I took the diesel bike into London today.

The bit there was good even though it did not stop raining and the bit back was also good. It's proved the low slung heavy low revving engine and comfy seating arrangement makes the bike a true mile muncher. But fucking hell London it's self is a total fucking ballz ache. I won't be going back any time soon.

If you were wondering I attended a free afternoon talk and party regarding this years hacker camp.

Glad you had a good time, you should have dropped in at Hoon towers for the night- I ended up having an exciting evening of mending clothes that I'd been putting off for months.

So the bike is behaving itself now?
No smoking? How's the tune- was the turbo one of the previous issues?

Yea, I wasn't thinking.
Oh well, maybe next time I don't go to London eh.

It's running well. Still got to do more setting up but the winter weather is shite for that sort of thing.
I really think the smoking was largly due to the wrong grade of oil in an old diesel engine. Worn piston rings and thin oil etc. I put the thickest recommended grade in and then after a few weeks it has mostly stopped smoking like a utter bastard.

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EDIT:
I kind of linked the sudden onset of smoking to when I changed the oil and put the thinnest in that was recommended for winter use to hopfuly make cranking the engine easier on the starter and hence improve the cold starting. In fact I had a duff starter and solved the crappy cranking by changing it. I now wonder if the smoking was the thinner oil leaking past the piston rings when the engine  was cold.

Either past the piston rings or in your case: past the turbo seals. Now with those small turbo diesels coming of age overhere, one can see a lot more cars smoking blue and burning oil than maybe ten years ago, even though I am pretty convinced that in general cars have statistically become younger and in overall better condition. (due to more stringent mot-rules)

Maybe you want to check the inlet-side of your turbo to see whether it's oily or not.

Give the shaft a good wiggle!

Monkey Boy wrote:Give the shaft a good wiggle!

And you would know


I bought it a reconditioned turbo a month or so ago. So that should be reasonably good now.

Something else to check..... My lovely 3 litre bmw smoked like a good-Un then failed its MOT on incredibly high emissions.
Turned out there's a crankcase breather that has a filter in it, it started out as a none service item but quickly became one.
That and the air filter were both way past their prime. Changing the breather filter cured the smoking totally and I gained 5mpg as a bonus.

Crank case breather is a tube that points at the ground so that shouldn't be causing any problems.
But I have dealt with blocked crank case breathers on previous engines and they can cause all sorts of oddness.