250k miles, help with engine health checks/diagnosing

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F

flatline

Active Member
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285
Location
Blackpool
As title, 300tdi with 250k miles. Smokes on acceleration, white/grey and hangs in the air. Can see it during the day too.

Recently fixed a split lower intercooler pipe, drives much better than it did !

Timing belt done around 55k miles ago. Recently serviced.

Did a sniff test which appeared clear.

I've have a leak down tester which I'm planning on having a go with this weekend, I have a smoke tester and a compression tester.

After a bit help with what to do and in what order and tell me if I'm doing things correctly as I go 😁

Cheers in advance 🫡
 
Well that was a waste of a few hours 😶

Fitting for the leak down tester leaks and the compression spring retainer thingy fell apart on the compression tester 😅
 
New compression tester arrived today, can't seem to find an adapter for the leak down tester.

Cylinder 1 - 400
Cylinder 2 - 440
Cylinder 3 - 435
Cylinder 4 - 400

All looks good?

Also adjusted the valve clearance, some of them were extremely tight and somebody else has had a right go at them in the past as the bit where the flathead goes was mangled. I would like to check them again but I'm worried about damaging them even further.
 
Also got a pic of one of the glow plug tips, they all look like this. No oil, not clean but with a little soot.

All look normal?

Cheers
 

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Need to change the adjuster screws in the head at some point, got a timing belt kit on the way from dingocroft also.

Sounds like I I'm gonna need an 8njector puller too 😁
 
On the TDI injectors I have had modified over the years my diesel guy will only fit nozzles made by the Italian company Fratelli Bosio. They are highly rated amongst the diesel tuning fraternity and are not made from Chinesium......
 
You need a boost gauge to give you any real answer on the smoke you mentioned. Those compression numbers are good. Was it a cold or hot test ?
 
One other thing I would try is to remove the air filter and go for that same drive and see if any diff in the smoke level's. I guess I am trying to eliminate air scavenging from the sump with this test
 
Google tells me the 300 tdi has a compression ratio of 19:1 - so at 15 psi (air pressure at sea level ) times 19 means a max of 285 psi - your readings of 400 would using my logic be way too high - of course I could have the cat by the horn's

Even if it is wildly wrong the readings on cyl 2 and 3 do seem to support the installation of that dual air intake sold by one of the UK companies - not wanting to hijack your thread though

Do you still have the egr valve fitted / operational cause maybe it's feeding back exhaust gasses into the intake resulting in the fuel not being burnt properly -
 
The spec from land rover is 360 from cold. 400 is high but you are really looking for no more than a ten percent imbalance between all four.
Do the compression again stone cold as the metal expands when hot and can hide things. It's just for peace of mind really.
Your smoke could well be injectors, I'm having the same problem with mine after a run away 😭
It could also be that someone has fiddled with the injection pump and boost pin. The trouble I find is once something has fiddled there is no way of knowing or how to put it back to stock original.
 
D1Nut said:
Google tells me the 300 tdi has a compression ratio of 19:1 - so at 15 psi (air pressure at sea level ) times 19 means a max of 285 psi - your readings of 400 would using my logic be way too high - of course I could have the cat by the horn's

Even if it is wildly wrong the readings on cyl 2 and 3 do seem to support the installation of that dual air intake sold by one of the UK companies - not wanting to hijack your thread though

Do you still have the egr valve fitted / operational cause maybe it's feeding back exhaust gasses into the intake resulting in the fuel not being burnt properly -
Click to expand...
What difference would the intake make?

EGR is removed, has been since I bought it 👍
 
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