I’d pull the hose off and see how much oil is in there. Check the intercooler too. Could be the seal between the hot and cold sides of the turbo had failed/is failing.
See if there is similar oil on the exhaust side. Have you heard a siren sound? If the turbo seal fails it could be disastrous - engine could runaway or hydrolock the engine depending on how much oil leaks and when it gets pumped into the cylinders. Get it figured out/fixed asap.

 

What's the best way to check the intercooler? What am I looking for? Where do I look? How do I do it?
Apologies for my ignorance. I'm still new.

 

Oil in the hose is normal. Outside of the hose means it is leaking.

 

see snapshot below.
I did and found the following:

Action: removed rubber elbow between turbo and intercooler piping.
Finding: outside and inside with dark/black oil

Action: put finger inside turbo housing where elbow was connected
Finding: dark/black oil

Action: put finger inside intercooler piping where elbow was connected
Finding: dark/black oil

what is likely culprit and next logical step(s)?

 

You need a new hose. The oil is normal but it should stay inside.

 

Degrease the %^&$ out of it. New clamps. Autozone will not have a hose for that. If you need one, call RN or pm me for a spare.

 

I will do that and report back.

I have an order packed up at RN and will email Pete now and add this piece and clamps. I’m also adding new coolant lines as I found a cracked bleeder hose. I am opting to replace everything and flush the coolant system.

 

Dont forget to flush out the heater core extra clean. Those leak and are often filled with crud.

 

I’ve added new hoses for this to my order and will also flush through the 2 hoses via the heater core.

is it ok to blow some air through while water is flushing?

 

Just put a new cartridge and seals in the turbo and move on.

 

is this a fairly straightforward job?
Where could I find a complete parts list for this task?

 

Come on @Red90...you know as well as I do there is a high pressure oil line and a return line on the turbo. So you're saying the oil seals in the turbo can't leak and cause this type of mess...? I've rebuilt 5 turbos in the last 3 months due to this same type of leakage and guess what...It fixed all 5 of them.

 

I'm curious about this "rebuild" of the turbo... Is there a procedure around? I believe the workshop manual says to replace the turbo, not rebuild.

If it's easy enough, I'll do it since I've got 200k on the motor now.

 

Could be a good time to clean you intercooler. With the years, excess oil can accumulate there.

 

I probably know the least of any of these cats. But the reason I said to see how much oil is in there was to consider both of these points. To Red’s point, a mist of oil will come from the crankcase breather. I’m sure over time that can build up. To Chef’s point, if that turbo seal fails badly it can be a lot more than the film or few drops you get wiping your finger inside the hose. Mine didn’t leak at all until the turbo seal failed and then I had oil pooling in the bottom of my intercooler and running down the outside of my exhaust down pipe.

 

Looking at your picture in post 6, it doesn’t look like either all that much volume of oil or a steady leak coming out of the turbo. Seems basically dry where it would be running down (the bottom of the inside of the outlet) if it were leaking.

 

In the diagram, if you have a wee peep at the hose where number twelve is and where the hose goes into the main air to turbo intake. This is where the engine crank case vapour arrives and then goes on into your turbo........all along the line will be sucking in an oil mist. This will coat the turbo etc in oil.

I have mine blocked off, and as an aside the crankcase vapour hose breathes elsewhere into another hose which in turn breaths into the inside of my chassis.

Anyhow, if you take your air turbo hose off and rub your finger around it there'll be oil. This in turn is why you'll need to rinse out your intercooler ( Land Rover had a part number for a cleaning product back in the day) and you'll also find your intake manifold coated in oil.

The pictures I took today show my turbo intake as clean and along with the inlet manifold. An engine without blocking off will have a thick layer of oil and grease which the engine will ingest as time goes by. It's an easy fix and will make the engine last a good bit longer. A catch can can be installed if need be. My turbo has about 650,000kms on it.

I trust this helps somewhat.

All the best.

 

I would suggest to clean/remove the excess of oil around that 90 degree elbow hose, the pipe that goes into the intercooler, put a new hose and hose clamps. Drive it for a while and check if any oil leak may occur. That could help to point you in the right direction if anything else needs to be addressed.
Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

So as I learn my way around my 200TDi - is some oil ok in the turbo? Or do you not want any oil in the turbo (ideally)? Is it to much oil in the turbo is what causes a diesel runaway?

Thanks.

 

So as I learn my way around my 200TDi - is some oil ok in the turbo? Or do you not want any oil in the turbo (ideally)? Is it to much oil in the turbo is what causes a diesel runaway?

Thanks.

Oil is normal. It comes from the crankcase breather.

 

As above, it's 'normal' because the engine has left the factory like that as part of pollution control. At the same time it's more beneficial not to have oil tar type gloop in the engine at all.

I took some pictures for you today from another engine I picked up for spares. You can see an example of this gloop which is in the intercooler, turbo, any hoses etc and from these images, the inlet manifold. Over time it layers and with heat cycles it ends up rather like a sticky paste when one feels it.


It's very thick gloop in there and as with my previous images, the engine I run is clear from such gloop. If you zoom in on a large screen it will help so show the detail.

I hope this assists.

All the best.

 

So removing one end of the hose to the intercooler on a regular basis will give you a sense of the condition of the turbo seals by the volume of oily goop - assuming its a slow failure?

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Yes, that kind of thing....hose to and from the turbo........from experience the intake valves will also clog up with that gloop so in my opinion it's better to just not have it there at all. Your intercooler will also have a residue in it.


All the best




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