Oil in Air Filter

[sinky45]

I was wondering if anybody could help or advise me please.
I have had a small oil leak for a while and know exactly where it is coming from and have tried to fix it by changing the hose and putting a jubilee clip on instead of the previous fixing but this has not worked and it still leaks, I have accepted this because it is a tiny leak and I just wipe the excess oil off reguarly. This however is not the problem.
The other day I had been over to the North East and on my way back stopped at Hexam for some supplies. coming back to the surf our lass noticed a pool of oil under the bonnet, I had a look and checked the oil level and had enough to get home.
Had a good look and noticed that it was right below the air filter where there is a double nut.
Stripped out the air filter and on doing so the air intake pipe had loads of oil in it so I drained and cleaned it up and also the filter housing where the oil had been coming out of the little bladder at the bottom. checked the intake manifold and this was dry and also the pipe coming from the engine block and this also was dry.
checked the double nut and this was tight.

Anyone have any ideas where the oil is coming from and how to stop it????

[dannyboy77]

the oil is coming from the vent hose that goes from the cylinder head / valve cover to the air inlet. excess oil vapours go through this cool and go back to fluid oil in the air inlet. i assume your surf is burning a lot of oil or its over filled?

[sinky45]

Sorry I haven't been on for a while, problem with computer but fixed now.
Yes my surf is burning alot of oil but only since I had the head changed a couple of months ago. Before that I did not have a problem. I sometimes get a lot of smoke when I start up as well and this only came on since the head was changed too.

[SoundsDigital]

It's not unusual to change a head and increase the compression only for the extra compression to cause the bottom end to give trouble. Did the truck overheat when the head went? You could have seized the piston rings if it did.

[sinky45]

It's not unusual to change a head and increase the compression only for the extra compression to cause the bottom end to give trouble. Did the truck overheat when the head went? You could have seized the piston rings if it did.

When the head went, it did overheat but I bought a complete head fully fitted with all the stuff needed instead of using the old innerds from the old head, I presume this came with new pistons it's the new cylinder head complete for £499 from roughtraxs.

I have since bought a silicone air intake pipe and and a air intake hose elbow going to the turbo. The elbow hose look a bit old a perished although no visible holes so I thought it best to change that one before it did go and cause more problems. Haven't really been far to see if it has made any difference as yet.

[SoundsDigital]

Your new head would not have come with new pistons or piston rings. These are fitted inside the block, not the head. I suspect that your problem is more than likely a seized piston ring if it overheated.

[sinky45]

Your new head would not have come with new pistons or piston rings. These are fitted inside the block, not the head. I suspect that your problem is more than likely a seized piston ring if it overheated.

would this cause the engine to use excessive oil and to deposit oil in the Air intake hose to drip into the filter housing or could it be the turbo seals causing the problem???????

[coolsv650]

if a piston ring has siezed or sometimes they lose springiness, compression will blow past the rings into the crankcase, and out through the breather, if you take the pipr off crankcase compression will show as a significant amount of puffing from the breather.

If the rings have gone i'm afraid the only solution is complete strip down and new rings.

How does it start 1st thing in a morning? my 2.4 had a similar problem and struggled to start first thing

[sinky45]

If I only warm the glow plugs once before turning the key I get a big puff of white smoke (like a smoke grenade) and a little shake of the engine, however if I warm the plugs up about 10 times then I don't/rarely have this problem with maybe just a little smoke.

However before my overheat and head replacement I never had any trouble at all. It started first time every time. I also let the engine warm up for about 5-10 minutes before going anywhere.

It doesn't seem to drive any different since the head was changed and I don't 'rag it'. I can, on a long run get upto 300miles from a full tank as well.

If the piston rings were knackered after the overheat, would the mechanic have noticed this or not? If so what a Tw*t!

[SoundsDigital]

It's unlikely that there would be any sign of ring damage visible by removing the cylinder head and I doubt if he would have removed the pistons to check, I certainly wouldn't have if I had done the job. It's about as much work to remove the pistons as it is to remove the head. It's not impossible that the pistons could be removed and the rings freed up but for the amount of work involved in doing it I would replace the rings as a matter of course. Having gone that far then it is uneconomical not to do a bottom end overhaul. The cost of the bearings is small in comparison to the labour you are going to be looking at. You may get away with reusing the old pistons and just fitting new rings, but that depends on the condition of the bores. If the bores are damaged then they would need to be rebored and bigger pistons fitted. The plus side is you would increase your engine capacity a little bit though.

It's not unknown for rings to free up with some WD40 down the bores and a ###### good thrashing but it is relatively rare. If the bottom end needs a rebuild, you have nothing to lose by trying. Can you get a compression test done as this will give an indication. Usually if a compression ring is rough the compression will be low but some oil swuirted into the cylinder will bring it back up.

[sinky45]

I'll see about a compression test, but if it's a big job then it will have to go for spares or repair cause funds are getting low, shame really cause me and the dogs love it

[Bazza52]

Not sure about the Surf (only just got one) but it's not uncommon on small diesels, most people re-route the breather pipe into a pop bottle, when its full pour the oil back into the engine or dispose of and top up with new. Yes I know it sounds crap but it works untill you can get the cash together, I've known blokes get another 20k miles out of the engine doing this.