Dirty diesel

[Edbear]

It's not a turbo, it's an RD28. When I open the oil filler cap with the engine running it's got a fair bit of blow by. It still runs mint though, starts from completely cold with about 3 seconds of glow plugging it.

Sorry but only got bad news. The LD28 was a solid and reliable motor and would go forever but the RD28 was alloy head and prone to blowing head gaskets. My old one blew a piston. White smoke indicates a cracked head or blown headgasket and may not immediately result in overheating for a while.

You don't remove the oil-filler cap on an overhead-cam enginge when it's running as you'll splatter oil everywhere...

[SMOKEU]

I might just try a thicker oil and see if that makes any difference. The previous owner said he had the head gasket replaced. I had a proper diesel mechanic have a quick look at the engine and he can't detect any sign of a blown head gasket or cracked head. There is no water in the oil or oil in the water.

[scumdog]

I might just try a thicker oil and see if that makes any difference. The previous owner said he had the head gasket replaced. I had a proper diesel mechanic have a quick look at the engine and he can't detect any sign of a blown head gasket or cracked head. There is no water in the oil or oil in the water.

I don't care.

Get even a 883 Sporty and you'll be miles ahead.

[dino3310]

Sorry but only got bad news. The LD28 was a solid and reliable motor and would go forever but the RD28 was alloy head and prone to blowing head gaskets. My old one blew a piston. White smoke indicates a cracked head or blown headgasket and may not immediately result in overheating for a while.

You don't remove the oil-filler cap on an overhead-cam enginge when it's running as you'll splatter oil everywhere...

aw shite i got the LD - RD round the wrong way was a while back...
but yeah the RD alloy head was a bloody nice car all the bells and whistles and comfortable on the long hauls, but the rear cylinder gets scoured easily with over heating, typical six....
is she heating up on the up hill legs bro

[Edbear]

I might just try a thicker oil and see if that makes any difference. The previous owner said he had the head gasket replaced. I had a proper diesel mechanic have a quick look at the engine and he can't detect any sign of a blown head gasket or cracked head. There is no water in the oil or oil in the water.

Not easy to detect, but any smoke other than black is an issue. Mine started using oil but still ran well and the blown piston was a surprise. As I said, white "smoke" is an indication of a cracked head. My Estima Turbo Diesel suffered that and ran cool and with no power loss. It wasn't until I got to my mate's garage and left it idling for a bit that the white smoke started with that sickly-sweet smell of coolant. Smell the exhaust, and smell the dipstick as the smell of the oil can be a good indicator of what is wrong, too.

[Edbear]

aw shite i got the LD - RD round the wrong way was a while back...
but yeah the RD alloy head was a bloody nice car all the bells and whistles and comfortable on the long hauls, but the rear cylinder gets scoured easily with over heating, typical six....
is she heating up on the up hill legs bro

I had an '88 Laurel Hardtop. A fantastic cruiser that was a dream to drive! But it blew a piston just after I sold if to a friend of my wife's... Not a good thing to do...

[SMOKEU]

I don't care.

Get even a 883 Sporty and you'll be miles ahead.

I don't have a big enough boat to warrant an anchor of that size! I think the head off an 883 will be a big enough anchor for the old dingy.

aw shite i got the LD - RD round the wrong way was a while back...
but yeah the RD alloy head was a bloody nice car all the bells and whistles and comfortable on the long hauls, but the rear cylinder gets scoured easily with over heating, typical six....
is she heating up on the up hill legs bro

I haven't taken it on a long enough drive up hill to test it. The diesel mechanic who had a look at it commented on how easily it starts and how good the engine sounds compared to most other RD28s. He revved the engine hard while in neutral and there was no visible smoke coming from the exhaust.

There is visible white smoke coming from the exhaust most of the time while I accelerate at a "normal" pace. The car has been sitting in a paddock for most of this year.

[SMOKEU]

I had an '88 Laurel Hardtop. A fantastic cruiser that was a dream to drive! But it blew a piston just after I sold if to a friend of my wife's... Not a good thing to do...

They're nice cars, mine is a '88 pillarless manual one.

[Edbear]

They're nice cars, mine is a '88 pillarless manual one.

That's what I had but an auto. Comfortable cruising at 150km/h, (desert road, 1am, on way to Chch...). We loved it! But very disappointed that despite the previous owner's, (a good friend), fastidious servicing and care, and our same, it still blew the piston and it wasn't a huge mileage on it either.

[scissorhands]

I haven't taken it on a long enough drive up hill to test it.

There is visible white smoke coming from the exhaust most of the time while I accelerate at a "normal" pace. The car has been sitting in a paddock for most of this year.

Due to the time sitting an injector cleaner will take some time, 1000 plus k's at least. BP do an Ultimate diesel fuel with a cleaner additive, use it initially to clean the injectors along with the moreys additive every fill, and then Gull fuel should be used after the white smoke stops. If it stops. Give it a good thrash every now and then.

I now use a nissan wagon with the CD17 that was left to sit and someone had filled with petrol by mistake. Its running condition still varies, some days its strong others it struggles for power. Its slowly coming right after 2 months.

Hope that helps

[Motu]

Burning oil won't make a diesel put out blue or white smoke - it runs on oil and will just burn it as fuel...overfueling will result in black smoke.You will have a hard time finding 20-50 HDEO....if I could find some I'd use it in my airhead.White smoke is cold smoke,or if hot caused by retarded injection timing - have the timing checked with a DTI.The RD28 can crack heads,and you could be confusing white smoke with steam - white smoke smells like kero and will sting your eyes (well,it did with sulphur fuel).

Had an RD28 Laurel for 5 years,apart from an injector pump it was pretty trouble free.Being a 6 cyl they have little torque,so you have to rev the snot out of them,and being a diesel it won't rev anyway.Can't see the point of a small 6 cyl diesel,a 2.8 4 cyl will clean up an RD28 everywhere.

[SMOKEU]

Burning oil won't make a diesel put out blue or white smoke - it runs on oil and will just burn it as fuel...overfueling will result in black smoke.You will have a hard time finding 20-50 HDEO....if I could find some I'd use it in my airhead.White smoke is cold smoke,or if hot caused by retarded injection timing - have the timing checked with a DTI.The RD28 can crack heads,and you could be confusing white smoke with steam - white smoke smells like kero and will sting your eyes (well,it did with sulphur fuel).

Had an RD28 Laurel for 5 years,apart from an injector pump it was pretty trouble free.Being a 6 cyl they have little torque,so you have to rev the snot out of them,and being a diesel it won't rev anyway.Can't see the point of a small 6 cyl diesel,a 2.8 4 cyl will clean up an RD28 everywhere.

I can sometimes smell smoke in my car which seems to be diesel smoke. I've got an RD28 in my other Laurel but it's done high kms (around 350,000km from memory) and since it's just a parts car I've never started it so I don't have any idea as to the condition of the engine. I was thinking if my 'good' Laurel has a cracked head I could replace the head with the one off my parts car.

It doesn't appear to be leaking oil, so that oil must be going somewhere.

The diesel mechanic recommended that I change the oil after 500km to flush out all the shit that's left behind, then just run it on cheap mineral diesel oil.

[scissorhands]

Diesels just use sump oil as fuel....ever see blue smoke from a diesel? no

google non turbo diesel white smoke

http://www.google.co.nz/search?clien...=Google+Search

[Flip]

I have some commercial fuel treatment stuff I can give you. Its made for MDO and bunker oil boat motors.

How old is the fuel? sounds to me like the fuel itself might be the problem...... especially if the motor has been sitting for a while..........

It does not suprise me that it is burning oil espcially if it has been sitting for a year. If the rings are possibly stuck, try a med-high ash oil as these have strong detergents and should free them up with a bit of use that is.

I brought a landrover and thought it was stuffed because it burned oil, it took about 2 oil changes before it came right, the compression improved and it has stopped burning oil with a bit of use.

[SMOKEU]

I have some commercial fuel treatment stuff I can give you. Its made for MDO and bunker oil boat motors.

How old is the fuel? sounds to me like the fuel itself might be the problem...... especially if the motor has been sitting for a while..........

It does not suprise me that it is burning oil espcially if it has been sitting for a year. If the rings are possibly stuck, try a med-high ash oil as these have strong detergents and should free them up with a bit of use that is.

I brought a landrover and thought it was stuffed because it burned oil, it took about 2 oil changes before it came right, the compression improved and it has stopped burning oil with a bit of use.

The diesel fuel in it is good - it had about a 1/4 of a tank of old diesel so I filled the tank completely with fresh diesel and a bottle of injector cleaner as per the instructions on the injector cleaner bottle.