Disco 1 300tdi oil usage

Hello everyone

Need some advice. The car is using more and more oil. Did Khutse to Piper with no oil used and the from there I had to add 500ml at Deception camp. Drove 700km home and had to add oil again. Car doesn’t smoke more than just accelerating and cold start. Head gasket was done 2000km ago but the “reputable” workshop did not set the valves correctly and brushed me off. Had it set by someone else.

Car did not use much oil before the head gasket went.

Could it be the rings? I have a little bit of blowback but the cap is not blown off.
I use Ravenol 15W40 mineral oil.

Mine generally doesn't use oil but when heavily loaded and pushing it a bit, I tend to see an increase in oil consumption.

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Originally Posted by jfh

Mine generally doesn't use oil but when heavily loaded and pushing it a bit, I tend to see an increase in oil consumption.

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So unloaded no issues? Come to think of it I did have a bit of above my average usage before the trip as well.

On our defender it was the rear crank seal causing high oil usage. Ours gradually started using more oil and I started thinking it's burning it up because there was no apparent leak that I could see. Eventually it was using 500ml+ oil per 400km with no excess smoke or anything. And then it started covering the rear door and windows in oil mist/spray on the open road. After replacing it the defender hardly uses any oil

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Originally Posted by Eighty2_ZA

On our defender it was the rear crank seal causing high oil usage. Ours gradually started using more oil and I started thinking it's burning it up because there was no apparent leak that I could see. Eventually it was using 500ml+ oil per 400km with no excess smoke or anything. And then it started covering the rear door and windows in oil mist/spray on the open road. After replacing it the defender hardly uses any oil

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Thank you for this. I do have a leak as well in my rear crank seal but its not leaving puddles under the car.

Had a check today and there was quite a bit of oil in the intake pipe to the turbo (something like that).

Kudos

On the driver side of the motor - about in the middle is a black cylinder - called an oil separator

the bottom has a pipe that drains back into the sump and the other one goes around the back to connect to the intake pipe you mentioned

take that oil seperator out , disconnect the pipes and give it a good clean with paraffin or similar

That can get all gooey and block up a bit

make SURE that the black cylinder has not even a smell of whatever you use to clean it with before you put it back

Then also clean that top pipe that connects to the intake pipe as well - so any residual oil in it doesnt cloud your judgement going forward

Make EXTRA EXTRA sure that there isnt a wiff of whatever you used to clean that with else you will see 4 00 gazillion rpm on that motor

Then that oil residue could have been there for ages - the intake stuff I mean

While you at it pull the bottom pipe as well just to make sure it isnt blocked or crimped where it joins the block / sump

Turbo might be on the way out.
Take off pipe from airbox to turbo and inspect impeller with phone camera for wear, and wiggle turbo shaft side to side and in and out looking for looseness
Also look at the pipe you took off. Lots of oil in there indicates it's from the breather indicating rings. A little oil (there will always be some) indicates a good motor

If turbo, just do a cheap cartridge. Under 2k

Thanks a lot for the advice!! Appreciate it. Will have a look at it for sure

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Originally Posted by RossJ

Kudos

On the driver side of the motor - about in the middle is a black cylinder - called an oil separator

the bottom has a pipe that drains back into the sump and the other one goes around the back to connect to the intake pipe you mentioned

take that oil seperator out , disconnect the pipes and give it a good clean with paraffin or similar

That can get all gooey and block up a bit

make SURE that the black cylinder has not even a smell of whatever you use to clean it with before you put it back

Then also clean that top pipe that connects to the intake pipe as well - so any residual oil in it doesnt cloud your judgement going forward

Make EXTRA EXTRA sure that there isnt a wiff of whatever you used to clean that with else you will see 4 00 gazillion rpm on that motor

Then that oil residue could have been there for ages - the intake stuff I mean

While you at it pull the bottom pipe as well just to make sure it isnt blocked or crimped where it joins the block / sump

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So I replaced the Syclone breather, cleaned the pipe that runs down into the engine block. The pipe that runs into the intake spits oil out while running. Just to see if there is a blockage I blew down the pipe running into the engine block and I could hear the bubbles. Isn't the oil supposed to be running back into the sump from where it enters the engine block again? It seems to be gathered where it enters the engine block. I can only see black smoke when accelerating and no white or blue smoke. I cannot see an oil leak anywhere. But tested car again and oil was gone after 400km of highway driving.

Turbo was reconned 3 weeks ago.

So you're getting oil coming out of the positive crankcase vent valve pipe to the inlet manifold? And you're still using oil?

This is caused by excessive crank pressure. This is caused by bad rings or glazed cylinders. The reworked head has increased this effect as you now have more compression.

Sorry.

"I blew down the pipe running into the engine block and I could hear the bubbles"

I have never tried this but the oil should drain freely back into the sump

This is the pipe that comes from the bottom of the cyclone into the block ?

I would test and pour some oil down that pipe using a funnel or something and it should never fill that pipe at all as it should drain very fast

That pipe feeds into a "nipple" attachment that goes into the block and it is a ### one to seat properly as it is right next to the brake vacuum pumps housing so I wonder if it isn't kinked there maybe

the sump oil level at full isn't anywhere near that height for you to hear bubbles at all

If that nipple is blocked then that would explain the oil coming out into the turbo air inlet pipe like you said as it cant drain fast enough into the sump

As they say - "while you down there"

Maybe take the other breather pipe off and make sure all ok and you can blow down it as well. That's the one that also goes into the rocker cover and is closer to the front of the motor

I hope it's something small and stupid

There is one last test if the above is all negative

Disconnect the pipe from the bottom of the cyclone

Connect another pipe from the bottom of the cyclone and run it into say an empty coke bottle - make sure this pipe runs downhill only from the bottom of the cyclone

the pipe that is now disconnected from the bottom of the cyclone will indicate sump pressure

the other pipe draining into the coke bottle will tell us if the cyclone is working - Having watched some videos on the cyclone I am expecting a fair amount of oil to be flowing into the coke bottle so not like drip drip only

this is a link to what the cyclone looks like inside

https://www.lrukforums.com/attachmen...e_3-jpg.15161/

This is what it's supposed to do if you don't have excessive crankcase pressure.

https://youtu.be/rhmYRqUSYBA

Update

First of all thank you to everybody taking the time to share their knowledge with me and see me through this.

Due to my very limited knowledge I had to take the car in (again) to a company that knows what to do.

They did find a blocked breather pipe, fixed it and the oil usage was better but still really bad. Now it is opening the engine to see if an oil ring maybe didn't break. So the saga continues.
Should I maybe just overhaul the engine? Will this definitely fix the problem?

There is overhaul and then there's overhaul.

Doing it properly is expensive but maybe you won't need to replace stuff like pistons, oil pump and the head.
If you go this route make sure that the company knows the 300Tdi.

They must measure up everything:
Pistons
Sleeves
Crank
Oil pump
Piston protrusion

After that you will know how expensive it will be.

You can also check:
Injection pump
Injectors
Glow plugs

If you are lucky it will only be:
Rings
Bearings
Seals ( the rear crank seal must be done correctly)

While the engine is out you can also replace the clutch.

As I said it could become very expensive.

Has a compression test been done?

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Originally Posted by Kudus

Now it is opening the engine to see if an oil ring maybe didn't break. So the saga continues.
Should I maybe just overhaul the engine? Will this definitely fix the problem?

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A overhaul done PROPERLY should return to engine close to factory spec. But there are workshops and there are workshops.........

While the 300TDi is as basic a turbo-diesel as you can find, bad rebuild techniques and not following the FACTORY WORKSHOP REBUILD SPECS will mean a waste of money and the return to the same if not worse operation in a short time.

I would RE-SLEEVE not REBORE if a simple hone cannot be done

These guys offer good rebuild parts:

https://www.turnerengineering.co.uk/...s-c102x3005632

Do NOT be tempted to use Bearmach.......

EDIT: Listen to jfh...........

I concur with resleeving.

Kudos

Which of the breather pipes was it ?

I would follow the oil usage fault finding from scratch again to find where the oil is being used after the breather pipe find / fix

You get indies ( good ones that care) and you get indies who see an inexperienced person coming from a mile away and see ronts

If it was me I would start from scratch in the fault finding process that you have allready maybe learnt from a bit

these are simple engines to fault find on

As mentioned above one persons rebuild is another person's repair job

If it is an oil ring or bad compression by just taking the exhaust outlet off you should be able to identify which cylinder it is

On compression tests I had a known indie on this forum - not active anymore on the forum - tell me I had half of the compression that I should have and thats why it wouldnt start

was he lying or is the tools he used rubbish I dont know- the former is my gut feel

turned out he got the injection pump timing out

Ja, maybe the first step is to wash the whole engine and gearbox.

Go for a short drive and see if you can find a leak.