Smoking van vs 54 year old first owner woman. Please help!

[SarraSaffron]

Hi, I've been lurking in this forum for ages. I've read through loads of your posts, trying to learn as I go. I spent all my money on a mk3 banana engine 1983 converted dormobile minibus. I absolutely love her. I've a problem with smoke and lack of power. I bought myself a spanner set, and have given her a engine flush, oil and filter change, air and fuel filter change. All good. I blanked if the egr valve that helped a bit and I got a bit more power but still loads of smoke. The smoke is grayish, maybe a tinge of blue but its hard to tell as I only see it in my mirrors, but loads of it and it's bad. I got a mobile mechanic in, he replaced the injectors, but the engine smoked even more and shook like a beast, but it gave me a chance to thoroughly clean out the manifold which was super choked up. He put the old injectors back jn, engine back to normal vibrations but still loads of smoke and no more power. Should he have coded the new injectors? Should he have put the old injectors back in a particular sequence? ...I paid 200 quid for that and have got a new mechanic. He reckons an injector has gone but he's had ghe van 10 days saying he can't get get the part easy as it's a 30 year old van. Am I missing something here as I got the last ones next day delivery? I'm looking for a new mechanic, if anyone knows one in the liverpool area?! I've also been told that the injectors rarely go on these engines and it's more likely to be the timing belt? I'm just wondering what you guys think, what's the best way to proceed and what you think the problem might be. I don't want to lose anymore time and money my budget is super tight. And I think I need some help in knowing what the problem may be before I approach another mechanic. I was hoping to get some work done on her myself, but to be honest it took me about 4 hours just to get the oil drain plug off! There's plenty I can get on with on the body. A bit of a fluffy post, I know, but I'd really appreciate your help in getting this smoke gone. She's running comfortably at about 30mph, I'd be happy with 50, she's heavy so can't expect more from her. What do you reckon is the best foot forward with the smoke, and any mechanic recommendations? Thanks in advance ya all!

[cherniy_chack]

Hello SarraSaffron!
Light smoke and insufficient diesel power may be due to incorrect injection angle, or timing in English.
The injection angle can be static - it is set simply by the pins in the flywheel, the camshaft pulley and the injection pump pulley.
With the correct setting of this angle, the engine starts well in any weather.
At a small angle, the engine starts poorly, pulls poorly and smokes light smoke.
Correcting the timing is quite simple even for a not very competent mechanic.
If the engine starts well, but smokes light smoke and pulls poorly, the reason may be incorrect adjustment or wear of the high pressure fuel pump, due to which the dynamic injection advance angle does not correspond to that specified by the test plan.
A common cause of light smoke and poor draft may be incorrect adjustment or malfunction of the pressure regulator valve in the injection pump.
The dynamic injection advance angle depends on this pressure.
It takes a skilled mechanic to fix this.
And the most severe case is when the piston and channel of the hydraulic injection advance mechanism are worn out.
It is expensive to repair a high pressure fuel pump and there are few specialists who can do it, it is easier and cheaper to buy a pump in good condition.
Buy a pump not earlier than 1995, better than 1998-2000.

[MinorMatt]

Sara

Can you show us a picture of your engine please? I agree with the above though - it sounds suspiciously like the injection timing is incorrect and needs advancing.

On a K reg its got to be a late mk3 - so it should have the later standadyne (single bolt) injectors rather than the earlier 2 bolt lucas ones. The stanadyne ones are easy to get, earlier ones not so much.

Having said that its entirely possible its got a later engine in it!