Volvopenta problem

[skipperpete]

Originally Posted by xbillaroo

Engine starts easily, idles nicely , temperature good, no blow by; take off filler cap no fumes while running. Oily slick starts immediately engine starts and continues. As engine warms smokey exhaust starts and increases with more revs and decreases with less. Using large amounts of oil considering only running for minutes. Head gasket gone to one of the oil gallery’s?

The rocker gear supply is external so the head gasket has no role in supplying oil to the rockers. The fact that she starts and idles ok is puzzling and it points more and more to the turbo. If the turbo drain was blocked, the seals would definitely leak… a lot! But you ‘d have a heap of oil in the compressor side of the turbo and a lot of oil around the intake ports but they look dry in the photo. If it was leaking on the turbine seal I doubt there’d be any smoke, the oil would just go into the exhaust and not be burned. The fact that the smoke smells like fuel oil is what makes me think either a bad injector or loss of compression on one cylinder or two but frankly, with no info from a cylinder leakage test or a health report on the injectors….. , buggered if know.

[xbillaroo]

Tried a 3rd turbo no difference, with oil on water or lingering white smoke . Blow by on both engines the same. Should I take the head off??

[skipperpete]

Originally Posted by xbillaroo

Tried a 3rd turbo no difference, with oil on water or lingering white smoke . Blow by on both engines the same. Should I take the head off??

Not until you establish why you’re taking it off, its a process of elimination and removing the head without a compression/leakage test disrupts the process, plus you get to view the injector nozzle tips and do a spray test.

[xbillaroo]

Thanks that will be my next step.

[sinnerman]

Originally Posted by skipperpete

What does that unmistakably white smoke smell like. It looks like you have an injector problem,run it again and crack the injector pipe nuts. It takes about 15 seconds to clear the smoke so don’t despair if at first it seems like this isn’t working. …….this smoke was what the Cummins PT injectors produced when an unskilled mechanic over tensioned the injectors and split a cup, here at Manly in Brisbane a motor cruiser did exactly as in your photo last weekend, huge clouds of white smoke and almost zero breeze to move it, it did indeed look like a boat had caught fire.

DITTO

[skipperpete]

I’m still puzzled by the conflicting symptoms, white smoke is usually a buggered injector nozzle or really late timing and/or maybe a loss of compression but this only accounts for the smoke….. not the heavy lube oil usage and now that the turbo has been dismissed ( for now), I’ve run out of ideas about where the lube oil is vanishing to. If the fuel lift pump had cracked a diaphragm and filled the oil pan with diesel or even diluted it, it’d be high on the dipstick but you’re only seeing low on the stick.
Equally perplexing is the fact that the engine starts and runs ok…… gradually starts smoking…. And its using tons of oil but blowing WHITE. smoke not the expected BLUE …… and NO appreciable fuming or crankcase pressure.
I’ve seen Yanmars blow heaps of white smoke due to low (and negative ) suction pressure in the primary fuel system due to blocked secondary filters but only on one model of 4JH with one specific type of rotary injector pump with hydraulic timing advance, not on any others. New filters and the smoke cleared instantly. Another CF member had a similar white smoke event on a yanmar due to a blocked fuel tank breather, but none of these incidents had increased lube oil consumption, just white smoke.
I’m looking forward to seeing what the cylinder pressure tests reveal.

[sinnerman]

This may sound dumb, but try loosening the oil filler cap and see if that helps.

Maybe the crankcase breather is blocked, increasing the crankcase pressure.

Usually a blocked breather results in oil being blown out of the engine past the crankshaft seals, but you never know.

You could also have a stuck oil ring on one of the pistons.

My two cents

cheers

[ullar]

My theory would be that oil gets somehow into cooling raw water and is heated up in exhaust elbow. That would explain whitish smoke and oil spill. That would also explain perfectly starting and running engine as the problem is only on the cooling side, not in the engine itself.


From where can oil get into raw cooling water? Depends on exact configuration of your engine. May be the oil cooler. Pressure on the oil side of the cooler is higher than on water side so oil mixes into raw water not vice versa.