smokey 300tdi when cold

[gripper]

this has probably been covered in 1 way or another in all the other posts i have been delving through today.

i have a 1997 300tdi disco, it is not a fly by wire, has the egr blanked off too.

problem i have is when the engine is cold i.e. not run for a few hours, when i put my foot down and the turbo kicks in there is a horrendous load of smoke coming out of the exhaust, enough to hide the following car, the more i put my foot down the worse it is.

it does appear to be white/grey although i think i can smell burning oil in it too.

this gets less and less as the temperature rises, when the engine has warmed up this goes away and i can boot it without any visible smoke at all, it drives with plenty of power even with the smoke.

i went to my local 4x4 guy and when i pressed the accelerator to a steady revs it chucked out some smoke, not anywhere near as bad as when cold, which did smell like oil burning, we adjusted the pump timing as it was very quiet, almost petrol engine like which he said wasn't right as it should have a diesel knock to it, when this was set right it sounded better and i couldn't get the engine to smoke at any revs and it ran superbly home.

next day it's the same thing smokey when cold.

it did use about half a pint of oil in the last 2 weeks although it does have a leak from the rocker area so this wouldn't help also did oil and filter change last night as i don't know how long it's been since the last one.

there is also some smoke coming from the oil filler cap although it is not heavy just barely noticable, if you weren't looking for it you may not see it, this does appear more when the engine stops running.

breathers are clean, there is oil in the pipes from turbo up the the inlet and in the chamber itself,also the turbo shaft has about 8-10mm of play in it which is basically shot but it works great and when no pipe is connected to it it doesn't smoke or throw oil out of the exit, i assume if this was letting oil through to cause the smoke when cold it would do it all the time but i could be wrong, i am aware of the possibility of the engine running away but don't have funds to replace it now, presume the intercooler also has oil in it but haven't got round to cleaning it out yet as it is a daily driver for my wife so need to keep it in 1 piece.

took glow plugs out and they seem to glow nicely too, back 2 had oil on them, front 2 were clean as new although they did seem reluctant to come out of the hole.

don't at the moment have access to a compression tester, and there doesn't seem to be any contamination of oil or water.

haven't taken off the rocker cover yet to look at the stem seals, can i see if they are lifted off the seats just by removing the cover and looking through the spring?

i have also changed the injectors for another set from a decent running engine with no difference.

fuel consumption isn't bad either, about 20 round town on short trips and 25-28 ish on a constant run, same as my old 200tdi was and that was a sweet engine.

should i be really concerned as it runs well with plenty of power and when warm runs without smoke?

[vougese39]

where to start valve stem seals, piston rings, worn turbo, oil breather blocked, turbo and intercooler full of oil try a comp test to see what the state is would also advise a fotre engine flush and seal additive if it stops the smoke then you will know it is a head rebuild time

[mobyone]

if it is when cold, i would say valve stem seals need replacing. if it is when cold, the oils passes down into chambers as they dont contract as much. could be several things though.

richard

[gripper]

as it only does this when the engine is cold and has stood for some time i am thinking more along the lines of the worn turbo as stem seals would clear very quick and if it was the rings it would chuff an awful lot more than it does, went to land rover dealer and spoke to an old school mechanic about it and he diagnosed that the old one is probably leaking oil and pooling in the exhaust side which would burn a lot slower when the engine and exhaust is cold until it's all blown through.

whilst there i got some good news, i managed to obtain another turbo complete with non cat downpipe for the grand sum of £0.00

definately a result.

turbo seems good inside nothing worn and very minimal movement of the shaft no more than quarter of a mm. hopefully it will turn out .

will report back at the weekend when it's fitted, at the very least it will give me a good turbo without the risk of the engine running away.

[gripper]

ok then update time, new turbo fitted today and cleared the white smoke when cold, still has a little black or oily smoke so will be checking the pump timing again, settings on pump, and i think the stem seals are loose on at least number 3 pot as i did a cold compression test via the glow plug holes and number 3 plug was very oily on the end after cranking the other cylinders will check this tomorrow, the results of the compression test were all in the 350-360 psi ballpark so as far as i can see they are at lr workshop figures, this was with the battery jumped to my van as cranking it so much was draining the battery bit i shouldn't think this would alter the readings by any significant amount besides i rechecked the first cylinder and it was within 10 psi of the reading from the disco's own battery before jump leads were attached. bit of tweaking to do to check the rest of the settings and it should be sorted.