2001 3.0 Diesel white smoke from exhaust video

[balongbalong]

Originally Posted by powers1

Balong,balong,
Why did you have your head gasket replaced ,what were the symptons and when?

when they opened the engine to inspect if the pistons, cylinders, etc. are in good condition they recommended that the head gasket might as well be changed as well. it was replaced after the 1st turbo was replaced and before the 2nd turbo was installed.

[bigwave2255]

at the risk of getting flamed, and having not read ALL the posts, is the intercooler on the inlet side??? and if so could it be disintegrating internally or could it have crap in side that is causing the failures??

[powers1]

Originally Posted by bigwave2255

at the risk of getting flamed, and having not read ALL the posts, is the intercooler on the inlet side??? and if so could it be disintegrating internally or could it have crap in side that is causing the failures??

No one will flame you!No harm in asking and its pleasure to share experience with fellow "Xfivers"..I have learnt a few things here as well,just a shame that some other Bmw mechanics here are reluctant to explain things properly and try to make you feel stupid when you ask them something.
Anyway,back to your question.The intercooler inlet pipe receives compressed hot air from the turbo outlet,cools it down and sends it to the cars inlet manifold.
Should any debris get into the intercooler inlet side ,its very difficult for any considerable debris to get to the outlet side as it would be trapped in the core inside(fins that cool the air),althought it is possible that minute traces of debris will get through to the cars inlet manifold and inside the engine.

In the case here of the OP,the debris he is getting is on the air-filter pipe,which basically means that the debris can only come from the air-filter,engine breather hose,or any leak in the air-filter pipe from the filter to the turbo.Cannot come from anywhere else!
From here the air will then be blown from the turbo to intercooler and to engine.Its the debris that have hit the turbo compressor that have unbalanced it and let oil to engine and smoke.

[powers1]

Originally Posted by balongbalong

when they opened the engine to inspect if the pistons, cylinders, etc. are in good condition they recommended that the head gasket might as well be changed as well. it was replaced after the 1st turbo was replaced and before the 2nd turbo was installed.

A head gasket job is quite a costly one,as you may know but just because they inspected the pistons and cylinder walls doesnt give them a reason to have it replaced?What is the real reason for them to have done that?Was oil and water getting mixed?Did you have compression going to water ?Was there a oil or water leak on the gasket?These are the only things that would justify replacing it?Did they smooth the head before putting in a new gasket?
I say this because they failed to check a simple thing ,like that the air pipe was clean of debris?

Have they already explained how you got debris on the turbo inlet side?Its not too difficult to check where it came from?I have already mentioned in earlier posts the possible factors.