More Discovery woes

[Exmoor Beast]

Coming up Porlock Hill (1in4 and about 1300ft climb I think) I suddenly got lots of black smoke and a severe loss of power from the discoverys 300TDi.

Pulled over, and had a look. Oil everywhere, blowing out of a hole in the braded hose that goes to the air intake just before the Turbo. Taking the hose off its blowing oily smoke like mad.

Limped home in low box at times due to lack of uummpphh.

Back home I have pulled the intake off and had a look at the turbo, should there be any play in the vanes when you poke your fingers in the intake side? there certainly plenty of oil in there from the breather.

Any suggestions? Is it the Turbo? or have I done something more serious like the head gone again (its not overheating...yet maybe).

I was going to break it earlier in fustration now it seems we have missed the chance of the disco we were looking at so I have to fix it...again...and quick seeing as I have started pulling the 110 to bits...

Will

[Pete Attryde]

I believe that there will be some play in the turbine as it relies on oil pressure to create the bearing.

Do you have a boost gauge installed? at least it would tell you wether the turbo is doing it's job.

Have you checked that the air intake is not blocked, I know when the snorkel on mine ingested a load of leaves in the lakes last november Uncle Les thought I had killed my engine because of the amount of black smoke coming out of it.

HTH

[Exmoor Beast]

I changed all the filters last week so I assume the intake is clear.

Theres certainly no pressure in the hose on the engine side of the turbo when you rev it

Will

[q-rover]

Hoses delaminating internally?

[Exmoor Beast]

The hose from the air intake isn't laminated is it?

Its not something after the turbo or the turbo hose would still have pressure in it wouldn't it? I have had turbo hoses fail in the past and you just lose boost. This is obviously more serious

There are two things that concern me:

1. the amount of oily smoke from the breather? is this normal, theres obviously a good deal of pressure behind it.

2. the lack of boost from the turbo.

Are the two connected and how?

Will

[TheRecklessEngineer]

Tough one..

Does the turbo spin up with the intake disconnected?

[simonb]

The hose from the air intake isn't laminated is it?

Its not something after the turbo or the turbo hose would still have pressure in it wouldn't it? I have had turbo hoses fail in the past and you just lose boost. This is obviously more serious

There are two things that concern me:

1. the amount of oily smoke from the breather? is this normal, theres obviously a good deal of pressure behind it.

2. the lack of boost from the turbo.

Are the two connected and how?

Will

The hose output from the turbo is laminated to stop it balloning under pressure. The intake hose has ribs on the outside to stop it collapsing due to the turbo suck...

The hose that has come off is from the crankcase/cyclone breather. That isn't laminated/ribbed.

But hose back on, take off oil filler cap, run engine at idle. If smoke fumes are visible coming from filler cap hole, head gasket may have gone. This may pressurise crankcase enough to blow off the braether hose and will give lack of power.

How do you know you haven't got boost from the turbo? without a boost gauge its difficult to tell. At fast idle a 300Tdi won't produce more than a few psi boost. Its 15psi at full power on load.

[lrfarmer]

is it the fins with the play or the shaft.

there is someplay in the shaft but not much more than 1/2-1mm. if the fins have got play but not the shaft then it's yes gone

as you have not got pressure theres a good chance it's the turbo i take it you gave it some rev to see if theres pressure

[Exmoor Beast]

definately no boost. when you rev it theres no build up of pressure in the outlet hose.

the vanes do move about quite a bit when you poke your fingers in the inlet side as does the shaft, I would say its more than 1mm.

Any suggestions about where to source a new turbo?

Will

[nicks90]

the little braided hose that attaches to the intake hose before the turbo is from the sump.

if theres clouds of oily smoke and pressure coming through that - then the engine is venting compression into the sump via a knackered head gasket or past the piston rings.

ignore the fact you cant feel any 'boost' in the i/c to manifold hose when you rev it on idle, no point in having a turbo at all if there is something distinctly FUBAR'd in the engine........

sounds like you need to take the head off again.

[Exmoor Beast]

Good point Nick,

I think I might better putting my energy back into screwing the 110 together again and scrapping the Discovery and getting another one

The whole big smoke incident seems to point at the turbo, maybe thats gone as a result of excessive smokey oil being recirculated into the inlet air???

Will

[LandyManLuke]

was the oily smoke coming from the hole near the turbo, or the breaker pipe?

If its from the breather pipe, its got nothing to do with the turbo itself. As nick said it's a compression problem. rings or head.

If smoke was coming out of the hole on the inlet pipework, it's going against the normal flow of air, so that's very strange indeed.