300 TDi high oil usage

[Widge]

Hi All,
Last week my '94 110 defender started to leak a lot of oil from around the inlet manifold gasket area, blow a moderate amount of smoke and seem to develop an unbalanced beat like it was only running on 3 cylinders!
When I first noticed the oil leak I mistakenly thought that the rocker cover gasket was leaking so I changed that and I also cleaned out the cyclonic breather, replaced the o-ring on it and made sure the breather hoses weren't blocked.
Today I removed the inlet manifold and it was oily inside. I removed the intercooler and literally poured out the pool of oil that was in the bottom of it and after removing the intake air ducting from the turbo I could see a pool of black oil sitting inside the turbo compressor outlet housing. The air inlet ducting connecting to the turbo compressor inlet was also wet with oil up to where the crankcase breather pipe connects to it.
I don't know whether the oil seal in the turbo has had it, or somehow the crankcase is over-pressurising and forcing too much oil through the breather into the turbo compressor or if there is something else going on that I can't work out.
Maybe it seems like it is only running on 3 cylinders because there was so much oil getting pushed into the engine that it has blocked an injector, or at least wrecked the spray pattern. I plan on taking the injectors out and cleaning them and checking the spray patterns and since I have to take off the exhaust manifold to change the gasket I thought what the hell, I may as well take off the head as well and give everything a good clean so I can inspect the head and gasket for anything like cracks etc.
Sorry this is long winded but I wanted to get as much info about the problem that I could before I put a post up.
Any helpful advice about what else I could investigate or do to find out what the hell is going on would be immensely appreciated, I don't want to get another turbo and find out that it wasn't the problem and I've wasted my money.
Thanks Guys
Widge

[uninformed]

have you checked the dipstick for amount of oil in sump. If it is high it possibly could be #1 a dodgy lift pump leaking diesel into sump or #2 a leaky injector doing same.

[wrinklearthur]

have you checked the dipstick for amount of oil in sump. If it is high it possibly could be #1 a dodgy lift pump leaking diesel into sump or #2 a leaky injector doing same.

X2 .
.

[roverrescue]

Im going to bet on a valve steam seal being shot to pieces

S

[justinc]

Blown headgasket into a pushrod port is my bet, and I bet it is either number 3 or 4 piston, too

Check post number 22 for some good pics.
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/discovery-...r-cover-3.html


JC

[roverrescue]

And JC will of course be right!!!!
Does the cuffing of venting the pot into the sump make the "3 cylinder noise" or is there something else going on do you think JC?

S

[Widge]

Hi,
Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately the oil level has never been high. I drove it to work last week after making sure the oil level was spot on full (120km round trip) and had to put at least a litre in to top it up when I got home!
Looks like I'm pulling the head off.
Hope I find something obvious and don't have to revert to shotgun maintenance.
Thanks heaps for the advice guys, I'll post how I go and what I find.
Widge