temporary loss of power

[punkrawker]

so the donkey express and i went on another trip deep into indian graves (65km in) and was climbing a hill in 3rd when all the sudden there was a huge drop in power, ok so i down shifted into 2nd just to make it up the rest of the hill, huge amount of smoke leaving a trail of where i had driven. i finally find a safe enough place to pull over, shut the van down, pop the hood and grab a flash light. i am aware that my turbo is effed for now and found out that the previous owner neglected to tell me that. there was steam coming from the underside as i had just finished driving down soaked gravel mud mixed roads for the last bit. so i let her cool down for 15-20 min and started her back up again and continued on my way because although it was a safe place to pull over, was far from a safe place to park for any stretch of time. carried on my trip and returned home when it did the same thing again not far from home. I strongly believe that my temp guage does not work, coolant looks fine in the rad, over flow bottle is normal, air filter is not bad, oil level is ok. i did the valve cover gasket, replaced the fuel filter and it is due for an oil change right away.

any thoughts as to what the problem may be? Also I have 2 cans of sea foam that I am going to run through the fuel filter and save 1/2 of a bottle for the next oil change for i keep hearing that this stuff works and works really well.

[Growlerbearnz]

It sounds heat related. The suddenness suggests a valve or an injector might be seizing open when hot enough- exhaust valves have a tendency to do this on engines which haven't been maintained properly, and which have carbon build up. I'd pull the head and give all the components a good clean before reassembly.

I'm not familiar with Sea Foam, but why are you running it through your fuel filter? if you think the fuel filter is clogged, replace it. You can't clean a fuel filter... I suspect Sea Faom doesn't measure turbo bearing play, valve stem clearance, or recalibrate the injectors either. While you're in there, I'd also check your rocker clearances and timing belt condition- not that those can cause sudden loss of power and smoke, but because they're there.

[punkrawker]

seafoam cleans injectors, cleans carb jets, fuel stabilizer, dries oils and fuels, adds lubricity, frees lifters-rings, carbon cleaner, upper cylinder lube, de-icer anti-gel, just typed what the can says no i dont sell the stuff. alot of people swear by it so i figure why not and if nothing noticeably positive happens then wont buy again. as far as pouring it in the filter, thats what some people have done while others pull the fuel lines from the filters and put them in a jar and cycle it that way. the fuel filter is less than 5k km old so i highly doubt and hope thats not the case. I am also going to run the engine for 10-15 min without the rad cap on because from what i keep reading here this is a way to get air bubbles out of the coolant lines.

i dont really want to take the head off yet, if i do then i want fresh seals and gaskets to replace what came off. Thank god for this forum, a wealth of info on here for sure and like how complete strangers are willing to help one another with information and advice on these slow but fun as h3ll to drive machines!!

[FalcoColumbarius]

Just a thought: Check for leaks in your intake assembly. When I first put a mild steel blanking plate into my EGR I discovered the concept of Galvanic Reaction". This happened when I was driving out of Kamloops toward Merritt, up a steep hill when there was a sudden loss of power. I took a look at the intake assembly and discovered that the threads on the female side of the EGR had separated from the structure and were now wrapped around the bolts like springs, that just pulled out of the hole. This created a major leak and loss in power. Consequently the turbo was not performing which meant the air/diesel ratio was now much richer and the motor was exhausting lots of soot and running hotter. Although this was not temporary like what you have described ~ it may have some bearing on your situation.

Falco.