Also forgot to mention that there is smoke when I go downhill and breaking with engine. Again, no boost pressure in the intake so oil not being held in the turbo. Will just mention again that I have zero smoke when engi e is under load so I feel like excessive blow by would still push oil into the intake if that would be the case? Attached another cat picture where you can see that around the edges is completely blocked. By the way I think it got worse after driving the van through Europe last year so it clogged the cat even more from burning oil?

 

Hi, I have now changed the cat and the van starts better but it is still smoking when cold under no load and exhaust smells bad even after warm up. I have checked the intercooler pipe coming from turbo for oil and it looks that the oil stopped leking out of the turbo since I replaced the cat but there is still smoke. I feel like this might be a fueling issue now, not oil burning as I originally thought but there was definitely oil coming from the turbo.
Since the new cat, I can hear the turbo whistling now very high pitch. Also it feels low on power and had puff of black smoke for the last couple days when moving from stand still. Maybe a boost leak? I can't sed anything obvious apart from a lot of oil at the intercooler connections so maybe leaking there. I feel like the boost leak would have to be real bad for this much smoke so not sure.
I have also checked the CCV and it seems to work okay as there is oil vapour escaping when I remove the membrane so no clogs I guess. I have also opened the oil cap and held my hand over the hole and revved the engine but felt little to no pressure so don't feel like there is a massive blow by so don't think it's low on compression.
The engine ticks over nicely, no shaking when warm, little bit when cold but nothing I would be concerned about.

Can anyone help please?

 

Deffo either a boost leak or manifold leak, did you replace the boost pipe seals when you split it? The actual pipe connections can wear and lose boost as well if there is any movement on the joints then try the seals but its likely you will need new pipes, it may be a lot cheaper to make them up from silicone hose and alloy connectors than buy VW, its also worth looking at the inter-cooler they do fail sometimes from stone hits usually or at the joints spray strong soapy water over it and rev look for bubbles same with the pipe joins

 

Hi Suty, thanks for your reply. I went to see a friend mechanic today and we checked the intercooler pipes for leaks with smoke macine and there were no leaks. We thought that it might be some residual oil that leaked into the intercooler from old turbo so I have took everything apart, degreased and cleaned the intercooler (there was barely any oil there), cleaned all the pipes and wiped them dry from oil, started the engine and it immediately started smoking again as bad as it was so unfortunately it is not a boost leak or oil from turbo. The van feels underpowered to be honest, it's starting to point to injector or multiple maybe leaking? Could it be? Is there any way to check which injector is faulty without taking them all out? I was thinking to pull the glow plugs and inspect the tips maybe for soot. Maybe one or two will have more soot on them? Any thoughts?

 

If you have access to vcd you can see the values as the engine runs, is the smoke grey or blue?
Blue points towards oil so worn engine unfortunately unless your new turbo is leaking which is doubtful these days and grey is fuel related tbh if it's done more than 120k it's probably due an injector refurb anyway

 

Well first I've seen a blue tint but that was when the turbo was leaking oil and the cat was clogged, now I'm not sure anymore to be honest. I think is more grey now, also smells like old diesel bus if that makes sense. It feels like overfueling as when I'm in higher gear and lower rpm, it puffs black smoke and low power. I will try to take some video or pictures of the smoke later. The van done 200k miles and the injectors are original for sure as I have put new head on it and they looked like they were never removed. I have checked the injector quantity on vcds at idle and the values are all under 1.00 and highest around 0.50 I think, some plus some minus values but nothing excessive but I'm no expert. Should I check this at certain rpm? By the way, there is zero smoke at idle cold or hot, smokes only when I rev it when cold, stinks like old bus with no smoke after that. I will check the values again and post here later.

 

No it's the variation of the injectors that matter so let's say for example values are between 3 and minus 3 as standard and you have injectors at the extreme end or just 1 that's compensating outside the norm so 4 or minus 4 that indicates an issue, it may be worth double checking your timing as well if you have had the head off.
Perhaps it's time to take it to a diesel specialist and let them look at it for you rather than guessing and throwing money at it in the hope it works

 

Here are some pictures of the smoke, actually looks blue but would be great to get your opinion on this. Also injector quantity values first picture at idle and second at around 2500rpm no load just reving parked. Any thoughts on this? Timing was 0.0 but I have tried advancing it and retarding and no change, still smoke. Could it be valve stem seals? I have used new seals when the head was swapped but maybe I damaged them when fitting or they were just poor quality as I didn't use oem brand to honest. I have read somewhere that when you go downhil breaking with engine and you get smoke, it is the seals and I get that when the engine is cold in the morning.

 

Also wanted to mention that I don't have huge oil consumption. I had this issue for about a year, it's getting worse though, but I think I only topped up under 1l of oil in that year. I also had oil leak around tandem pump for most of that time as well leaving oil stains everywhere I parked so that contributed to the oil loss as well so I don't think it's piston rings. The engine ticks over nicely as far as I'm concerned.

 

That's diesel smoke it can happen when the Engines cold, when the Engines warm it's not unusual to get a slight black smoke when first revved.
If your getting that smoke when the Engines warm you need to have the injectors or timing looked at for sure.
Am assuming you have looked at the EGR valve etc to make sure it's working properly.
As I said earlier at this point a diesel specialist would be the best option your injectors don't look to be too bad but am not sure what the allowable alterations are on a 1.9

 

This smoke is with engine cold. Do you think it's unburnt diesel? It looks bit blue to me. I understand what you're saying about going to a diesel specialist, I just want to explore every option before I do that. I have attached pictures of my intake valves that I have done with endoscope couple weeks ago. One of them, the last one, looks suspicious with more oil residue on the stem in comparison to the other 3. Might be passing oil?

 

think about it logically your not losing oil but you have smoke poor performance and a wet valve where does that lead you?

 

So you're saying it might be either bad injector, timing, or fueling issue? Sorry if I'm not getting it. I really do appreciate your input. How would be a wet valve sign of fueling issue though? I think I forgot to mention that before I replaced the turbo and cat a week ago, I still had the smoke issue but I had good power, van pulled like a train in every gear. Now it pulls okay in first 3 gears, then it gets bit lazy so I feel like I'm fighting two issues at the moment but first focusing on the smoke so I don't clog up the new cat. This is why I'm questioning the fueling or timing issue. Sorry if I'm bit hard headed about it, just trying to understand all the symptoms, and apologies for not giving all the information straight away.

 

So you need good airflow and the correct fueling to get good power it's not difficult to understand but sometimes very difficult to achieve you may have disturbed the timing doing the work etc. Honestly a diesel specialist will pinpoint it and get you on your way long before you can

 

Hi, just a quick update. Since last time, I had done more work on the van to try to resolve the smoking issue. I have done valve stem seals, still smoke, done the injector seals, still smoke. Done the compression test but cold to see if there is any issue on any cylinders before it gets hot and seals up properly and the compression was equal on all 4 cylinders measuring 340psi (still in spec I believe but also the engine was cold so I'm pretty sure it will be higher hot). Just to mention, I might have already mentioned this but about a year ago, I have done the flywheel with clutch and since I was there, I have changed the crank seal with timing ring as I had oil everywhere so I thought I do it just in case. Of course, I didn't have the correct tool to put this seal with ring back on so I have done it by eye. Just so it's not enough, I was lazy and locked the cam instead of crank because I couldn't be bothered to pull the aux belt and pulley to lock the timing on crank. This was stuck in my head as I thought I have maybe done it wrong and kept this as last job because how involved it is. So I have bought the tool to fit the seal and finally took the gearbox and flywheel off today to check it and you have probably guest it by now, yes it was not in time. It was 5degrees retarded. So fixed that, fitted ring and seal with correct tool, put it all back together and started the beast. Vcds showing -4.9 torsion value so I have adjusted the cam timing to 0.0 and now the van starts better, no puff of smoke on start and most importantly, no more massive clouds of smoke when I rev the engine cold. Lesson learned here for sure. Thanks Suty for your replies and you were right when you said it's timing or fueling related. I wish I have checked this in the first place but was just avoiding it because how involved the job was.