6 months ago my Series III Diesel was smoking so much on tick over that I had to take it off the road, because it was never going through the MOT unless Stevie Wonder was my tester. So three weeks ago after getting cheesed off doing 14 to the gallon in my 1989 V8 Disco (Now for sale £450). I decided to carry out the necessary sugery on the Series to make it legal again. After much chat with my Mechanic mates in the pub, it was decided that it needed new valve stem seals. A job that I had enough confidence to do myself. I took two days off work and did the job (Thursday & Friday this week). Finished it started it up, exactly the same, went to the pub, got drunk..... So cheesed off because I don't have any other vehicle apart from the Disco! So what else can I do, when I took the head off, there was no signs of scoring in the bores and I couldn't see anything else obviously wrong. Thevalves were really dirty and I gave em good clean and then painstakingly lapped them all in. Somebody mentioned dripping injectors on tick over! But I want to go through this step by step instead of trying different things suggested by my team of professional Alchoholic mechanics. What should I do next ?

what colour smoke?

Blue ! But not really thick blue !

So it's burning oil, forget about fuel system.

Oil is entering the cylinder's, possible causes for this could be, valve's, Head gasket or up past the pistons.

Have you done a compression test?

ffs heidi!! get a leak down test did, not a compression test

Glyndwr said:

Blue ! But not really thick blue !

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if its oil - yu can smell it!

why not to both tests - they are easy enuf.

Thanks for all of your replies. It only smokes when its on tick over. Compression test gets screwed into the heater plug ports yea ! How do you do a leak test ? It's never been using water.

Glyndwr said:

Thanks for all of your replies. How do you do a leak test ? It's never been using water.

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lol - nice one Glyndwr - try reading this or if yu are feeling optomistic - read this

When doing a cylinder leakage test I found it a good idea to remove the starter motor so I could keep the thing at TDC by jamming a spanner in the ring gear. You can spend lots of time chasing air when your precious piston is wallowing in the belly of the bore so to speak.
Good luck

one of the important steps in a leak down test is locking the engine with the piston of the cylinder yer testing at TDC compression stroke. if yer piston is at any other point in the cycle yer wasting yer time and you int doing it properly

Just to finish this story off. My garage has said that the diesel pump needs reconditioning, quoted £300 and then it needs new injectors (£60). New Rad required (£100). Timing chain and the labour about £700. Am selling and buying another series diesel. Thanks for all of your comments. Any offers will be taken on the Series 3 and I also have a V8 Disco for sale tax and tested f0r £350.