Take you oil cap off you engine and just place it back on (without securing) see if it bounces around on top of the valve cover with engine running.


Don't let it flip into the fan (be careful)

__________________
BENZ THERE DONE THAThttp://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...c/progress.gif
15 VW Passat TDI
00 E420
98 E300 DT
97 E420 Donor Car - NEED PARTS? PM ME!
97 S500
97 E300D
86 Holden Jackaroo Turbo D
86 300SDL
(o\|/o)

You have a long way to go before worrying about the head gasket, unless the smoke smells sweet like coolant, or there is oil in the coolant etc.

If you do have a lot of blowby, the updated breather hose that goes from the valve cover to the air cleaner can help prevent oil getting to the intake. Total cost = $13

Does the car burn a lot of oil between oil changes?

Next thing I would do is a Diesel Purge. Dieselgiant.com has a good writeup. Its like a super duper cleaning for the fuel system.

Next is the ALDA banjo line service.

The valve adjustment is a good idea no matter what. When doing the valve adjustment, check the timing chain stretch. You may need to put in a 'woodruff key' to correct it.

Next, check out you injection pump timing. A slightly late pump can cause white smoke.

Hope this helps,
dd

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'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

I have a general idea that as these cars get older and lose compression, they start to smoke more because they aren't burning the fuel completely.

Have you given any thought to selling the car if it won't pass DC inspection? We don't have any emissions test on diesels in Virginia.



Ken300D

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

Hello all,
Thanks for all of the advice. OK here's the update:
exhaust smells like exhaus, not coolant, maybe faintly of diesel.

I cleaned the EGR with WD-40, didn't seem to do too much.
I tried the teakettle test: with the breather hose attached, the oil cap bounced a little bit, and no colored smoke (of any color) came out of the oil cap. With the hose off, when I plugged the intake, had the same result, cap bounced a little, no smoke, engine did not shut off when plugged.

Now, I am looking, when I rev it up to ~3k rpm I get a burst of real black/brown smoke, otherwise at low RPM it is a light grey smoke, and not too, too much of that, but enough, if you know what I mean.

I cleaned out the banjo bolt on the ALDA, it wasn't too bad, this didn't seem to have a big effect either.


So here's what I have next up:
a Diesel Purge treatment
Breather hose replacement
a valve adjustment

Sound reasonable? Any comments/new ideas from the symptoms here?
Looking forward to your sage advice,
Jim

i got a question for this, what can we understand by this test, if it moves around what can we do to prevent this.

That combustion gasses are getting past the rings.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

99 W210 E300 Turbo Diesel, chipped, DPF/Converter Delete. Still needs EGR Delete, 232K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Gone and still missed...1982 w123 300D, 1991 w124 300D

I have wondered the same thing.

Blow-By curioisty questions

Basically its a quick metric of general engine health. If theres tons of blow by, its generally a negative thing, if there isn't too much, its generally positive. How good or bad different levels of blow by are is uncertain.

Cars that have lots of blow can run great, cars with no blow by could have something else wrong.

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'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car