300tdi drinking oil

[Stacey]

hey all, help needed i have got 300tdi "r reg" auto discovery and its giving out blue smoke and drinking oil ie 3 litre's in 150 miles, the symptoms i have got are, slow to pick up from standing, head is pressurising and there is oil found in to turbo inlet pipe, i have not long had the wagon so dont know a lot of history about the disco, i have had a mate look at it and the news is dire, he said the water isnt going to rad instead it all seems to be going to hte header tank but it doesnt run hot, it sits about half way..... confused?? any help would be helpful. i have been told a new engine is the answer.......

[Saffy]

Take the head off and see how much damage was caused when it was overheated (and it was overheated).

[Stacey]

As far as i can tell it hasnt overheated but saffy you may be right.., do you know where i can get a copy of this rave thing that i have seen on various sites?, thank you for your adivse i will do that.

[Saffy]

Fact engine is still running is a good sign. Maybe just a blown head gasket. Or it just barely running with low compression because a piston or two have melted, along with the head sending molten alloy into your turbo and that why the gasket is doing nothing anymore 

Answer is get the head off and look see.

RAVE can be found via google- not right to post details on this forum.



Water wont go to the rad until the thermostat opens when it's hot enough .
Depending on where you travel you can drive around for weeks and the tdi engine not need the radiator but one day you drive a very long big hill and that's when the radiator gets used - if rad is internally blocked or the thermostat is faulty then engine will melt rapidly - temperature gauge shoots up into the red for a moment and drops back down to normal as the temp sender is no longer sitting coolant. anyhow....  just saying the Radiator not getting used symptom you describe might be normal at idle.

 Oil in the turbo inlet - there is often some oil present there depending on the mileage of engine.  How much oil in the inlet is the thing. If your missing oil is truly going that route then do not use the truck as there is a risk of engine running away fuelled by engine oil.

If the header tank is pressuring, bubbling throwing out coolant, very hard coolant hoses etc then exhaust gases are getting into the coolant system via the head. Possible bypassing the head gasket because it is has blown. Maybe you have some oil in the coolant. Oil leaking via a fractured gasket into the piston chamber too.  BTW does the engine have rusty coolant stains behind the alternator streaking down side of the engine block?

What's the exhaust smoke like?

[Stacey]

the exhaust is a lovely blue colour, i havent noticed any rusty colour on the engine other than trying to bubble out of the expansion tank. i will try and take the head of this weekend and see what is happening, i will take off the hoses and see what level of oil is in the pipes and have a good look around the engine and see what i turn up with.

watch this space, thank you for the advise.

[Range Rover Blues]

Sounds like worn rings.  It is blowing-by which pressurises the oil spce above the rocker shaft.  This in turn blows oil and vapour through the useless separator and into the air inlet pipe.  This coats the turbo with oil, fill the intercooler with it and then mixes with EGR to fill the plenum with tar.

The engine is well worn but you can remove the oil breather from the inlet and connect it to a flame trap or oil separator.  It will need cleaning often though by the sounds of it.