaust pipe out with the leaf blower.

Then run the engine for a while and monitor smoke, oil, coolant, breather...

The fact that it appears to get worse as you drive might indicate that it is the large amount of oil gradually heating up in the exhaust causing the problem. The leaf blower will not help clear that. Does anybody know a good way to clean it out?

Nick