Smoking Series 3 2.25 diesel

Some of you may remember I posted here a while ago.

Sorry I've not replied to the helpful suggestions for a while or given a clue as to the results. Anyway here's the latest in the saga of my son's 2.25 diesel

I've had the timing done. New chain and sprockets etc and the result - no smoke on tickover. However, it smoked liked a chimney at any speed so I thought 'right that's it you're coming apart!'. So off with the cylinder head and out with the pistons and I discovered 3 of the 4 had broken pistons rings and some damage to the piston crowns. So I replaced the pistons after checking the bores, measuring the gap between a piston ring placed in the bore and rehoning. The cyclinder head was also check for warping. Everything well within tolerances so new gaskets and engine put back together. Guess what? Still plumes of dirty white smoke!! Aargh! So I thought perhaps I did something wrong so took the cylinder head off and checked everything again. All ok so with a new cylinder head gasket and different injectors everything was put back together triple checking all the torque settings. And?........................still plumes of dirty white smoke!...... and it won't go any less than a very fast tickover no matter what I adjust.

Thinking I might take a sledgehammer to it I've cooled down somewhat after a few days. If there's anyone out there who could offer me some advice I'd be very grateful. In fact, help! SOS, m'aidez etc. etc

Its hard to diagnose via proxy, I have some ideas though.
White smoke is usually one of two things, steam or diesel, if its diesel then its fuel that has been vaporised but not burnt at all, injectors seem to have been a common cause for me on this score, however a bad or incorrectly adjusted pump can do it, you say the timing has been done, was the fuelling done at the same time?
Might be worth a check to see if its water, let some condense from the exhaust on a bit of glass, so you can tell whether its fuel or coolant.

I think its a very good idea to borrow a compression test kit and do a compresion test, if the compression on all the cyls are fine, then it looks like a duffo or badly set pump, as you say you've tried other injectors (you sure they were not screwed as well?).

If compression is an issue then its usually just the one cylinder so the engine will miss, with you not mentioning missing then fingers and thoughts are pointing at a pump issue.

I'm sure some other peeps will have some extra ideas.

I would have to agree with the doc. We used to get benford dumpers that did this. Might be worth getting the injectors checked to make sure they are firing correctly, should be a fine mist. if a dripple not good. Again a fubard, or badly adjusted pump can and will give issues to which you are getting. As a last thought, is it possible that the exhaust is full of ****, from the last problem, and that it needs time to clear. I had this with a petrol frontera, that i did the headgasket on. It steamed for a couple of days until all the water was out of the exhaust.
anyways good luck with your mission.
cheers alex

I have 1983 series3 88 2-25 Diesel. What would be the reasonable milage per gallon

Diesels should do 27-33 mpg, ( depending on how much stuff you carry, condition driving technique etc)

ive just been throught this smoke saga with mine and it turned out to be a lot of play in the skew gear under the cav pump that drives off the cam shaft

the bronze bush it runs in had worn out giving 1/8" play up and down thus as its moving up and down its turning the timing by up to and around 16 degrees wich with mine it was throwing me timing into retard and causing the white smoke

what ive done as a temporary fix because this bush is mega heckspensive i took the bugger appart and shimmed it to remove the play and slack so theres now no backlash in thaty gear and thus no sh1tty white smoke

just a little advice on the pistons though

as i also had mine rebored with new pistons it did smoke a fair bit for the first 100 miles or so till the rings wore in to the bores again but i ended up with it burning oil due to the fella that honed the bores out not washing the crud and sandy **** out properly before i rebuilt it so this gunged up the engine oil and blocked the oil filter so with nowhere for the oil to flow freeley it was getting backwashed up the riser pipe at the back of the engine and all of it into the head up through the breather filter thing on the rocker cover and into the inlet manifold then on through the valve chambers

if i hadnt noticed this i could verry well have had a runaway on me hands

*cough* date *cough*

You say you had the timing done, was it set correctly with EP mark on flywheel and number one exhaust fully open? I always use a dial gauge to set this which is critical on these engines, your symptoms may be retarded timing. Slacken the injector pipes and advance the pump about 1 mm at a time and run it for a few days to clear and settle down.

ok, since the cough was a bit too subtle for some

IT'S FROM 2010.. I'M SURE HE'S FIXED IT BY NOW.

this is all

trax said:

ok, since the cough was a bit too subtle for some

IT'S FROM 2010.. I'M SURE HE'S FIXED IT BY NOW.

this is all

Click to expand...

not if the doc has had anythin to do with it

Speaking of which....is yours back together and running Johnny? Was hoping for a video of her running or something
Last I heard you just had to spanner the engine back together it that must have been a couple of months ago

Been battling this ghastric interitus first me then the eldest daughter now the youngest its a fekkin nightmare but this time sjes back together with a full set of brand new injectors and ive made a bit of a mod to the oil breather pipe as i found half a pint of oil in the inlet fannymold so i steam cleaned all that out and made a catch bottle to stop the oil getting to the intake today should be the day of the big restart