2.5 TD breathing heavy....gasp!

moorlander · Mar 10, 2018

Hi folks, the old girl is blowing oil out of the breather cap, its so bad I've
Routed the pipe to the back of the chassis. I now have a very rare twin exhaust series 3 Land rover! I know this is usually symptomatic of a worn engine, but in fairness less than 3 years and 15,000 miles ago I replaced and skimmed the head, fitted new +10 pistons, and had the valves re faced.

Could the tappet timing cause this symptom ? though I did them about 6 months ago, or turbo perhaps?

To be honest I'm stumped. I'm going to fit an oil catch can but that is only addressing the symptom, not the cause, but my wife is no fan of oil incontinence , even in her own Land rover.
Any advice would be very gratefully received.
Thanks folks.

Bobsticle · Mar 11, 2018

More likely worn cylinder rings and cylinder walls. Can you not divert the pipe into the chassis and stop it rotting.

My 2 1/4 is blowing a bit when the filler cap is removed and I also get an oil patch round the breather but its something I'll live with until the big bang.

moorlander · Mar 11, 2018

I doubt its the rings, the pistons were all new. Deglazed the cylinder walls, but I guess they could have gone out of shape? Hope not, all that work for nothing...

Flossie · Mar 11, 2018

I'd get a compression test done,
That will tell you loads.

Extreedoc · Mar 11, 2018

Flossie said:
I'd get a compression test done,
That will tell you loads.

Absolutely... Did you measure your cylinders for wear? Seems a waste of time to fit new pistons to old bores. A compression test is the most sensible move now. It will cost you at least £70 to get it tested at a diesel specialist. You can buy a perfectly serviceable diesel compression tester kit from Amazon for a lot less than what it will cost you to have a garage do the test for you.

Amazon product

moorlander · Mar 11, 2018

Yes, Ive been thinking just that, but I was wondering/hoping something else might be capable of causing these symptoms.

freelance · Mar 11, 2018

So you put bigger pistons in without rebore? There is your problem

moorlander · Mar 16, 2018

I'm going to do compression tests as suggested. Does anyone know, what figures I'm looking for? Ive trawled the net but no joy. Any other tips?
Many thanks for reading.

Flossie · Mar 16, 2018

Circa 400 psi.
Take all the glow plugs out and stop solenoid disconnected when testing.

nickjaxe · Mar 17, 2018

I was also thinking....did you re-bore when you fitted new pistons or rings...they will never bed into a worn bore even if slight.

If you have a paper type air-filter be careful....it will get oil soden and the motor will stat to run out of control on it.

moorlander · Mar 17, 2018

No as I recall the bores were just checked for wear and measured, by my mate who knows much more than me, he said they needed +20's, thats what I bought, and fitted. I'll pressure test and post the results.
Cheers.

Turboman · Mar 17, 2018

moorlander said:
Hi folks, the old girl is blowing oil out of the breather cap, its so bad I've
Routed the pipe to the back of the chassis. I now have a very rare twin exhaust series 3 Land rover! I know this is usually symptomatic of a worn engine, but in fairness less than 3 years and 15,000 miles ago I replaced and skimmed the head, fitted new +10 pistons, and had the valves re faced.

Could the tappet timing cause this symptom ? though I did them about 6 months ago, or turbo perhaps?

To be honest I'm stumped. I'm going to fit an oil catch can but that is only addressing the symptom, not the cause, but my wife is no fan of oil incontinence , even in her own Land rover.
Any advice would be very gratefully received.
Thanks folks.

Can be caused by tappets, or a head gasket blowing. On rare occasions the vacuum pump can pressurise the crankcase.

If not, engine wear, but check the others first.

Turboman · Mar 17, 2018

nickjaxe said:
I was also thinking....did you re-bore when you fitted new pistons or rings...they will never bed into a worn bore even if slight.

If you have a paper type air-filter be careful....it will get oil soden and the motor will stat to run out of control on it.

Air filter won't get oil on it if the breathers are routed to atmosphere, which he says he has done.

Extreedoc · Mar 17, 2018

moorlander said:
No as I recall the bores were just checked for wear and measured, by my mate who knows much more than me, he said they needed +20's, thats what I bought, and fitted. I'll pressure test and post the results.
Cheers.

Did he measure the cylinders at numerous different places? You need to check for ovality and measure the diameter at the top where the cylinder is unworn and compare the measurements to the part where the pistons move. Cylinders don't wear evenly all over, they become oval and wear kind of like a barrel because of the sideways thrust of the pistons. Fitting new pistons to worn cylinders: a bad idea...

jamesmartin · Mar 17, 2018

to get the cylinder nominal size you measure at the bottom, it dooesnt wear and has no carbon build up

Extreedoc · Mar 17, 2018

jamesmartin said:
to get the cylinder nominal size you measure at the bottom, it dooesnt wear and has no carbon build up

Agreed, but not possible if the pistons are still in. The land at the top, above the wear ridge with the carbon scraped away is a good place to get an idea of unworn diameter.

moorlander · Mar 18, 2018

Well, i did the compression tests today in sub zero temperatures. Deep joy. Not good news, from front to rear the figures were 400,350,350, and 410. The glow plugs were all out, but I put one back into two and retested 3 in case a worn head gasket was causing the problem. Same result. Not sure where to go from here, find a 200tdi and start again or have the head off and check further?

Turboman · Mar 18, 2018

moorlander said:
Well, i did the compression tests today in sub zero temperatures. Deep joy. Not good news, from front to rear the figures were 400,350,350, and 410. The glow plugs were all out, but I put one back into two and retested 3 in case a worn head gasket was causing the problem. Same result. Not sure where to go from here, find a 200tdi and start again or have the head off and check further?

Just take the head off, and have a look at the gasket. Highly likely you will see marks from gas running from No. 3 cylinder into the pushrod gallery.
They often fail like that.

Extreedoc · Mar 18, 2018

It won't cost you anything to pull the head and have a look. You could even pull the pistons if you can't see anything obvious from on top.

Turboman · Mar 18, 2018

Extreedoc said:
It won't cost you anything to pull the head and have a look. You could even pull the pistons if you can't see anything obvious from on top.

Head gasket failure in the manner described is extremely common on these engines. Changed a number myself.

2.5 TD breathing heavy....gasp!

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