Bongo Fury

Getting through about a litre of oil per 1000 miles. Not much of a headache as I try very hard to keep an eye on all my various levels every weekend.

The pain is, now the nights have started drawing in, each time I boot up a hill in the dark night sky with a pair of headlights behind me, I'm becoming more & more aware of clouds of the grey stuff pumping out behind me in the mirror.

This is not cool.

As I had a new head last year, I'm guessing that I'm not burning oil through the top end so, is it safe to assume that rings are getting worn (alleged 75,000 miles).

Last two oil changes have been added to by Wynnes Stop Smoke stuff but still the problem prevails.

Question being - is it rings or a cheaper, less labour intensie fix?

Any tips welcome.

Hey Mister M.
having the same problem myself, my local garage told me it was the injectors so i changed the injectors, then they said it was the turbo so i changed the turbo. And still having the same problem, then i seen dandys post about the throttle position sensor which i am going to try next if i could find one.

Cheers
Oggy

Grey smoke can mean incorrect ignition/pump timing,or fuel not being atomised correctly,and in some cases contaminated fuel. (unleaded petrol?)

As a "stick it in the tank remedy", i'd try switching to V-power diesel, plus a one -off dose of injector cleaner too, (redex do a good diesel injector cleaner), none of the above is advised if you are running veg oil though

The v-power diesel isn't a refined mineral fuel, it's fully synthetic fuel, with much less soot,and a much cleaner/efficient burn.

It's more expensive, but expect to offset the cost of the fuel with a bit more economy due to a more efficient fuel,or you could pretend that the price of fuel hasn't dropped lately,and switch to v-power (or similar) for a similar price of pre-discounted fuel.

If you consider the oil use excessive, get a diesel specialist to perform a compression test on the engine. Weak glowplugs could cause excessive smoke on a cold engine too.

i had the same problem with ours chris but not as much oil out of the back. it turned out to be the turbo that was the problem.
last year we had loads of smoke out of the back which was terrible couldnt see the car behind. someone said it could be a valve stem oil seal that was sticking. i did loads of things to solve it. i removed the glowplugs and poured injector cleaner into the pots, left overnight to free up any gum on the pistons, changed all filters and oil, disabled the egr, cleaned out the turbo piping and cleaned out the inlet manifold.it cleared up instantly but i dont know which thing i did helped.
have you got much coming out of the crankcase breather, or whip off the exhaust manifold so you can see how it looks inside the combustion chambers. i did this to mine just to see if it was firing. i did find more oil than i would expect on nos 1 piston indicating the valves.
just my twopence worth.

Disabling the EGR,and cleaning of the inlet manifold, certainly won't have done it any harm mike...

oggy wrote:Hey Mister M.
having the same problem myself, my local garage told me it was the injectors so i changed the injectors, then they said it was the turbo so i changed the turbo. And still having the same problem, then i seen dandys post about the throttle position sensor which i am going to try next if i could find one.

Cheers
Oggy

Not sure about the TPS correcting it oggy I'd try big daddy's advice of blanking off the EGR valve first.

I've also used Wynns Stop Leak on a bongo engine which had been lying for a while - I reckon the valve stem oil seals had hardened as it certainly reduced the smoke a fair amount

If not rings then, I'm swinging towards a turbo seal somewhere.

EGR is blanked off. Injectors were cleaned up when new head was fitted, so top end is not guilty.

Oil is being burned somewhere though - no serious leaks. Can oil get into the turbo? if so, whats the most likely route?

I'm guessing that oil can get into the combustion chamber via the turbo - as turbos require a healthy oil supply to their bearings. I guess there is a seal there too?

Basically, as mentioned above, a compression test on the cylinders should be straight-forward task and should eliminate the head/cylinders as the cause. I'm guessing this would be good news, as the turbo can be removed fairly easily (?) and either replaced or have new seals fitted - surely better than a whole engine rebuild!

(I would discount the injectors, etc, as the cause, since the exhaust smoke is almost certainly related to the heavy oil consumption.)

Refreshing to come across a Newbie with a little noddle. (no offence intended to some of the less informed of course!)

Welcome to the fold Trouble!

The more I think about it & watch the symptoms, the more the turbo seems to be the likely culprit.

I'll get the comp test done at the weekend.

Any ideas what figure i should be looking at hitting to be okay?

{{{blush}}}

The garage will have a good idea of the likely compression to be expected from a 2.5 diesel engine (in other words, I don't know...).

However, you should expect the 4 cylinder readings to be close together on a good engine - when an engine has suffered major wear, you usually start to see large discrepancies appearing between the readings.

Fingers crossed for good readings!

cant help on the compression bit chris but if its turbo thats gone they are non repairable, ive tried, got a secondhand one for 150 of bellhill, easy to change over.

mister munkey wrote:Refreshing to come across a Newbie with a little noddle. (no offence intended to some of the less informed of course!)

Welcome to the fold Trouble!

The more I think about it & watch the symptoms, the more the turbo seems to be the likely culprit.

I'll get the comp test done at the weekend.

Any ideas what figure i should be looking at hitting to be okay?

I've had compression tests done on a few diesels in the past, (not the bongo though) The worst case scenario i had on one was one of the cylinders was down to 92% efficiency, compared to 96-98% efficiency on the other three cylinders, the guy that tested it said the lowest percentage cylinder wasn't ideal,and reccomended a different engine oil (thicker)than dealer spec,cos of the high mileage of the vehicle, he said it'd "buy me some time". Two years later i sold the car on. No running probs, no more smoke than expected.

Munkey did you sort the problem and how?

Nope. No news but not getting any worse.

Will be booked into Wheelquick in the near future for a leaky hose problem, rear brakes & rear suspension/knocking problems to be sorted. I'll get the experts to give it the once over once there.

I'm sure they'll sort it my furry friend... Have you tried fitting a new grille to see if that helps?