Hey Ngoma,
Thanks for the extensive reply.
Filter has been replaced when I got it and drained all of the fuel to replace with new diesel. Last week, when it was finally allowed to be driven on the road, I did run it out of fuel (tank indicator wasn't working yet). Put some new diesel in, started right up again. Maybe this pulled some dirt from the tank into the filter? First time I drove it i was actually able to get it up to 120 km/h...
I'll look at IP belt tomorrow, could be a bit too tight maybe. Is it adjustable without altering the timing? When setting the pump, I thought the position / belt tightness could also alter the IP timing?
Could do an compression test, have all the tools and maybe its good to pull the injectors anyway to replace the seals if they're leaking. But on the other hand, as long as it runs okay i'd rather not know
Regarding injectors: I replaced the fuel return lines with new ones. Looks like 1 injector is leaking at the base where it enters the head, when the engine runs there are some small bubbles coming through. The other one seems to leak at the seal between the body and the injector itself. I'll leave them alone for now as there are no puddles of fuel under the car / on the engine.
Fuel line isn't clear on this car, probably been replaced at some point. I'll replace it again with a clear one and then check to see if there are air bubbles under high revs.
I don't think the car has altitude compensation on the pump, comes from Germany. Will also check this tomorrow.
One other thing: it gets 13,5 km / liter, around 32 mpg, seems quite okay to mee for a 2.4l diesel?
And the oil level: I measured the crosshatch, filled the car up with +- 7 liters (until top of crosshatch). it top cross hatch to bottom is approximately 1 liter, i think it might have consumed 250ml max on 500km's but maybe I need to drive it a bit more. Not too worried about it now. Blowby also doesn't look too bad when I pull the cap off, it stays on there and won't fly up
But I think the carbon / oil buildup in the intake comes from the crankcase breather. Also something to clean and maybe reroute the breather for now to eliminate the possible ''running on oil'', even though it's probably not the problem.
Going to fix the cooling system (several sketchy looking hoses) first and then i'll drive it hard for a bit, maybe engine will change a bit
Seems strange that fuel starvation could cause smoke, I was thinking it might not be getting too much air but i'm used to gasoline engines and this is the first diesel i'm working on. Curious to figure out what is causing these issues..
So in theory, more fuel shouldn't be a problem? The only thing that will happen is more smoke, as not all of the fuel will be burned, but the engine won't run worse? The only time a IDI diesel can run worse is when there is not enough fuel injected?
Transmission does have OD, but it's not working (probably something electrical). For now it's fine, i don't mind going slow but will be fixed in the future probably.
Enough to do for the coming weekend, i'll try to update here.