smokey 200tdi

[ian_s]

the defender 200tdi in my series has developed a bad smoking habit, but only when cold
this is most evident when you are slowing down gently, ie still slightly on the throttle.
if you come off the throttle completely, the smoke totally disappears, and also the smoke smells of unburnt diesel. i thought it could be warn vavle stems, but that would smell of burning engine oil, and also doesnt explain why the smoke goes when you are totally off the throttle

also the engine has trouble revving when cold, until the turbo spools up and then it revs fine.
as you put your foot down the engine revs up to maybe 1500rpm, then stutters, almost as if its being starved of fuel. eventually the revs rise slowly, you hear the turbo start to suck and the thing shoots up to the rev limiter like normal. while its stuttering it emits a dark grey smoke.

once its warm none of this happens

the engine idles fine, i tried cracking off one injector at a time as i read in other posts, and it made the same difference on each cylinder, but wouldnt rev up with any one cracked off.

can anyone shed some light on this?

[zulublue]

Ian, it sounds very similar to mine, see a few threads below, mine has a chipped exhaust valve about 7 mm across, the only difference is the no change when you crack the injector.

Does the exhaust sound like it's popping?

[ian_s]

popping? not really
its baffling me that once its warm it runs sweet as anything

[zulublue]

popping? not really
its baffling me that once its warm it runs sweet as anything

So did mine to start, then I think the valve just gave up, do you think the headgasket could be expanding a little when hot and thus plugging the gap, it looks like a head off job anyhow.

[ian_s]

i already have the head gasket set ready to go, just not quite got round to doing it yet :)

[zulublue]

Put all mine back together today, reset all the tappets I soaked the injectors in a cleaning bath over night aswell - what a difference - more power - quieter, as it was my first ever time of doing a head gasket I am well HAPPY  :dance: :dance: :dance:

[gt.jacko]

I had a similar problem with defender i had it was always a little smokey when cold and did n,t idle very well once it was warm ran sweet as a nut then i drowned it off rd and hydraulic ed  the bloody thing No1 conrod was well bent, removed the other pistons and found a broken top ring on No4 piston replaced all the rings and it ran perfect after that. Just a thought maybe a broken ring if you remove the head look at the top of each bore you will see a black carbon ring around the top this is the bit the rings dont reach if you find one with a thicker black ring at the top of the bore then chances are the top ring is broken in that cyl.

Hope that helps :)

ps if it is a ring you will have to remove the engine  as you cannot get the pistons out in situe on a 200tdi

[ian_s]

why cant you get them out?

[Saffy]

why cant you get them out?

On 200tdi a Ladder frame is sandwich between sump and block and supposedly can not be removed in situ so prevents access to bigend bolts. 300tdi doesn't have that problem.
2nd hand (mis?)quote from manual:
Note: The ladder frame and flywheel housing are secured by four bolts which are inaccessable with the gearbox bell housing fitted. Therefore it is not possible to remove the ladder frame when the engine is in the vehicle without first removing the gearbox or engine unit, flywheelhousing, engine sump and oil pump.

Maybe you can jiggle things like gearbox about on series without removing engine but probably more trouble than just taking engine out?

[ian_s]

aaah i see
it would be easier to move the gearbox out of the way, as to get the engine out nearly all of the interior comes out anyway.
and i can lift the gearbox without a hoist, cant lift the engine like that :D

[biggerlandy]

you can remove them in situ i done it a few times its naughty but you can

[shtmekanic]

just a thought, check the contents of your fuel tank, dodgy fuel can play havoc with the 200tdi, before doing head gaskets and more, run a separate fuel line to the uplift pump and run the engine from a separate clean fuel source with a clean filter, and for good measure clean your injectors. It may take a little time for the clean fuel to get through, so be patient.

cheers John.

[ian_s]

fuel filters are clean, it had a new tank 6 months ago, its had this fault for over a year now, but its only really evident now its damn cold

[shtmekanic]

syphon some of the diesel out into a clean glass milk bottle, if it's clear then look elsewhere. I've learnt the hard way recently hence the reason for suggesting this. cheers John.

[ian_s]

i tried to drain any water out of the fuel filter last saturday, and got nothing but nice clean clear diesel

[shtmekanic]

ok, next check your heater plugs are working, next cheapest option to change...:)

[ian_s]

changed them two weeks ago, made the engine much easier to start, but even with them working, the engine wont rev up for a few minutes

had an interesting experience when i went out for a drive at lunch time, i went to pull away from the roundabout outside work but i hadnt put it in gear, so the engine reved til it stutted, then when i let off the throttle i swear it backfired! i didnt think diesels did that!

[zulublue]

Ian, I hope this does not sound patronising but you are doing exactly what I did when I had my problem, and yes it's always good to see if it's an easy Job, I.E. fuel, injectors etc, your symptoms are so close to what I had, I have got to say the head needs to come off, one to check the gasket and two to have the valves checked.

It might be worth having a compression check done first?

Here are the symptoms I had, I hope you recognise them because there is nothing worse than a not sure.

Loads of black / white mixed smoke on start up
Once run for 5 minutes it clears, sooner if driven
If I revved it when cold it cut out
There was a strage popping coming out of the exhaust

[ian_s]

the heads coming off as soon as i dont it to get to work and back every day