Did the engine runaway? Sounds like (as said above) the seals have failed and sucked the oil out of the engine and through the inter cooler. There’s probably oil in the exhaust too. 2019 5.0 SC SVA (Current)
2012 5.0 SC AB. Sadly written off by a campervan
23 plate Focus ST (Current)
1942 VEP Ford GPW Jeep (Willys) (Current)
1943 Whites M16 Halftrack (Current)
16 plate Eurofighter Typhoon, 2 x Eurojet engines with 20,000lbs thrust each. 1380mph

Did the engine runaway? Sounds like (as said above) the seals have failed and sucked the oil out of the engine and through the inter cooler. There’s probably oil in the exhaust too.

Would this cause the engine to be unfixable?

Between min/max is only 1 litre of oil. You need to establish how much oil is left in the sump

More often then not, there is still 5-6 litres left, with the missing amount having been pumped into the exhaust, boost pipes and Intercooler

I have had 3 TDV8’s in the past, that have run very, very poorly, and misfiring badly
All have been cured with 2 new turbos, with no additional mechanical issues

Thanks disco there is hope yet then.

Hopefully it’s just the turbos that need replacing.

What other work may need to be done?

My old TDV8 blew its turbos at about 70k. It's still running, I see, and I sold it last year with 174k on the clock... 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

What happened when your turbos went. Does it sound similar things to what’s happened to mine?

Loss of power, lots of black smoke, oil leak from front end?

I was fortunate. No smoke, no runaway engine. It simply switched itself off. No engine damage or intercooler damage. "Just" the turbos. Mind you it was no fun with the engine just shutting down at 40mph and trying to coast to somewhere safe with no power stering etc...


2 turbos replaced fixed it and all fine (touching wood. Though was nearly touching cloth when it happened ).

When mine blew, I got a loss of performance (no dashboard lights, however) and a good deal of white smoke with a rather unpleasant smell to it. No oil leak that I remember. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Tm17 wrote:

Did the engine runaway? Sounds like (as said above) the seals have failed and sucked the oil out of the engine and through the inter cooler. There’s probably oil in the exhaust too.

Would this cause the engine to be unfixable?

It doesn’t sound catastrophic, a mate VW Passat ran away and it only stopped when it ate all the oil. He fitted an Audi Turbo, cleaned out as much oil as possible from the pipes and then ran it for an hour at 2am on the far side of the runway at work and it ran fine for years after that. It did smoke and ran crap for about 15 mins before smoothing out and the oil burnt off.

I think you’ll do fine. 2019 5.0 SC SVA (Current)
2012 5.0 SC AB. Sadly written off by a campervan
23 plate Focus ST (Current)
1942 VEP Ford GPW Jeep (Willys) (Current)
1943 Whites M16 Halftrack (Current)
16 plate Eurofighter Typhoon, 2 x Eurojet engines with 20,000lbs thrust each. 1380mph

RRSTDV8 wrote:

Tm17 wrote:

Did the engine runaway? Sounds like (as said above) the seals have failed and sucked the oil out of the engine and through the inter cooler. There’s probably oil in the exhaust too.

Would this cause the engine to be unfixable?

The TDV8 is a pretty robust bit of kit. Provided you didn't dump in enough oil to hydro-lock it (would have been a bang if it had) and provided no bits of turbo have found their way in to the engine, new turbos and a good clean out of the pipework / intercooler etc, should see you right.