Blowby or turbo leak?

[user 50547]

So my d22 just failed it's roadworthiness test due to smoke out the exhaust. Took it to a garage to see what they thought and had a look at the engine bay and saw an oily turbo. Reckoned it might be sending oil into the engine and thus smoke. Anyhow once I got home I decided to clean it up and investigate. Definitely oil inside the turbo but the oil seems to be coming from the breather tube. Think its dripped out of the intake hosing onto the turbo. Not really losing much oil, haven't had to top it up at all since I last changed it. I'm installing a catch can tomorrow and going to drive it around for a while and check for leaks again. Reckon that'll solve my problem? I'd love to clean out the intake manifold too as it looks disgusting inside but seems a bit of a pain to remove what with fuel lines in the way ect.

 

[tweak'e]

well known for oily turbo due to oil from the breather. thats why many run catch cans.
check the oil level, if its to high it really throws out the oil to the point it will run on oil.

what color smoke?

 

[user 50547]

It's black smoke.
I never run with oil level too high, usually somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 on the dipstick. Read somewhere that people have had problems with full oil.

 

[tweak'e]

possibly more of a injector, air flow or egr issue. it depends a bit on when your getting the smoke. ie high rpm, high throttle etc. blocking off egr pipe would be the first thing.

 

[user 50547]

It usually sent out a cloud of smoke on startup and whenever giving a bit of throttle usually in first gear or in low 4x4 offroad going up a steep slope ect. Never noticed it really when driving along normally on the road but kind of hard to tell.

Anyway I've installed a catch can today, cheap upgrade so may as well have and cleaned out the intercooler and as much piping as I could. Also decided to give the engine a real good revving up to 3-4k to try and clear out the system. Seems to have a worked as whilst it was smoky at first it cleared right up and seems fine now. No sign of any oil leaks around the turbo either. Gonna drive it around for a few days and see if it is indeed cured before investigating further I think. I do have nearly 250k miles on it too so I'd expect the engine to have a bit of wear anyway.

 

[tweak'e]

have you got some pics of the engine?
i incorrectly assumed the model of engine.

 

[user 50547]

Oh yeah sorry I should have said it's a YD25DDti engine. Here's some pics anyway.

 

[tweak'e]

really need a bigger pipe from catch can to engine and with that kink in the pipe removed. diesels can blow a fair bit of gas down the breather hose, especially at idle. you also may want to disconnect the breather (block the intake side of course and run it and see if smoke improves.
otherwise first thing is to block egr off and see if smoke improves. the egr valves don't have position sensors so they can get stuck open.

 

[user 50547]

I know yeah, it's just a temporary pipe that came with the kit until I can get my hands on a proper one. Thanks for the advice anyway.