Hi All,

Well, after doing the timing belt and a few other jobs, the old girl is running again, but she's pretty smokey after standing for 4 months.

The smoke is a nice oily blue colour, and there's a fair bit of it when flooring the throttle. This has only started since it has been sitting unused.

So, all ye diesel heads, what has happened? How is so much oil now getting burned?
Where should I start looking?
Would a bit of a caning down the motorway help?

It has 200k miles on it and I'll be changing the oil this week as well as cleaning the cyclone breather.

Hope it isn't too terminal

So, anyone any ideas?

u sure u have your pump timing right? considering u have just done cambelt.......

is it running ok/pulling how it should do?

too much oil in engine?

valve stem seals worn.

This problem was noticeable before I did the timing. As AIUI, wrong timing would give unburnt diesel. Anyway it's running fine. Oil Level is ok too.

I assume, given that there's 200k on it that the valve stems are worn. What I don't understand is why this would manifest itself after sitting up.

Given my limited knowledge, the only routes for oil into the combustion chamber are valve stems, rings or breathers? Am I right? If so, while sitting, something has happened one of these bits.

I'm a bit confused.

have u taken it out and got the engine properly warm?

might be worth lifting the rocker cover to see if one of the stem seals is slack as a yack or split(very unlikely)

Only been able to drive it on the driveway as it's not insured ATM. Warming up a tdi is a tad difficult! Managed to get to about 1/3 on the temp gauge. I guess this could be part of the problem?

Will lift the rocker cover and have a look-see.

i'd take it out for a ragging proper drive to get things moving, then have a look

Will do. thanks for your help Tonk

The valve stem seals go hard over time with exposure to the oil - I shattered the old ones off my 2.5NAD! They may have dried up and shrunk back slightly if the engine's been laid up for a time.

Well I took it for a caning last night and it seems to have recovered. No blue smoke now, just a slight black haze which was there before and as far as I am concerned is absolutely normal

And a good job too that it's going, cause the van has just blown a head gasket
I bet Renault engines are a bit more complicated than LR lumps