Hi everyone.
Have a 1989 HJ60 with a 2H in it, 24V system.
Bought the vehicle at 299k km in December 2024, now it's 308'500-ish km. Changed oil twice, aside from the burning. 15W40 diesel-fleet semi-synthetic. For the last 3-4k km or so it burns about 2 liters of oil per 1000km, which I regularly top off.
There were 2 incidents prior to this:
1) The oil filter that came with the car was seeping oil badly from its own seam (Probably cheap/overtightened). I noticed it only during the oil change and ended up using a welder to make the base of the filter NOT stay in place while turning the filter would just turn the cup. Ok, replaced it and thought that my oil consumption problems were solved (as the next 2000 km showed, I was happy and very proud of myself).
2) However, during the same oil change I decided to blow some dust off the air filter the previous owner installed as well. Did it, reinstalled and drove for another 2k km. Just of curiosity, opened up the air cleaner box and... Saw lumps of oily white-gray dust past the lower rubber gasket (yes there is some oil in the intake). Noticed that the filter itself wasn't original, since the PO modded it to fit by cutting the inner "neck" of the filter element. My mistake was not noticing it and not installing the filter as concentric to the airbox as possible.
So the engine was breathing dust for about 2k km.
After that I started to pay really close attention to the oil consumption, which ended up being the numbers I gave above.
Other than that:
Had some cold start issues (at 0-5°C) since the purchase, as someone would just cut off the fuel suddenly. Heating up the glow plugs couple times or adding some throttle for maybe 5-10s and letting go helps this issue.
Did a cold engine compression test with a 40$ chinese diesel compressor kit, here are the numbers for each cylinder in bars:
1 - 28
2 - 28
3 - 29
4 - 28
5 - 27
6 - 28
Keep in mind that since my tester doesn't have a valve at the end of each adapter, it enlarges the effective combustion chamber volume by the length of the hose and the adapter, so I would throw +1 bar for each measurement. However, I didn't test the tester itself with another gauge.
Did manage to put a boreacope through the pre-chamber. On all 6 cylinders in the upper section past the rings – some hefty gouging and black burned oil residure. However, looks pretty ok below the top dead ring stop point. Some scorring, yes, but nothing I personally would consider critical. Honing looks ok. Only 2 valves are leaking (#4 and #5 intake ones), the rest are good. I was hoping for the valve stem seals to fail but no luck.
Some more data:
I live in a mountaneous city with heavy traffic and use the car 3 days a week on average. Trying to avoid the traffic in early/late hours but it's not always an option. Riding on 31" wheels, 37:10 stock diffs. Climbs over 10% incline are a high-rev pain. Overtaking pretty much anything modern isn't an option. No tachometer yet, the car didn't have it and I still didn't install the sensor. But I measured the rpms with a handheld thingy, and judging by the sound I don't go past 3k rpm.
So I don't understand – how can I still have such great compression numbers but also such a warning oil consumption? I've read here something about the failing oil control ring lands on the pistons, but that usually leads to deep long grooves the entire travel of the piston on the cylinders which I didn't see at all.
If it helps I'll post the borescoping photos, but as the next message.
Besides the obvious advice like a full rebuild (which will take a lot of time, and that's my only car currently), can anyone else say some reasonable thoughts on how to diagnose this further?
P.S.: rear main crank seal also seeps noticeable amount of oil, and I will change it while installing the tach sensor, but I doubt it contributes to the consumption so much as I described.
Have a 1989 HJ60 with a 2H in it, 24V system.
Bought the vehicle at 299k km in December 2024, now it's 308'500-ish km. Changed oil twice, aside from the burning. 15W40 diesel-fleet semi-synthetic. For the last 3-4k km or so it burns about 2 liters of oil per 1000km, which I regularly top off.
There were 2 incidents prior to this:
1) The oil filter that came with the car was seeping oil badly from its own seam (Probably cheap/overtightened). I noticed it only during the oil change and ended up using a welder to make the base of the filter NOT stay in place while turning the filter would just turn the cup. Ok, replaced it and thought that my oil consumption problems were solved (as the next 2000 km showed, I was happy and very proud of myself).
2) However, during the same oil change I decided to blow some dust off the air filter the previous owner installed as well. Did it, reinstalled and drove for another 2k km. Just of curiosity, opened up the air cleaner box and... Saw lumps of oily white-gray dust past the lower rubber gasket (yes there is some oil in the intake). Noticed that the filter itself wasn't original, since the PO modded it to fit by cutting the inner "neck" of the filter element. My mistake was not noticing it and not installing the filter as concentric to the airbox as possible.
So the engine was breathing dust for about 2k km.
After that I started to pay really close attention to the oil consumption, which ended up being the numbers I gave above.
Other than that:
Had some cold start issues (at 0-5°C) since the purchase, as someone would just cut off the fuel suddenly. Heating up the glow plugs couple times or adding some throttle for maybe 5-10s and letting go helps this issue.
Did a cold engine compression test with a 40$ chinese diesel compressor kit, here are the numbers for each cylinder in bars:
1 - 28
2 - 28
3 - 29
4 - 28
5 - 27
6 - 28
Keep in mind that since my tester doesn't have a valve at the end of each adapter, it enlarges the effective combustion chamber volume by the length of the hose and the adapter, so I would throw +1 bar for each measurement. However, I didn't test the tester itself with another gauge.
Did manage to put a boreacope through the pre-chamber. On all 6 cylinders in the upper section past the rings – some hefty gouging and black burned oil residure. However, looks pretty ok below the top dead ring stop point. Some scorring, yes, but nothing I personally would consider critical. Honing looks ok. Only 2 valves are leaking (#4 and #5 intake ones), the rest are good. I was hoping for the valve stem seals to fail but no luck.
Some more data:
I live in a mountaneous city with heavy traffic and use the car 3 days a week on average. Trying to avoid the traffic in early/late hours but it's not always an option. Riding on 31" wheels, 37:10 stock diffs. Climbs over 10% incline are a high-rev pain. Overtaking pretty much anything modern isn't an option. No tachometer yet, the car didn't have it and I still didn't install the sensor. But I measured the rpms with a handheld thingy, and judging by the sound I don't go past 3k rpm.
So I don't understand – how can I still have such great compression numbers but also such a warning oil consumption? I've read here something about the failing oil control ring lands on the pistons, but that usually leads to deep long grooves the entire travel of the piston on the cylinders which I didn't see at all.
If it helps I'll post the borescoping photos, but as the next message.
Besides the obvious advice like a full rebuild (which will take a lot of time, and that's my only car currently), can anyone else say some reasonable thoughts on how to diagnose this further?
P.S.: rear main crank seal also seeps noticeable amount of oil, and I will change it while installing the tach sensor, but I doubt it contributes to the consumption so much as I described.
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