2.2L Puma Excessive Oil in Catch Can – Seeking Advice

[M.Allison]

Hi All,
It’s been a long time since I last owned a Land Rover (2009), but I recently bought a 2012 Defender 110 with 100,000 km on the clock. I’ve now owned it for six months, servicing it every 5,000 km and replacing anything that was worn or broken (which was quite a bit).
Recently, I noticed oil spraying on top of the engine. My mechanic diagnosed it as a cracked intake manifold, so I had it replaced. They also recommended installing a catch can to help with blow-by, which I’ve now done. After taking the car for a 200 km drive, I checked the catch can this morning and found about 150 ml of oil collected.
The mechanic mentioned that the PCV valve looked fine when they did the intake manifold. I don’t have any excessive smoke from the exhaust—just a small puff of black smoke when reversing up my driveway, which I assume is due to the weight (2,900 kg) and the incline. My intake setup includes a K&N filter, a middle muffler delete, and a snorkel, but no other mods.
Given the amount of oil in the catch can, does anyone have any thoughts on what to check next? I’d assume that if the piston rings were shot, I’d be seeing blue or constant smoke from the exhaust, rather than just the occasional black puff in reverse.

Any insights would be much appreciated!

Thanks Mike!

[gavinwibrow]

Hi All,
It’s been a long time since I last owned a Land Rover (2009), but I recently bought a 2012 Defender 110 with 100,000 km on the clock. I’ve now owned it for six months, servicing it every 5,000 km and replacing anything that was worn or broken (which was quite a bit).
Recently, I noticed oil spraying on top of the engine. My mechanic diagnosed it as a cracked intake manifold, so I had it replaced. They also recommended installing a catch can to help with blow-by, which I’ve now done. After taking the car for a 200 km drive, I checked the catch can this morning and found about 150 ml of oil collected.
The mechanic mentioned that the PCV valve looked fine when they did the intake manifold. I don’t have any excessive smoke from the exhaust—just a small puff of black smoke when reversing up my driveway, which I assume is due to the weight (2,900 kg) and the incline. My intake setup includes a K&N filter, a middle muffler delete, and a snorkel, but no other mods.
Given the amount of oil in the catch can, does anyone have any thoughts on what to check next? I’d assume that if the piston rings were shot, I’d be seeing blue or constant smoke from the exhaust, rather than just the occasional black puff in reverse.

Any insights would be much appreciated!

Thanks Mike!

Others more knowledgeable will chime in, but there is a changing view on fitting Provent type catch cans as the suggestion is they actually work against the PCV, particularly also in the TD5, and assumably on other PCV versions.

[M.Allison]

My mistake, I installed an hpd catch can not the provent if that makes any difference.

[Robmacca]

I had something similar happen to my 2.4ltr 2010 Defender, with a lot of blow-by and using about 1ltrs/5000kms (which never happened previously).
Upon Research and some dodgy advice from LR Mechanics (which was a bit of a surprise), I came to the conclusion that my Injector seals needed replacing. I ended up installing NEW Injectors + new injector Seals and put it all back together and I've since driven it about 1500kms or so & I've notice NO Blowby and no oil being pushed out on the engine intake side (it remains all clean & free from oil unlike previously).
I'm hoping and praying that the oil usage is also solved but time will tell...

Run your engine up until its at temp and remove your filler cap and see how much blow-by u might have and if its a lot, consider replacing your injector seals to start with...

DazzaTD5 is the person to ask as he deals with a few Tdci Defenders and is very knowledgeable...

[M.Allison]

You know what's crazy. I'm having the exact same amount of oil usage as you, the mechanic did suggest it might be a injector seal but said he had only ever seen it happen once. Based on your experience I think it would be worth checking out!

[DazzaTD5]

Yes as mentioned do the injector seals.
as its a 2.2 if there is any rattle from the engine on cold drive with throttle or once warm on that floating throttle then replace the injectors.
re-calibrating or resetting the HPFP on every service will extend the life of the injectors.

[DieselDan]

Hi Dazza,

Your comment about resetting the HPFP has reminded me of a question I meant to follow up from one of the previous injector replacement threads.

There was a query whether the Gap IID or BAS2 tool could do this resetting function.

This is a snapshot from the BAS2 "Service/Test" page and is the only 'pump' reset function I can find, but I'm not convinced this will work and I haven't tried it!!Screenshot_20241201-183115~3.jpg

[DieselDan]

Oh and to the OP, Mike, the only other thing I'd suggest is to ditch the K&N filter and put an original paper element back.

[M.Allison]

Thanks everyone its been really helpful and I'm really appreciative of all your help, I've booked the mechanic in to replace the seals, dazza I'll mention to them to reset the hpfp. It's gonna suck having to empty the can every drive until the 28th. 🥲.

Dan i was thinking about pulling the k&n out. I did it to save some money long term but I just pulled the mafs and it was not filthy but needed a clean.

Ill let you all know once I've had them done to see if it rectifys the problem.

Thanks again
Mike

[PhilipA]

Just re the K&N.
A couple of years ago I saw a video by LKJ Setright discussing K&N filters.
He did research that indicated that K&N filters work well on petrol engines because they have a backward pulsation through the inlet manifold which prevents the dirt passing through the very coarse filter media. This is apparently the reason that they work well on petrol engines including motorbike desert racers.
But diesels do not have this reverse pulsation so dirt can freely flow through the coarse media.
For what it is worth .
Also I had a catch can on my TD5 and worked out that they have a depression valve in them. Seeing there is a depression valve that sits in the intake , this means you have 2 depression valves.
So I removed the depression valve for the catch can and had no trouble. My TD5 would dump about 5Ml of oil into the drain between intervals, although I did only have a stainless mesh filter in the catch can which may have reduced its collection of oil. However there was no crap build up in the inlet manifold even at 220KK after its initial clean at about 135KK..
Regards PhilipA
BTW I now have a Ford 3.2 which is the same family as the 2.2. It has about 97KK on it. I recently cleaned the MAP sensor and there was very little carbon on it. I looked into the EGR to manifold connection and it seemed pretty clean. The inlet from turbo to intercooler was also pretty clean and not dripping oil. It seems strange to me that a Defender with 100KK on it would need new injector seals. I would be looking at the catch can design and if it has a second depression valve. As an aside Ford recommends buying a new manifold at about $180 if you need to have the inlet manifold cleaned. I don't know if the Ford 2.2 manifold is the same as the Land Rover but my guess is that it is.