Defender 90 Oil leak in Air Filter

joe_cic said:

Dear all,

I'm thinking about buying myself my first land rover and was wondering if I could ask for some tips. The Land Rover I'm interested in is a 1990 Land Rover Defender 90 Hard Top (Commercial). It has a recently fitted original reconditioned 2.5l Turbo Diesel engine. Extras include: Power Steering, Original Bull Bar, side steps, new large all terrain tyres, Spare wheel bracket, Thule Roof Rack, and the works. Now I went to see it and the drive was great. Aside from the rusted areas, including the passenger door, I noted an exaggerated amount of oil leakage, especially inside the air filter. The air filter was full of oil and I have no idea what the reason for this may be. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Joe

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landy10 said:

Just wait till POS jumps on this, he will give a good detailed run down

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pos said:

I can only try! Am I right in thinking that it could still be a TD engine in there as opposed to a TDi?

Joe:

The first and most important thing that you should do is disconnect the engine breather pipe which runs from the rocker cover to either the air intake or a different location, leaving it connected to the rocker cover. Start the engine, run it up to temperature and then (whilst the engine is still running) look at the breather pipe. Is there a lot of "air" being blown out from it? Also, with the breather pipe fully re-fitted, remove the oil filler cap and place your hand over the top to see whether or not there is a lot of blow by. If there's pressure, there's potentially a problem.

The next thing to do (again whilst the engine is running) is to remove the oil dip stick and press your thumb over the tube. Keep your thumb firmly in place for about five seconds and then quickly remove it. Do you hear a lot of pressure build up, or does the engine physically spit oil out at you?

If there is pressure there, it would indicate either worn rings, cracked pistons, a blown head gasket or possibly even a cracked block. A head gasket is a few hours job to change, but with there being so many possibilities it's hard to diagnose straight away and it could end up being a full engine strip down. If the guy's telling the truth and it's a factory re-conditioned engine there should not be any pressure build up what so ever.

Does he have any receipts?
-Pos

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