1.9tdi excessive blow by?

invision · Jul 1, 2015

Just bought a 1.9tdi PD 130, and noticed with the oil cap off, there's fair bit of smoke/ fumes wafting out. Only does this when the engine is warm, thats why I missed it before. It smells & looks like exhaust fumes. Theres more than a little, but not as bad as some ive seen on youtube. It floats out rather than shooting out under pressure. Tried putting a rubberglove over the opening and it didn't inflate, it sucked in when the engine was revved.
Too soon to tell if its using oil, but the oil is clean, no gunk anywhere. Starts and drives ok.
200k on the clock. No noticeable smoke from exhaust.
Should I be worried?

jettawreck · Jul 1, 2015

No. Normal.

HogWrangler · Jul 1, 2015

Pretty normal. Check vacuum hoses, especially the one going to the brake booster, it's the most common to crack and leak. The way the vacuum is vented to the engine it can look like excess blow by

invision · Jul 1, 2015

Well that's put my mind at ease a little. Thanks.

When you say normal, you mean normal for a car with this amount of miles ? Or normal for this engine ?
I've had higher mileage diesels and I've never seen this before. My thinking was that the piston rings are gone and it's the beginning of the end.

Which I'm still thinking, but hopefully it's not gonna die just yet.
At first glance all the hoses look intact, but I'll have a closer look.

HogWrangler · Jul 1, 2015

You can replace all of them with vacuum hose from a local auto parts store for less than $10 to put your mind to ease. Or spend more for silicone ones that will last a lot longer. The one between the pump and booster almost always cracks where it's near impossible to see. You can buy one from idparts.com though they are pricey. Also, check the nipple on the back of the vacuum pump that the hose is connected it. They tend to get loose and wobble. Some JB weld or RTV applied around it will fix it

jettawreck · Jul 1, 2015

Your pistons and rings are probably just fine, the "blow by" feel out of the oil fill is normal. A better indication (if all other things are up to par) is how it starts. Diesel wont start well if low compression. A compression test would probably put your mind to rest.

Drivbiwire · Jul 1, 2015

invision said:
Just bought a 1.9tdi PD 130, and noticed with the oil cap off, there's fair bit of smoke/ fumes wafting out. Only does this when the engine is warm, thats why I missed it before. It smells & looks like exhaust fumes. Theres more than a little, but not as bad as some ive seen on youtube. It floats out rather than shooting out under pressure. Tried putting a rubberglove over the opening and it didn't inflate, it sucked in when the engine was revved.
Too soon to tell if its using oil, but the oil is clean, no gunk anywhere. Starts and drives ok.
200k on the clock. No noticeable smoke from exhaust.
Should I be worried?

The vacuum pump is pumping the air into the motor, it's oil lubricated, so in effect the engine is always being pressurized.

This positive pressure also reduces oil leakage across the turbos oil seals.

It's a diesel, not a gasser.... Don't compare the two.

invision · Jul 1, 2015

jettawreck said:
Your pistons and rings are probably just fine, the "blow by" feel out of the oil fill is normal. A better indication (if all other things are up to par) is how it starts. Diesel wont start well if low compression. A compression test would probably put your mind to rest.

Well it's not the blow by "feel", it's the smoke that worried me. As far as I was aware exhaust fumes (and they smell like exhaust fumes) have no business being in there and could only be escaping past the piston rings?
It does start first turn every time though. Yeah compression test would be good idea just to remove any doubt.

When I first discovered this I was gutted, just beginning to really like the thing...lol

Skylake · Jul 4, 2015

Same "blow by" on 1.9 TDI PD 105, pretty much like this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5TR3yd8l0w

And it's weird that on cold engine, unlike hot, there is no "smoke". Well apparently it's not blow by smoke but oil vapours.. still weird how there is THAT much of oil vapours.

naturist · Jul 4, 2015

You have to remember, too, that it is a diesel and the compression ratio is MUCH higher than a gasoline engine. This will create a lot more blow-by than you'll see from any gas engine.

GreenLantern_TDI · Jul 4, 2015

I had similar issue. Had enough pressure to push oil out the valve cover tube into the ic turbo feed line. Lots of oil. I ran AutoRX to clean the rings. Problem solved. You can see by my signiture i installed a provent 200 with a return to the oil pan to keep the oil in the system. I hope with good synthetic oil this issue is resolved.

Skylake · Jul 4, 2015

GreenLantern_TDI said:
I had similar issue. Had enough pressure to push oil out the valve cover tube into the ic turbo feed line. Lots of oil. I ran AutoRX to clean the rings. Problem solved. You can see by my signiture i installed a provent 200 with a return to the oil pan to keep the oil in the system. I hope with good synthetic oil this issue is resolved.

Umm, that scares me because even after shortest drive I get some oil on CCV tube to the pre-turbo intake. http://i.imgur.com/mhbF0Ud.jpg
I know that stock oil separation system is not very efficient, but is this normal?
Oil consumption is not that high, maybe 1l (34 ounces?) per 6000 miles.

I am thinking about buying catch can but not sure do I really need it.

Do you still have smoke on oil filler cap when engine is warm?
Also does it use and how much oil per, let's say, 6k or 10k miles?

GreenLantern_TDI · Jul 4, 2015

Yes smoke at oil fill cap. 2L per 10k miles. I may no longer need the Provent 200(catch can) but im glad its there to keep the oil where it should be and return it to the oil pan if there is some blow by.

e84 · Jul 4, 2015

this alh engine I swapped in was rebuilt, has 450 compression across all 4, starts within a half second of turning the key, and has exactly what you described... I think it's common on diesels.

this gasser pos ford taurus with only around 91,000 kilometers has no air movement when removing the oil filler cap. it's also a v6 don't know if that makes a difference.

turbovan+tdi · Jul 5, 2015

Old dirty engine oil will "smoke" out of the crankcase. Change the oil and retest, bet you won't have smoke.

AS the others said, perfectly normal.

invision · Jul 5, 2015

The youtube vid above is exactly the same.
I will get a compression test at some point but not panicking now like I was.
Lots of great advice guys, thanks for all your replies.

Skylake · Jul 5, 2015

GreenLantern_TDI said:
Yes smoke at oil fill cap. 2L per 10k miles. I may no longer need the Provent 200(catch can) but im glad its there to keep the oil where it should be and return it to the oil pan if there is some blow by.

Even with Provent oil consumption is ~2L per 10k miles?
I was confident that a big part of my oil consumption is there because of poor oil vapour separation in cylinder head cover..
Do you have any oil droplets in intake now with provent?

GreenLantern_TDI · Jul 5, 2015

I agree smoke at oil fill cap is normal as well as the oil fill cap dancing if loose while the engine is running. It was the copious amount of oil flowing threw the ccv that worried me.

Skylake · Jul 6, 2015

GreenLantern_TDI said:
I agree smoke at oil fill cap is normal as well as the oil fill cap dancing if loose while the engine is running. It was the copious amount of oil flowing threw the ccv that worried me.

I'm afraid you haven't seen my upper reply.

GreenLantern_TDI · Jul 6, 2015

No. Provent catches it all. Provent 200 is a good setup. Yes 2L in 10k miles with provent. I drive my car hard alot and im sure there is some wear on the rings from being stuck. Im fine with 2L in 10k miles as ive seen others here with worse.

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