how ya going? my l 300 4d56 diesel been going thru a bit more oil lately. in the morning when she's cold it will smoke for about 5 minutes, after that it's gone. it's a 88' and still goes strong. did a little experiment, let the oil go down to the low mark, but then it stayed steady, no worries. i will replace the oil sump gasket at next oil change. a mechanic told me it could be a slow leak on the front cover gasket . to get to it looks kinda tight, do i have to take out the radiator? cheers

Hi & welcome
Oil leaks internal or external can be a cause of many headaches my suggestion would be to degrease the motor & check underneath the van when it has been parked for a while maybe even place some cardboard on the ground to see if the leak is coming from around the front cover or somewhere else. Yea things are pretty tight around the engine bay if you are going to replace the front cover gasket I reckon the radiator coming out is the way to go. You could also just check the sump bolts for tightness before replacing the gasket
Cheers
Brandy

thanks mate, will give the sump bolts another turn, the top end of the motor is pretty clean though, but will give it a go with the degreaser. if i did give the front gasket a go , would i have to drain the oil? is it also pretty technical that i have to pull the pulleys off and realign later? again cheers for that

Greetings!
I noticed when reading your post that you have stated that she's using more oil than usual and she's blowing smoke for 5 mins when cold.
Just wondering if your doing what we all do when a motor starts using more oil than usual......Do you just keep topping it up or have you recently given it an oil change (including filter)?

Diesels always dirty there oil quickly and hence the oil becomes diluted to an excessive extent and by just topping it up you will still have a sump full of putrid oil. The smoke in the morning tells me that oil is getting past the valve stem seals and will be pooling on the back off the valves , therefore when you start it cold the oil washes off the back of the valves and produces the smoke you have earlier described. Try an oil change (and filter) and see if that fixes it!

It only takes a small leak to create one hell of a mess so its reasonably obvious if she has a leak big enough to see on the dip stick as you would certainly have noticed a puddle on the ground.
It only takes 8 drops of oil to create a puddle the size of a 50 cent piece (on concrete) so if you have a major leak you will know about it!

Have fun
Regards Ken

thanks for that, it is about 1000 k's when i planned to change the oil and filter, so it could be that . thanks mate