Need Some Help From The Experts

[steve alan]

hi

well my galaxy is nearly finished, I have replaced virtually everything on it inc eng,(but not chassis/body/interior)

but it is still smoking (blue) James bond smoke screen style

I rebuilt turbo (one of them eBay turbo seal kits)

still no luck,

so now instead of replacing I need to eliminate stuff(sick of the work and the spending)

thinking it now has to be one of 4 things

1. rings,(so need to do compression test to find out if any cyl low)

2. valve stems oil seals (although I don't think the would cause the amount of smoke it produces)

3. erg valve

4. the bloody turbo again.

5. intercooler soaked in oil (did check both pipes inlet pipe was wet but not excessively outlet was dryish)

 

now my question is, is there any way of running the car (just to test) without the oil feed pipe for the turbo?(block it off & if so with what, if still smokes I can then can eliminate the turbo.

also as for erg what's the best way to eliminate that , the old ball bearing trick in the vacuum pipe? or completely block off with a plate?

finally anybody in the Manchester area got a diesel compression tester, that would/could test it for me?(sorry but galaxy is off road so would have to call round)

 

thanks in advance

steve

 

[BigDog]

I am no expert but diesels need good compression to fire at all in my experience. If you had only one cylinder with low compression then you would hear it during cranking as the starter would have a much easier time turning the engine with that cylinder on its compression stroke, so it would get briefly faster, and also it would probably have major misfire symptoms. Seems unlikely you would have 2 things causing a smokescreen. My guess is the original cause is still there. But also, I wonder how far you've driven it. Maybe the cat has a load of oil still in it just needs to burn off, briefly disconnecting the exhaust upstream of the cat would also tell one way or the other.

The turbo definately needs a continuous oil feed, even a brief interruption could write it off. If you end up taking the turbo off there must be a way to pressure test it on the bench from the oil feed, but I've not done it. Maybe someone else has?

Matt

[daddyfixit]

if it has been smoking that badly, then the cat & exhaust system will be full of oil-----that's why its still smoking ?

 

does it smoke as soon as started ??---if so its the turbo you rebuilt.

 

if it smokes as it warms up---its in the exhaust.

 

run the turbo with no oil feed and you will damage the new seals/bearings.

 

run with exhaust off it-will see if its smoking BEFORE the exhaust its clear then the exhaust system is puddled with the stuff and you need a new system

[steve alan]

thanks for the replys, no it don't smoke on startup, nor tickover, just when you rev it ,after a while smoke thins out, let revs die smoke goes, then quick blip its back as before, it does seem to thicken up round 2000 revs

will try takin exhaust off and trying

get back later with results

I did think there might of been a way of disabling the turbo and running it as non turbo, just to test & eliminate the turbo from the equation

steve

[steve alan]

well done all these things suggested, funny thing is if I hold revs on at 2000 2500 3000 it don't smoke much if at all, it's when you let the revs die then blip it that's when it starts to smoke ,build revs up smoke goes ,any ideas? as where to look. I even took off the air pipes for turbo, inlet and outlet so as to make sure it's not got smoke coming from those pipes, not run without exhaust yet to check that part , do you think it could be the oil rings? There is some back pressure at the top but wouldn't say excessive.

don't really want to buy a new turbo cartridge ,just incase its the turbo housing that's at fault any visual way of testing that, think there is only 1 spring steel seal in it and sure that was replaced on rebuild ? 

thanks

in advance

steve

[seatkid]

Sounds like turbo bearing leaking oil, what engine code  is it?

[bigdave982]

What about good old fashioned valve stem seals

Seems to be the symtoms

[Scorpiorefugee]

Old money suggests that if overrun starts the smoking then it is sucking oil so as already suggested rings, valve stems or turbo. What happens if you let it hang on to the engine on a down hill. One other thought, I had an MG Montego a long while ago  (22 years AAGGHH!)  that did this and after a decent oil change the symptoms virtually disappeared.