As you can see it has a nasty oil leak.
Looks like oil is being dragged up into the air filter to. Any ideas or advice on what it could be and what should be done about it.
Could this be the route of my james bond smoke screen?
Thanks in advance
could this cause the smoke
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tattoojohnny
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could this cause the smoke
Got the bus up in the air today and had a proper look at the underside. I was extremely pleased to find out how solid she is and only found a small amount of welding needed. Everything else looks as it should be apart from the turbo. Turbo was replaced 2 years ago before I brought her.
As you can see it has a nasty oil leak.
Looks like oil is being dragged up into the air filter to. Any ideas or advice on what it could be and what should be done about it.
Could this be the route of my james bond smoke screen?
Thanks in advance
As you can see it has a nasty oil leak.
Looks like oil is being dragged up into the air filter to. Any ideas or advice on what it could be and what should be done about it.
Could this be the route of my james bond smoke screen?
Thanks in advance
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ewenmaclean
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- Joined: 16 Nov 2006, 19:32
- 80-90 Mem No: 7306
- Location: Edinburgh
Re: could this cause the smoke
Hello,
I was waiting a bit to post as other people know a lot more about these turbos and the JX setup than me, so some of what I say may not apply, but maybe I can help a bit.
It looks from the photo that what is leaking oil is the oil feed to the turbo. If I were you I'd clean it up and see exactly where it comes from - it might be a split pipe or a gasket or even the nut to the turbo needing tightened - difficult to say from the picture. On mine I have several points where the turbo feed line is secured to stop it from vibrating too much. I would check how tight that nut is if it is coming from there - mine is connected in a similar way to a compression joint with an olive, like in copper pipe installations in houses. You might need to just replace the connection to the turbo itself. It might also be worth checking there isn't a blockage in the return line to the sump - I use a guitar string and feed it through - sludgy oil can cause the return to slow up meaning it will leak elsewhere.
As far as oil in the air supply goes (not sure how it is set up on yours wrt to air filter etc...)- there's normally a bit of oily air going to the inlet manifold from crankcase gases being vented into the inlet to the turbo - I think most diesels have this as there is often "blow-by" past the pistons into the crankcase. I'd check the pipe coming from the turbo to the inlet manifold - it will be a bit oily - too much and you either have a problem with the crankcase breather or more likely oil is passing from the turbo bearing into the compressor side and getting burnt off.
Check to see how much oil you're actually using after you've fixed the leak. 1 litre per 7000-8000 miles is not much to worry about I would say, but 1 litre per 500miles isn't great, and you may want to look at the turbo oil seals. If you idle a lot and don't rev very hard then the oil that is in the inlet manifold will linger about there longer and will contribute to smoking - usually blueish in colour for oil.
lot's of black smoke is usually partially burnt diesel - it's quite an art getting these diesels to run right, and is to do with timing and mixture levels and all sorts which I don't really understand. If you have persistent black smoke I'd check the timing, and also, check you don't have any air leaks between the turbo and inlet manifold. I blew a flexible pipe off my intercooler accererating hard in 2nd the other day, so I know what you mean about the smoke screen
If you reckon the timing is ok, and the injectors are ok and you don't have an air leak, then check the oil levels, and go out and rev pretty hard for a bit - it will probably smoke due to burning off the oil sitting in the inlet, but see if the smoking stops being so bad after a bit - I suspect it will.
Hope that helps a bit. Good luck getting it sorted
Ewen
I was waiting a bit to post as other people know a lot more about these turbos and the JX setup than me, so some of what I say may not apply, but maybe I can help a bit.
It looks from the photo that what is leaking oil is the oil feed to the turbo. If I were you I'd clean it up and see exactly where it comes from - it might be a split pipe or a gasket or even the nut to the turbo needing tightened - difficult to say from the picture. On mine I have several points where the turbo feed line is secured to stop it from vibrating too much. I would check how tight that nut is if it is coming from there - mine is connected in a similar way to a compression joint with an olive, like in copper pipe installations in houses. You might need to just replace the connection to the turbo itself. It might also be worth checking there isn't a blockage in the return line to the sump - I use a guitar string and feed it through - sludgy oil can cause the return to slow up meaning it will leak elsewhere.
As far as oil in the air supply goes (not sure how it is set up on yours wrt to air filter etc...)- there's normally a bit of oily air going to the inlet manifold from crankcase gases being vented into the inlet to the turbo - I think most diesels have this as there is often "blow-by" past the pistons into the crankcase. I'd check the pipe coming from the turbo to the inlet manifold - it will be a bit oily - too much and you either have a problem with the crankcase breather or more likely oil is passing from the turbo bearing into the compressor side and getting burnt off.
Check to see how much oil you're actually using after you've fixed the leak. 1 litre per 7000-8000 miles is not much to worry about I would say, but 1 litre per 500miles isn't great, and you may want to look at the turbo oil seals. If you idle a lot and don't rev very hard then the oil that is in the inlet manifold will linger about there longer and will contribute to smoking - usually blueish in colour for oil.
lot's of black smoke is usually partially burnt diesel - it's quite an art getting these diesels to run right, and is to do with timing and mixture levels and all sorts which I don't really understand. If you have persistent black smoke I'd check the timing, and also, check you don't have any air leaks between the turbo and inlet manifold. I blew a flexible pipe off my intercooler accererating hard in 2nd the other day, so I know what you mean about the smoke screen
If you reckon the timing is ok, and the injectors are ok and you don't have an air leak, then check the oil levels, and go out and rev pretty hard for a bit - it will probably smoke due to burning off the oil sitting in the inlet, but see if the smoking stops being so bad after a bit - I suspect it will.
Hope that helps a bit. Good luck getting it sorted
Ewen
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tattoojohnny
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Re: could this cause the smoke
Cheers for the info Ewan. Not really sure where to begin with the turbo so I've had a word with one of our ambulance mechanics and he's kindly told me to bring it into the depot and he's gonna get it up on the ramps for me so thats where I'm off to in the morning. He said if he cant sort it he knows somebody who can so fingers crossed. Hopefully its gonna be a simple fix and I'll get it done before dubfreeze. I'll monitor the oil usage like you said. I put a couple of litres in her last week so will have some sort of idea soon. I'll obviously post what the mechanic thinks as soon as.
Thanks again
John
Thanks again
John
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tattoojohnny
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Re: could this cause the smoke
Just a bit of an update to the smoke problem I have. Took it in to the works mechanics today and they said the turbo is ok which is good news however they told me the smoke was caused by burning oil. How much do you think it would cost to get the piston rings replaced? Anybody got any more advice?
Cheers
Cheers
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ewenmaclean
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- Joined: 16 Nov 2006, 19:32
- 80-90 Mem No: 7306
- Location: Edinburgh
Re: could this cause the smoke
Hello again,
There are lots of reasons for burning oil and you should probably do a bit of diagnostics before committing yourself to an expensive and complicated job. Get a compression test done - if it's lower compression than it should be then the problem is piston/crank/cylinder related. Even if the compression test is ok it doesn't rule out the rings though - and it's possible you might need to rebore the cylinders or fix bearing problems. You can burn a lot of oil if your valve guides or seals are bad too - which is an easier job to sort out. You can inspect these I think without too much difficulty - certainly a decent mechanic should be able to check them out.
I'd do those things first and also, crucially, monitor carefully your oil levels.
Ewen
There are lots of reasons for burning oil and you should probably do a bit of diagnostics before committing yourself to an expensive and complicated job. Get a compression test done - if it's lower compression than it should be then the problem is piston/crank/cylinder related. Even if the compression test is ok it doesn't rule out the rings though - and it's possible you might need to rebore the cylinders or fix bearing problems. You can burn a lot of oil if your valve guides or seals are bad too - which is an easier job to sort out. You can inspect these I think without too much difficulty - certainly a decent mechanic should be able to check them out.
I'd do those things first and also, crucially, monitor carefully your oil levels.
Ewen