2.25 Diesel Blowing Oil

generally, too much crankcase pressure is caused by blown cylinder rings (big job as you probably know). but a friend was having a similar prob and we tracked it down to blocked crankcase breather pipes. you know the ones that let the crankcase gasses flow into the inlet manifold to be burnt in the motor.

i'm not sure of the set-up on a 2.25 diesel, but check if any of the pipes have flame-traps or restrictor valves, any of which can get blocked and cause the crankcase to pressurise.

Cheers.

Sam.

whats the simplest way to tell if its the rings gone?

Its only been just over a year since the engines been put in (approx 2000 miles) but that said it wasnt a new engine, just rather pampered.

thanks,

If you have a press-on cap with a three ring rubber sleeve for a seal then it is likely that this seal has worn a bit slack. A new sleeve will probably cure it for a few years more.

Huw

Run the engine with the the breather/filler off, if it "chuffs" (sounds like a sort of popping noise) then the rings are suspect. Does oil and/or fumes blow out of the dipstick tube with the engine running? If so a copression test is on the cards, but if it showing those two symptoms I'd be worried.....

Richard

Hope you are right Huw,

Had the rocker cover off today it looks like the gasket wasnt sealing too good as it was leaking on part of it (front left corner looking towards it from the front) and as for the cap/filter its a bit loose so will try and replace that.

I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to messing with engines but I'm going over to our local land rover specialist this week to get a full gasket set (including head gaskets) for the 2.25 as I gave all of the ones I had to the mechanic that fitted the 2.25 into the land rover in the first place. I'm also going to totally remove the oil cooler and will also drop the sump and make sure there are no fragments in there.

Last time it started throwing out oil like this shortly after the engine departed, which is a bit worrying for me.

Thanks

Whatever you do, resist the temptation to rebuild an engine that just doesn't need it. I actually analysed the oil in my Land Rover once, at about 5000 miles after an oil change and some 35000 miles from new. It indicated excessive top and bottom end wear and bore wear. Some 8500 hours and nearly 100,000 miles later the engine is chugging along as well as it ever did, although oil consumption has increased from around 2litres every 5000 miles of old to around a litre every 1500 miles these days. The head gasket failed at around

95000 miles and some five years ago and there was very little wear on the bores or valve gear although there may have been some piston wear that was not particularly bad. I expect it to last a good while yet, or else I will start to doubt the wisdom of paying a premium for the vehicle only 21 years ago ;-)

Huw

Huw, Indeed thats very true. but the way I look at it, If i get the gaskets and dont use them I have them for if i do NEED them. I'm also currently planning to start rebuilding a 2.25 petrol i have sitting around albeit slowly with the plan to replace the 2.25 diesel with that (landy was factory fitted as a petrol)

Thanks for your help. I'll be getting a new rocker cover cap/filter whilst im over there and also the gaskets to retro fit the original side oil filler onto it (i have one of the fillers in my garden)

Will let you know how she goes on a run after that.

Thanks

Compression check - I think the manual gives the expected pressures.

(snip) JD

And don't forget to use a proper diesel gauge - compressions on a diesel (even a knackered one) will blow a normal compression tester apart.

Thanks Richard,

Will try and get my hands on a compression tester for the Diesel.

Thanks

Eve,

1959 SII SWB Basic 1967 SIIa SWB SW 1998 Disco 300TDI

before doing a comp. test, i would strongly suggest you follow beamends advice. take off the oil filler cap and get the motor running (don't worry, it wont spew oil out of the filler, assuming all the baffles are in place in the rocker cover). if you can see or feel a lot of gas being pushed out of the filler hole, this signifies a significantly worn engine. most motors will have a small amount of pressure so gauging what is "acceptable" is a little subjective, but anyone with any motor experience (in particular diesel experience) will be able to tell you wether it is concerning or not. this is a lot easier than a comp. test and might save you a bit of time.

Cheers.

Sam.

On or around Wed, 24 Aug 2005 18:40:42 +1000, "Samuel" enlightened us thusly:

If you unscrew the filler and the pressure blows it 2ft into the air, it's excessive :-)

If you can't get the lid back on again, it's really excessive...

if you park it under a gum tree and the koalas start choking and falling out of the tree, it may be a little more than excessive.

Sam.

Sam, Certainly a little more than excessive as we are in the UK... dont see many gumtrees or koala's here.

well, in your case, put it under a Oak tree and check for squirrels falling out of the trees.

Sam.

Does it leak a lot of oil elsewhere too?

My 2.5 n/a D used to be very heavy breathing. It also used to leak oil out of every available gasket. If i replaced things like the rocker gasket or the rubber slieve round the breather it would still manage to push oil past them (or pop the breather out!). It would always leak past the 3 rocket studs/bolts too! (whatever i did to them!)

I rebuilt it with new rings (and new bearings while i was at it), and it now it has much less pressure. The rocker bolts now seal without any effort. My engine is now (2 years later) still quite clean and the outside has even gone rusty in places! (it never had a chance before!)

You could try cleaning everythig up and replacing the gaskets and seals - but if it still leaks past them then its time to consider new rings and a rebuild.

Just got myself Rocker Cover gasket and a new (second hand) 3 ring cap (it only had a 2 ring one?) and put the rocker cover back on, All seems ok at the moment, no pressure build up when I put my hand over the filler hole. so... might all be OK now

Thanks again

Get a compression check done by a decent diesel mechanic who knows what to expect from HIS guage. We have three diesel compression testers in our workshop, and they all read differently - the most accurate one is worth a couple of hundred pounds so you probably don't want to be buying one.