White smoke and rough start up after a wading incident!

Hi all,

I went out playing in the floods last week and the flexi pipe to the air box decided to work its way off the snorkel right in the middle of a flood over the bonnet... i heard/felt it dying so switched off immediately and luckily had enough momentum to roll out of the flood. I took all the air intake pipes off etc and drained everything i could, i should add the pipes only had a bit of water in and were not full so turning it off sharpish stopped too much water getting in. I also didnt take the glow plugs out even though i probably should have!! Then tried to start it and it was seized but after a few attempts it started then died then started then died this happened about 5 times until it ran constantly, on the way home it was kicking out masses of white smoke but this had cleared by the time i had made the 20min journey home, i thought id had a very lucky escape! It now runs fine except on start up where it runs very rough and kicks out white smoke not steam. This then clears after the the first hard acceleration. So ive done a search but cant find anything specific to my problem. Any ideas as to why its rough and kicking out all the smoke on start up and how to sort it would be very helpful.

Thanks Woody

Hi Woody,

Did you fix the problem ? if so what was the problem ?

Same problem happend on my 94 disco 300tdi last week.
had to waded thro' flooded lane at 500mm depth then 800mm ! no snorkle.
Switched off wngine as soon as I felt her choke.
White smoke and rough also when first running until warm then power mainly OK at 90% ish but a little white smoke still.
took out intercooler (about 1 pint water), heater plugs out (NO water), new fuel filter (no water or sludge).
checked fuel tank via top removal pick up lid (clean no water).
cleaned and checked all breather hoses = OK.
Feels like a faulty injector or pump but no reason why that would happen after flood. ?
I suspect also a faulty turbo if she took some some water in.

anyway any help very welcome before I start spending money or stripping down parts

JON

discojon27 said:

Hi Woody,

Did you fix the problem ? if so what was the problem ?

Same problem happend on my 94 disco 300tdi last week.
had to waded thro' flooded lane at 500mm depth then 800mm ! no snorkle.
Switched off wngine as soon as I felt her choke.
White smoke and rough also when first running until warm then power mainly OK at 90% ish but a little white smoke still.
took out intercooler (about 1 pint water), heater plugs out (NO water), new fuel filter (no water or sludge).
checked fuel tank via top removal pick up lid (clean no water).
cleaned and checked all breather hoses = OK.
Feels like a faulty injector or pump but no reason why that would happen after flood. ?
I suspect also a faulty turbo if she took some some water in.

anyway any help very welcome before I start spending money or stripping down parts

JON

Click to expand...

If the engine took in water it could have hydrauliced and bent a couple of valves, and or lifted the head.

HI top-cat,

thanks for reply, head problem ? yes could be it explains why when warm symptoms lessen as head expands etc. Will try to borrow a diesel spec compression tester before taking head off, today opening no3 injector pipe did not make that much of a difference in running whilst other 3 were noticable.
Will let you all know final result if I get chance to do this w'end.

Thanks JON

Hi,

update - white smoke and rough running after wading incident.
Well a busy day saturday, head taken of, all looking good no bent valves/pushrods. Head gasket good. However no3 has not been runing correctly as lots of black hard soot in no3 compared to others ? hum..
Cylinder bores look remarkably good after 208k miles, however when cyl 3 tated to TDC to measure/check correct gasket size I discover that No3 cylinder is 4 mm BELOW top deck rather than 0.8 mm above. = Bent con rod.
Sump off, big end bearing cap off but oh dear will NOT fit up thro bore as its bent.
deciding now to cut rod insitu or gently file side of con rod big end to fit up bore.
Not an easy job underneath an oily engine in the drive
Will update later...
JON

all done, new con rod and all back together, running OK

these will bend a con rod with a the smallest amount of water in the bore you have to remember water CANNOT be compressed the rod has to give