Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Cedrick, has your weekend started already brother?

I have spoken to a friend of mine who is fairly clued-up on the diesels. When I mentioned that the sump is very shallow towards the front, he said that pistons 1 and 2 could have picked up a lot of oil. Makes sense. 10L of oil lying right up front could come pretty close to the pistons. ( but I just can't think that it was designed that way)

Grant, because these motors only gets run in at about 300K km, I didn't consider the valve stem seals being shot.

Any ways, I'm not going to worry about it any further.

Cheers.

As you say they are only run in at 300K....and am glad you are not rushing out to get new valve stem seals. A previous comment was to check the oil level and this is critical on a diesel motor. If the oil qty is above normal the engine can and sometines does run on its own oil. This is called a run away diesel and the revs increase until the engine fails, usually a rod through the block. If you google run away diesel engines there is a lot of info on the subject. On my boat motor the oil was getting into the breather sysyen, the pipes were dripping with engine oil.