Hi,
I've just been given a new pub car, a 92 Astra diesel. Hover except for the obvious Pauxhall issue it seems to have another problem, under load or on full throtle when staionary it creates tonnes of deep black smoke. Any idea what might cause this?

Cheers

Alec

 

Turbo goosed. Think if you look in engine compartment you will find a small turbo even if it is not called a turbo diesel.

 

Cheers mate. Been given the car by my step father he tells me its not a turbo but I'll pop outside and see if I can see one. It's a 1.7D if that helps at all.

 

Just checked, definitely not a turbo.

 

When you accelerate hard this will happen on most diesel engines regardless of the turbo - it's down to too much fuel compared to air. More modern diesels still have this problem but it's not as bad because of the more intelligent computers that monitor and control the fuel etc.

 

Thanks. So effictively the mix is wrong? Is this an easy job to do on a diesel?

 

On some of the older diesels it was possible to tweak the mixture but you'd need Haynes or similar to find out how.

It could be that the injectors are worn and overfuelling ... or it could just be 13 years of acccumulated crud & soot in the exhaust being burnt out.

Try doing an Italian tune-up first and see what happens -- give it a few gallons of Shell Diesel Extra or BP Ultimate and then cane the nads off it for 30 miles or so, keep your foot hard on it and the revs at 4000 - 4500, it may blow a lot of the crap out.

Even latest-generation diesels give a lot of initial smoke when driven hard after a bit of town pootling.

 

Yeah, Brickboy's on it! Try the rolling decoke, cane the nads off it, govenor in every gear you can reach it in..that'll be first then! Over rev it on downshifts, drive down a dual carriageway in 2nd and generally give it a hard time, should clear up nicley!

You could go mad and put new air and fuel filters on, bit of a last resort though!

 

Cheers gents, looks like I'll be caning the nads of it tommorow. Will let you know the outcome.

 

Go easy, rather a bit of smoke than a shagged engine! It's useful giving it a bit of stick to pass the emissions test before an MOT.

 

Cane it!

 

Give it a good caning and check the air filter.

The engine isn't a vauxhall engine its a jap unit and they are pretty bullit proof.

What milage has it done?

Cheers
Lee

 

It's done 92k.

 

The non-TD is a "dieselised" petrol engine made by Vauxhall but it is famously robust. The TD is an Isuzu unit and is much quieter/smoother/quicker etc.

Black smoke usually means overfuelling or blocked air filter. Blue smoke obviously worn out engine. The Italian tune up works a treat on my '95 Astra TD - gets slow because they have a cat that's meant to trap particulates and burn them but in practice just gets blocked up over time if you're not driving it too hard. Booting it in second gives a big cloud of smoke, but after that all's clear for another month!

 

Caned it for a bit yesterday, this seems to have removed most of the problem. I can still get it to produce black smoke but no where near as much as previous. Thanks gents.