Injector seals again?

[Erubus]

Hi guys. The injector seals in my 2008 2.2 85bhp were shot when I got the van. Changed them for new and van was ok for maybe a thousand miles and started smoking, chhuffing out the oil filler and leaking onto the rocker cover again. This time I bought seat cutting tools and gave the seats a really good seeing to. I verified the good cut using an endoscope, then fitted new seals again. Tightened the clamp bolts to correct torque plus 180° and all was fine.

I drove the van for the first time in daylight for a good while on Friday (live in highland Scotland so it's dark on my to and from work) I had been idling for about ten minutes or so and when I pulled away, thee was a huge cloud of blue smoke. When I pulled the oil filler cap off it was chuffing like a steam train again.

I've only driven 5 or 6 thousand miles since I last did the seals, can they really be that bad a design they need done so often or am I looking at potentially something else? It's not a massive job to do but it's a pain in the arse and I don't know how thick the metal is in the head to be cutting the seats every 5k miles!

[andz327]

Hi guys. The injector seals in my 2008 2.2 85bhp were shot when I got the van. Changed them for new and van was ok for maybe a thousand miles and started smoking, chhuffing out the oil filler and leaking onto the rocker cover again. This time I bought seat cutting tools and gave the seats a really good seeing to. I verified the good cut using an endoscope, then fitted new seals again. Tightened the clamp bolts to correct torque plus 180° and all was fine.

I drove the van for the first time in daylight for a good while on Friday (live in highland Scotland so it's dark on my to and from work) I had been idling for about ten minutes or so and when I pulled away, thee was a huge cloud of blue smoke. When I pulled the oil filler cap off it was chuffing like a steam train again.

I've only driven 5 or 6 thousand miles since I last did the seals, can they really be that bad a design they need done so often or am I looking at potentially something else? It's not a massive job to do but it's a pain in the arse and I don't know how thick the metal is in the head to be cutting the seats every 5k miles!

The blue smoke from exhaust could be different problem , A worn turbo would give same symptoms, but could be related to your back pressure/ injector problem (blow by contaminating and thinning oil), can you see on copper compression ring of injectors where the blow by is happening? If they look as though they're sealing good then it may problems on the piston/ piston rings side of things, if you can see blow by and the seat is still good then you'll need to try genuine ford compression seals(copper washers) new bolts and the later upgraded(supposedly)clamps, take it your breather is breathing OK, I've not seen blocked breather on one of these yet but a certain member takes great delight in telling me he's seen loads..... good luck

Andz327

[Erubus]

Thanks. I should have said, the blue smoke cleared after not too long driving on this occasion and I haven't noticed it since. I've been on call for a few weeks and working 7 days a week so was driving it in daylight over the weekend. I think it was probably due to sitting at idle for ten minutes or so. In past cases, the smoke got progressively worse until I changed the seals.

The first time I did the seals, they were all passing and the back pressure up the breather was enough to bloe the intake pipe of the cold side of the turbo as well as push all the oil out. It hasn't got tat bad since, with only one or two seals failing.

I'll try genuine seals next time and see about the upgraded clamps. The turbo doesn't have any play in the bearing (or at least of didn't last time I changed the seals) and it doesn't make any unusual noises. The engine pulls ok, it happily goes over some very steep mountain roads and it's not long had a full service.

[Erubus]

Finally got round to getting this done today (in other words it wasn't pissing rain or pitch black.)

Was getting a bit worried when I got to injector 3 and they were still coming out perfect with no evidence of blow-by then got to number four, thick with soot and crap. About 20% of the copper washer was black where it had been passing.

I've got a new endoscope since I last did the injector seals a few thousand miles ago and the resolution is a lot better. The seat looked like crap and had gone concave. Out with the seat cutter again and had to cut a lot (relatively speaking) of metal to get it flat again. There's still at bit in the middle I woul have liked to have got flat but I'm worried about the thickness of the metal there. I don't want to compromise the head. I'm sure it wouldn't but it looks big magnified by the scope.

I also gave the clamp bolt for three and four a little bit extra, 6Nm and about 200°. Thought I was tempting fate doing it any more.

Noore chuffing from the oil filler for now. Hopefully get more than 3k miles before it needs doing again. MOT in January so need to get the Landy sorted before then as the van will no doubt need more welding