Black Smoke , under load plus Rattle ! Diesel

I have seen other posts with a similar problem, Mine is slightly different. I have just had a new Reconditioned engine fitted, I think the Old engine was a 3L and this one is a 2L, I guess it is a fuel air mix problem, I have changed the air filter but to no improvement. Is there a way of Adjusting the fuel pump which could have been paired with the 3L engine ? If so how ?
Any help would be great, Thanks, Joe

P.S. She is a 1990 Diesel Auto Super Custom

Erm are you saying that you have the 3L fuel pump on the 2L lump? - It won't work correctly!

Not sure if the 1990 engine is EFI if so it really won't work!

HI,
RE Black smoke and tapping ! serious ? expensive ?

I have checked and they did put a 3L engine back in ! Any ideas about the black smoke ? Only happens when accelerating UPHILL ! ( smoke is black, Not Blue or white )

Symptoms
Black smoke when accelerating uphill
Loud Tapping noise from Engine medium to high revs ( it is not a knocking sound )
lack of power, ( take a long time to get upto 55mph on motorway)

What I have tried
I have put some injector cleaner through the fuel system twice, but does not seem to have helped !
Drained Radiator, Flushed, Cleaned, re-filled with 50/50. thought engine may be too hot ! ( as suggested on this forum )
Changed Air filter . ( air Fuel mix , as suggested on this forum )
Today its having old Catalytic converter cut out and replaced , as old one was shot, with holes ! ( could this solve her problems ? )


I am hoping that the recon engine is not a duff one ! I bought it online from a place in Birmingham for £800, then paid a garage £2700 to fit it ( twice as much as they originally quoted me ) ! The engine has 6 month warrante but the labor will have to be paid again if it is duff !

I Love my SC , please help if you can ?

Its just failed its MOT as well ! Should I keep pouring money in ? or should i give up and try to find another ?
Failed on
Headlight Adjustment, adjuster broken ! ( instructions found on this forum how to overcome , thanks )
Rear Fog light problem
Number plates back and front are not regulation, ( funny how it passed with same number plates last year )
Front brake lines are twisted, and one perished ( any ideas where I can buy new )
Brake pads
2 Tyres below limit

Cheers

Joe

Black smoke is fuelling either fuel or air starvation, also performance will be rubbish at higher speeds.

I assume that the fuel and air filters have been changed and that the turbo was reconnected correctly. I'd take it back to the engine fitters and get then to check over the connections.

MOT Headlights minor problem. Rear fog replace it cheap enough. Number plates £9.99 off ebay change them back after MoT. Front brake lines (flexi hose) most motor factor will have them for the Hiace Van. Pads as before. Also off ebay.

Tyres well take you choice but ensure that they are suitable for the weight of the vehicle, any decent fitter will know this but of the internet or ebay you may get stung.

For £2700...I'd get the fitters to test run it and come to a conclusion...(timing off a tooth or vacuum lines?).
As Clive suggests...the other bits are par for the course / minor issues.
Suprised it had a CAT on at that age.....

Yea the garage needs to sort this out. The've had enough of your hard earned doe.
Could be turbo pipes not sealing.
Hope you get this sorted quickly.
MOT failure are quite easily remidied

An Update on my problems,
I took it back to the Garage who fitted the recon engine, They said Nothing wrong and sent me away ! ( Dont Use Falles Garage, Barnes Lane, Sarisbury Green ! )
I went for a second opinion,
He found the resaon for the rattling was The previous garage had not tightened up the fly wheels, and they were rocking as they span !
He also found they had put the timing out by 4 notches ! She runs Lovley now on the flat , V Quiet and great at high speed ! I still have the Black smoke up hills which after asking adviceI have been told it is the Turbo, May have been damaged by lack of Oil when the Last engines Big Ends went ! ( or may just be a pipe leaking ! )
I am having to top up with oil regularly, so I have have been told this is a sure sign that Oil is being taken into the turbo and will cause the Lack of power up hills and the Black smoke !
As I have such bad service from Garages,
However , My Camper is the Model U-LH113V-RRPDS which as far as I am aware is the NON-Turbo ! ( I cant see a turbo on the engine either )

Does anyone have any ideas !
Just to confirm
Black Smoke and power loss when going up hill , (On my way home from Cornwall There was a 10% Grad Hill, by the time I got to the top she was only doing 15 miles an hour and the road behind me was filled with Black smoke ! )

2.8 D Auto

Thanks

Joe

Try Bob Murphy he is a mobile mechanic who operates all over the country.

07931 547438 - he is happy to give advice over the phone and have look when he is in the area. Great bloke tells you straight and very competative rates.

Thanks for the number, Ill keep it handy !

Ive Put in New Injectors now, ( £185 for 4 new injectors I though was quite good as a garage had Quoted me £240 to service my old ones )
Exhaust had blown in many places after the silencer, SO I ordered Back part of exhaust & Silencer ( £70 GBP )
She also needed a UJ on the prop shaft which was noticed when Exhaust was being done !

She seems better, But have not been for a long run , or up any steep hills yet !

Fingers crossed

Joe

Here's a home truth for you all.

Black smoke under a heavy load or on a steep grade is quite normal for a L,2L,3l or an early 5L non turbo engine.
This is particularly so on a 10% or more grade.

If it's blowing a lot of black smoke on acceleration and engine rattles at high 3000rpm or more) is is almost certainly due to the injector pumps timing not being right.
(It will be advanced too much)

The trick with the 3l engines when going uphill is to only put your foot down as much as the engine needs.
keep an eye on your mirrors and watch for smoke.
Remember that on the 3L's and all early diesels that putting your foot down does NOT open the throttle valve to let in more air, it simply tells the injector pump to put more fuel!
So, if the engine cannot make use of any more fuel it will simply spit the excess fuel out of the tailpipe as black soot / smoke.


As an aside, As there is no throttle valve on a L,2L,3L or early 5L diesel at all, they have no vacum in the intake manifold at idle and that is why they need a vacum pump for the brakes.
But I digress.

In fact, all the early L series engines were banned in some countries because of this smoke / soot issue, the only way around it was to fit more sophisticated injector pumps (ala the 5LE and later engines) as well as a throttle valve so that a vacum could be created for the various sensors that were required by the electronics and the new pumps.


I hope this clears things up......(Pun Intended)

Thanks Jeff,

After all I have done to her the Black smoke was worrying me, She still does it under load and up steep hills if I accelerate too hard , so what you are saying makes sense.

On the flat / small hills with average load she is running beautifully, Engine is very quite now, no black smoke at all at high reves and cruses very nicley at 120km/h ( unless as you have suggested I am accelerating to hard , i.e. flooding the engine with too much Fuel )

I have been watching the smoke situation and do lift off the accelerator as soon as I see any. SHe is also now doing over 500km on a tank of Fuel ( She was only doing about 300km before new set of boots plus Timing and injectors were done )

What you have said has put my mind at rest that all is good , thanks again

Just one last problem to solve and she will be perfect !

last issue is the loosing of engine oil !

There are no Oil Leaks that i have found , but i have to put about 1/2 L of engine oil in every 1000 km

Any ideas ? Im scared I will forget one day and loose another engine !!!

Cheers

Joe

Sign of a tired engine?

Take the crankcase breather off and run engine to see how much is being puffed out. This will go back into the inlet side of the engine and be burned (may cause smoke) off and out the exhaust.

It was a Reconditioned engine only 10,000 Km ago !
Should not be Tired yet ?

Should not be using oil at that rate. You have a low oil light the orange one.

Just a thought what SAE oil are you using?

Take it for a run leave engine running and check the breather pipe. It should be a slight puff. If it is a pulsating oily mist then something is amiss.

5 ways for oil to get in the combustion cycle -

1 as above.
2 via piston rings
3 down past the valve stem seals
4 heas gasket failure.
5 Via leaking turbo seals - was this replaced or from the original engine?

If you have no oil drips on the road it must be one of the five above.

I agree with Clive, you should not be using anywhere near that amount of oil.
The required SAE rating for a 3L diesel's oil is 10W-40 here in Australia, in the UK it should be using a 5W-30 oil in winter and a 10W-40 or 10W-50 oil in summer, and preferably a semi - synthetic based oil.
(But NOT for the initial fill after a rebuild, that should be a mineral based, non fortified oil.)

The difference is only due to the difference in temperatures in the different countries.
I personally use a semi - synthetic 20W-50 oil here all year round as it suits my local temperatures a lot better.
(I live in the tropics, 100Km from the city of Cairns, in North Queensland, Australia)

As your car is non turbo we can forget about the leaking turbo seals of Clives post however you will need to look closer at the previous items in his list.
Some oil usage is going to happen with all engines and particularly so with a new engine, most of the oil consumption is due to oil getting past the piston rings.
However, 1/2 litre per 1000Km is too much.

If there are no leaks and the oils viscosity rating is correct I would be suspecting glazed cylinder bores.

This condition is usually caused by either improper running in procedures or improper machining of the bores by the rebuilder.
It can be alleviated by several methods, some of which I will detail below.
1.
This is the cheapest and easiest way, get the engine hot, drain the oil, replace the oil filter and refill with a light engine oil, (5w-15 or similar and preferably using non fortified, mineral based oil).
Then go for a longish drive on a motorway (100 miles or more) and make the engine WORK!
This involves running the engine at or near full power / load whilst keeping a VERY close eye on the engines temperature. (Max torque is at 2400rpm and max power is at 3200rpm on a 3L, aim to operate the at or near those figures for most of the time and keep varying the engine speed, constant rpms will only increase the amount of glazing. DO NOT run the engine at low rpm's or at idle too much.Again, keep a close eye on the engine temperature.
Don't forget to OCCASIONLY take the engine to about 4000rpm once you have done a couple of runs, it needs to be worked through the engines entire rpm range.
You will need to do this type of run a few times but remember to change the oil (and filter) at 1000Kms back to your normal oil, the lightweight oil will not last 5000Km in an l series diesel engine.

2.
Pull the engine out and strip it for re-honing of the cylinders.
This aint cheap but it will fix the issue, provided you follow the correct break in procedures afterwards.

3.
Use a chemical fuel additive like FTC's decarboniser (See http://www.costeffective.com.au/) for details.
1 litre of that stuff treats 800 litres of fuel and it should clear the glaze within that time.
I have not used that stuff at all but I have heard of some good reports with it.


I hope this helps you out Joe,
Keep us informed on how you go, we'll be watching and waiting.