2LT no power and smoking

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

ccasteel

ccasteel

SILVER Star
10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Aug 24, 2009
Threads
178
Messages
1,332
My son in law had a cracked head replaced less than 1000 miles ago.
He ran out of diesel one week ago. But it ran fine for the next week.
Two days ago it made a fizzing sound (almost like a pop can opening) and lost power.
He had it towed to me and after sitting a couple days we started it tonight. It runs rough and barely stays running with the accelerator fully down. Grey smoke was pouring out the back and some under the hood.
The drained oil has some bubbles in it, but is not milky in any way.
My son in law is very careful with it always letting it warm up before driving and cool down before shutting it off. So i'd be surprised if the head cracked again.

What suggestions to check do you have? Or should I just start taking it down to the block to see if the head gasket is blown. The lack of milky oil and low power are not what I thought I would find with a head gasket.

IMG-20260430-WA0011.webp
 
@ccasteel , This may be a reach, but on another turbo diesel I've owned, I replaced the radiator and had the intercooler out, and didn't torque down a Turbo hoses sufficiently and I blew one hose off and it made a popping sound. That would definitely affect power. Worth a check. Check the Turbo hoses to see if they are sufficiently snug. This would affect power if one blew off / lose. Good luck.
 
If it ran out of fuel, first thing to check is the fuel filter. Dirt/microbial growth etc may have been drawn up from the bottom of the tank.
 
Looks like this may be a little bigger than the head gasket. ☹️

20260523_172615.webp
 
Is the timing belt in one piece? Has the injection pump drive shaft snapped? First guess would be that the IP has locked up, though this is very unusual.
 
I got the crank pulley off today and have a better view of the insides. Timing belt is intact, and everything rotates by hand.

This is the first diesel I've worked on. Knowing what I know now, I would have steered away from a 2LT. Manuals and parts have been hard to come by.

20260524_160905.webp
 
ccasteel said:
I got the crank pulley off today and have a better view of the insides. Timing belt is intact, and everything rotates by hand.

This is the first diesel I've worked on. Knowing what I know now, I would have steered away from a 2LT. Manuals and parts have been hard to come by.

View attachment 4146025
Click to expand...

Ouch. I think it’s been pretty documented that the 2L turbo and E turbo series engines in most all forms are terrible.

Same with the KZ engine family.

We have three KZ engine swaps coming up this year.

And another two 2L-T/TE series swaps coming up.

Apologies to the adherents. I get it.

But for most people, these engine iterations really suck donkey balls.
 
I wasn't driving at the time, but I'm told it had a sudden noise and lost power. It was towed to my place and then we started it so I could see if I heard anything or saw white smoke, which I didn't. I'm assuming the injector pump gear came apart and the loose part caused the timing belt to jump. Pretty sure the injector pump was still working because it did run and smoked quite a bit. I wish I could trace it to a root cause because I'm thinking about replacing the injector pump gear, the timing belt and tensioners, then putting it back together and crossing my fingers. Any ideas on what else to check, I'm all ears. Thanks for any input.
 
@ccasteel , that is really amazing how that pulley / gear came apart like that. I've never heard of such a thing. Count your blessings the timing belt didn't snap. I think your approach sounds logical to address the problem. Please keep us posted how it goes.
 
ccasteel said:
I wasn't driving at the time, but I'm told it had a sudden noise and lost power. It was towed to my place and then we started it so I could see if I heard anything or saw white smoke, which I didn't. I'm assuming the injector pump gear came apart and the loose part caused the timing belt to jump. Pretty sure the injector pump was still working because it did run and smoked quite a bit. I wish I could trace it to a root cause because I'm thinking about replacing the injector pump gear, the timing belt and tensioners, then putting it back together and crossing my fingers. Any ideas on what else to check, I'm all ears. Thanks for any input.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be putting that back together until I was very sure what went wrong. That guard on the front of the IP gear should not be subject to any real load and I very much doubt it was the root cause of the failure. How does the IP feel to turn over? It should be stiff, but there should be no real noises turning it over and obviously no tight spots other than the spring tension building up every 90º. Is the IP shaft bent? How are the bearings in the two idlers?

I partly agree with Beno - but while the 2L-T has a weak head, the internals of the engine are very robust - the NA L series (2L, 3L, 5L) are really excellent engines, if woefully underpowered compared to modern DI turbo diesels.
 
So I got into the garage last night to have a closer look. The bearings look fine and spin freely. I put the old gear back on the injector pump to see if I could tell if it was bent and spun freely. Everything seemed okay. There was the expected "lope" in the shaft every 1/4 of a turn. And I didn't detect any wobble in the gear that would indicate a bent shaft. I'm open to other suggestions to check.
 
I agree with the above hypothesis.
Someone had a puller on there that wasn't designed to pull that gear and, unfortunately, it come apart on you.
(or someone used some unorthodox method to remove the gear at one time and it came apart catastrophically).
 
So next dilemma. Most of the parts are on order from Impex and Amayama. The timing belt cover was originally listed at Impex for $26. That's a steal I'd say. Unfortunately, a week later they realized it's NLA. Now I'm on the hunt for the cover 11321-54014. Any wise words on where to find unobtanium for the much maligned 2LT? I'll put something in the classifieds, but, I'm not holding my breath on that one.
 
ccasteel said:
So next dilemma. Most of the parts are on order from Impex and Amayama. The timing belt cover was originally listed at Impex for $26. That's a steal I'd say. Unfortunately, a week later they realized it's NLA. Now I'm on the hunt for the cover 11321-54014. Any wise words on where to find unobtanium for the much maligned 2LT? I'll put something in the classifieds, but, I'm not holding my breath on that one.
Click to expand...

Man, I’ve thrown 3 L series engine parts out over the past year. I recall @gifu is parting out a L series engine.
 
DirtSniffer

For Sale Thread 'MN: 2L Diesel Engine And 2LT Parts'

This is an advanced feeler posting for a 2L-T from an ‘87 LJ70 I may be getting soon. Looking at probably mid April at the earliest for when it would be available. Would be looking to sell as I have decided to go with an engine swap if things work out.

LJ70 was acquired non-running from an estate. Some effort was put into getting it running to find out after getting it running that the rings are shot. The engine reportedly does run, but it has blowby. At a minimum it needs a ring job. I can not guarantee the condition of the head as it has not been pulled, but there were no obvious signs...
  • Like
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom