hi all, my defender had the egr removed a few years back. I recently added a new larger intercooler , new hoses, remap , etc. All going well. I pulled the hose off the air intake manifold today and there is a lot of wet grey sludge sitting in the silicon hose between the intercooler and the manifold. Looks like emulsified oil to me but just wondering why its its in there. previously I had the usual levels of oil coating the hoses but this looks different and my fear is that somewhere there is water (vapour?) getting into the air intake. the only place it could get in, other than the raised air intake itself would presumably be a blown head gasket and then venting via the rocker breather?? Unless its moisture condensing out of the air in the intercooler then mixing with the breather oil vapour?

Truck goes well, no excessive smoke although I did notice today when I had failed to tighten the hose clip and blew the intake hose off oops that there is a fair bit of smoke coming through the intercooler which was more than i expected to see but not sure if this is the turbo seals on their way or just the breather (which could also indicate excessive blow by etc....

Anyone got any views on this? Bin job or will it polish out?

Turbo bearings?

Smoke is a vague word. If it was the turbo seals you would expect to see excessive oil going through the induction system or out the exhaust (learned the exhaust bit from James Martin) So, you would be burning oil, with symptoms of dull smoke and the danger of a run away or oil would come out the back, which can appear as droplets stuck to rear if landy door, window etc. The fact that it is grey sludge and not the usual film of engine oil would make me wonder anorl. It does sound like water is adding to the mix. Is your air filter nice and dry? Have you checked the intake pipe between the filter and the turbo for cracks or splits. Presume you've checked header tank and dipstick for signs of oil/cream. Rocker filler cap, any cream in there? Excess pressure to indicate blow by: ie chuffing or pressure if you put hand over oil filler hole.

hi cheers for replies. so, no cream round oil filler, dip stick or header tank. header tank did need topping up though but i havent done that in years so will monitor this carefully over the coming days/ weeks. Air filter and box dry as a bone too. unscrewed the oil filler cap and ran engine - very little pressure. Cap sat on top without dancing about and placing my hand over it to seal I couldn't detect any pressure. No cracks in air intake pipes as far as i can tell. No oil splatter on the rear of the truck either with no apparent steam in exhaust.

Clutching at straws here but given that this is a fairly new intercooler and that the sludge is distinctly grey in colour I was wondering if this could somehow relate to aluminium oxide residue in the intercooler or some other substance from the manufacturing processes of the intercooler being absorbed into the oil vapour coming from the breather. The intercooler is of a well known brand and seems good. ??

cheers

That all sounds good. I wonder if there was some water in the I/C when you bought it? Odd, but maybe.
Keep monitoring your water level. Take off inlet manifold and pipe from turbo and clean them. Then you can monitor situation from a known baseline.

yeah, will keep an eye on it. fingers crossed its not head gasket failure. might turn the boost down a notch...