Merc Sprinter 312D smoking problem, help!

Merc Sprinter 312D smoking problem, help!

Author
Discussion

JohnnyJones

Original Poster:

1,694 posts

177 months

Wednesday 26th February 2014
quotequote all
Hi all, thanks for reading, really stuck with this one.

We've had this '98 312D from new. It's got 250k miles on it and up until now has been relatively trouble free.

It suddenly started smoking really badly last week. Without warning, just started immediately. The smoke is white oil smoke. When I say badly, I used 2 litres of oil driving the 4 miles home after it happened. It doesn't seem to have lost power and has no trouble revving. I have no lights on on the dash.

Turbo of course. I took the turbo off and it had a bit of oil in it but no real play. I put it back on and went to a local garage to plug the van in to the diagnostic machine. They advised turbo as they couldn't find any fault. I explained about the lack of play and was told it had to be the turbo as what else could put that amount of oil into the exhaust?

Fair enough. I bought a new turbo. I put it on and the van is no different.

Clues. (With new turbo on).

I can take the boost pipe off before the inlet plenum (so the van is essentially N/A) and hold the revs at 2.5k for over a minute without any sign of the smoke lessening.

I can take the pipe from the airfilter off the front of the turbo (so it's drawing air direct from atmosphere) and rev for over a minute with no sign of the smoke lessening.

There is only an acceptable (IMO) amount of oil vapour coming from the breather from the rocker cover.

When I put the old turbo back on to go to diagnostics I did so without a gasket as it was damaged. During the drive there and back and a fair bit of revving for test purposes oil had wept out through the exhaust manifold / turbo joint.

The amount of smoke is incredible, I have never seen anything like it. James Bond's Aston had nothing on this!

It has recently been using a little water. I guess 1/2 a litre every 1000 miles.

I just don't know what to do. I have googled for hours and seen a couple of threads where people have had similar problems but without conclusion.

If anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them.

Thanks, JJ.

one eyed mick

1,189 posts

160 months

Wednesday 26th February 2014
quotequote all
You have probably filled the silencer and pdf full of oil it will burn away [long time ]can you drop the pdf and silencer off and run it for afew secs if theres no smoke you have found your answer . I had this years ago on a morris deisel van ,we changed the exhuast ,job done , similar on my seven ,blew a piston 4 pints of oil used in short milage ,stripped and repacked silencer again job done

Pumaracing

2,089 posts

206 months

Wednesday 26th February 2014
quotequote all
Sounds like the head gasket has gone or even possibly a cracked head or block. A compression test would be a sensible starting point as with nearly any engine problem. It's also possible that long term water loss has ruined the rings and bores.

JohnnyJones

Original Poster:

1,694 posts

177 months

Wednesday 26th February 2014
quotequote all
one eyed mick]You have probably filled the silencer and pdf full of oil it will burn away [long time said:
can you drop the pdf and silencer off and run it for afew secs if theres no smoke you have found your answer . I had this years ago on a morris deisel van ,we changed the exhuast ,job done , similar on my seven ,blew a piston 4 pints of oil used in short milage ,stripped and repacked silencer again job done

JohnnyJones

Original Poster:

1,694 posts

177 months

Wednesday 26th February 2014
quotequote all
^ Don't know how I did that!

It's not in the exhaust, no way. It smokes really badly immediately you start it from cold. No time to warm the exhaust up.

stevieturbo

17,229 posts

246 months

Wednesday 26th February 2014
quotequote all
Really cant see a 1998 vehicle having a DPF.

High oil use could be a leak or blocked breather system, or an engine problem.
Does sound like the garage who suggested the turbo are the usual idiots with no clue

Water use obviously needs investigating. If it isnt leaking externally, then it is internally. And it only takes a small amount of water/antifreeze to create a lot of smoke.

Perhaps an extreme test...warm the engine or run it until it is definitely always smoking.
Then drain all the coolant out and run the engine dry for a bit.

It would take a good while of running at idle etc to risk any overheating.

If the smoke clears with no water in the engine, then you know there is a major internal issue.

But other than smoke colour, which people see differently...what does the smoke smell like ?

JohnnyJones

Original Poster:

1,694 posts

177 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
quotequote all
The smoke smells strongly of oil.

It smokes all the time, immediately from startup.

I will try it without water later today, didn't think of that.

stevieturbo

17,229 posts

246 months

Thursday 27th February 2014
quotequote all
JohnnyJones said:
The smoke smells strongly of oil.

It smokes all the time, immediately from startup.

I will try it without water later today, didn't think of that.
if it smells of oil and is there immediately from startup, then it is unlikely to be coolant.

If it really stinks...sure it isnt diesel smoke ? ie a dodgy injector or bad pump timing ?

Unless oil was in the combustion chamber, it wouldnt smoke immediately after startup. Any oil in or from the turbocharger would take a few seconds of heat before it started to burn off.

thequeerfish

1 posts

115 months

Tuesday 19th August 2014
quotequote all
i had same problem on a 1996 312,,,,, mine was blown oil gallary on head gasket...to diagnose take off the exhaust manifold and if oil is in first cylinder its the head gasket...hope this helps someone...

Jazoli

9,086 posts

249 months

Tuesday 19th August 2014
quotequote all
thequeerfish said:
i had same problem on a 1996 312,,,,, mine was blown oil gallary on head gasket...to diagnose take off the exhaust manifold and if oil is in first cylinder its the head gasket...hope this helps someone...
Me too, exactly the same thing happened to mine, then 2 injectors failed the week after, that was a dear one frown