Thread: Blue smoke from a Diesel, only under certain conditions

Originally posted by sclarke

Now do diesels produce vacuum?

Not as far as I'm aware, that's why they have a vacuum pump hanging off the bum of the alternator.

Can't offer any other ideas on your smokin..

Cheers

OK i think ive found the problem...

Its British..... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]

no seriously...

Continuous blue smoke indicates worn rings / bores, while a puff of blue smoke after a period of idling or during rolling down hills with the accelerator backed off indicates worn valve guides /valve stem seals.

I'm guessing valve Guides or stem seals.

if it is its all 2 easy.... i'll ignore it for another 100k

Only two suggestions from my own experiences.
First, when were your injectors cleaned last.
Second, do you notice if the smoke started after your last fill of diesel, have you bought fuel from somewhere you don’t normally use.
I don’t know about in Vic but in NSW it is legal to mix heating oil with diesel so you may have filled up with some crap.

Cheers

Originally posted by sclarke
OK...
Where do i start?

2 weeks ago Hiline said my Defender was blowing some blue smoke.
I noticed it at night more on idle as i had cars behind. When you take off it does not happen.

Ok... Then on the weekend in Off road conditions.

On a Downhill run it is perfect if you are at no throttle, as soon as you open the throttle about 1/8 it starts to poof blue smoke out. this then can be made real bad buy punching it then backing off... it then will smoke a whole track out.
The smoke then clears and wont smoke on climbs or flats but down hills yes under slight throttle it smokes.

So any ideas??

Now do diesels produce vacuum? i thought back to Petrol engines and thought Valve stem seals or Turbo.

As it does not do it 100% i rulled out rings.

I managed to drive all day Sunday with no smoke as i knew what makes it happen. So it has to be only under cetain conditions.

OK lets not get this thread full of "it could be" responces. Lets try to relate to something you have seen. If you have a petrol engine that has done it, id say it wont be the same, they have different vacuum and combustion conditions.

My thoughts are Oil Flame trap is sucking oil if its blocked. Turbo? Valve stem seals.

Steve

There is not alot to go wrong diesels

But the general rule with a diesel is

White smoke Head gasket Because that is water in the fuel
Black smoke un burn't fuel, Injectors nackered
Blue smoke Oil related

So with your case it is one of three things

Rings , which you thing it may not be , only real way to test is to give it a compresion test, and see what you get. Another way of testing is to run it and take out the dip stick and rev it if it thoughs out loads of spltter of oil then you have crank case preesure, which is caused bu gone rings. Can do the same by tacking off the oil filler cap while running. And look and see if the engine is chuffing (like a steam train ). Again means the rings are going.

Value stem seals. This usally blues out blue smoke when first starting , and leaving on tick over for a bit. This is because the oil dips around the seals and into the pots and then when you start the truck or give it some it burns it off and then stops when it has burn't it all off

Head gasket may have gone between the oil way and the 4th pot. (always the 4th pot as is the one that gets the hotest , as it is farest away from the rad). But i don't think it is this. But saying that on the 200 TDI there was a problem with the head gasket and they on last about 100,000 miles before the need replacing because they go at the 4th pot. So if you have not replced the gasket yet then you may have to. The Factory fitted gasket was too weak and the replacement is alot better and stronger. Everyone i know with a 200 TDi with more than 110,000 has had their head gasket replace. The 200 TDi is a great engine and bullet proof apart from this little problem. But if it is the rings than you will have to change the head gasket anyway, so that will solve that

I had a problem with a diesel of mine like this . It ended up being a rings, even though the signs did not point at them. The worst thing they do is build up crank case compresion and then blow the rear main oil seal (which is behind the clutch) cost about a couple of $ but got to take the engine out to replace it. If you rev the truck (hard ) and then back of to tick over does the oil light flicker.

Hope this helps. I know you want a straight answer but more than not it is not that simple, but i can tell you one thing, what ever happens you are going to have to rip the engine apart and not fix it from the out side. But the 200 TDi is easy to work on and simple to fix , remeber it is only one step ip from a lawn mower to fix. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

check and see if your intake is full of oil....

we noticed a couple of diesels blowing smoke after going up a steep hill in low range with the revs high.....it must have sucked in oil that may have been sitting in the bottom of the intercooler or somewhere similar....


or it may just be an oil seal in the turbo......


so have a look ...not in the air cleaner but at the turbo between the turbo and engine if you can....if there is lots of oil in there its probably the cause of the blue smoke....


keep us informed

May be worth cleaning the intercooler.

It has done the Blue smoke thing since 2 weeks ago, i never picked it before hand.
At that time i changed the timing belt and oil.
Oil is the same as what was in it. Penrite Diesel.

What i will do is the PCV valve, they all have some crank pressure so i have been told by a very smart LR fella.

Then i'll see if it still does it, if so then the next will be fuel then turbo (ive got a spare)

Here is a good one....
Injectors and pump were replaced at 160k as it had a miss and carried on. Well the miss is still there at high load... 100kmh

I need to do some diagnostics on it. Throw the boost gauge on it and EGT to see what is happening. Then i'll see what i can find.

Also would Alge in the fuel cause problems???

Its strange it just started being bad on this trip on the down hills...

I'll get it to do it this weekend in the Hills...

Originally posted by shaunp
May be worth cleaning the intercooler.

if it is the problem.....it may not be.

of the two cars that did it i was talking about one of them was aces and the other was a td5.....(noddys)
two different engines did the same thing after going up a steep hill.


i cant think what else it could be........both cleared up after a few minutes and are now running as if nothing happened.