If my truck is plugged in or the temps are warm I have no problems. But lately its been in the mid to high 20's. I know my idle is a little low, but when I start it I have to give it fuel and it starts but pops, shakes, blows white/light gray smoke like crazy. It also revs slowly, I hold it at 1600 rpms for a minute and it runs fine no popping/shaking, except for the smoke. If the throttle is held steady I get white smoke, I can get black smoke if I tap the throttle. After running for 5-8 mins the white smoke gradually goes away. The grid heaters are pulling the voltage gauge down when they come on. I know white smoke is incomplete combustion, but I'm amazed at the amount of white smoke I can get to come out in the first 5 minutes.

Any suggestions?

 

Bump the timing to 15.5 or 16 degrees and it should take care of the white smoke and will probably start easier. FWIW, I do not sit and run my truck for minutes before driving, no matter how cold. Once the oil pressure is up and it will idle without dying I head out. Never noticed any ill effects from doing so. Warms the engine up quicker too.

Waylan

 

Having the same problum with mine the only thing I did this summer was put in new injectors 215 from the stock 160 and the white smoke roll out till it is warm any one have any help? thanks

 

metazz,

Mine did it before I put in my 215's, just not nearly as bad. Is it just my timing?
Anyone else have this happen?

Thanks!!

 

Fired mine off at *7 this morning. No plug in.

Just cycled the grids twice and a little pedal.

Bet you have air in the system.

 

Usually, a lot of white smoke and popping on a cold start is a sign of slipped timing. If this is not the case, the next suspect would be the grid heaters. There are actually two and if one isn't working, it will make a large difference. This is really easy to check with a multimeter so it is probably a good place to start.

If the truck takes a lot of cranking to start and the longer it has been since it was last started, the worse it is, the likely culprit is air in the fuel system. This usually either comes from the fuel lines or the fuel heater.

 

I just had the same problem. I found that one of the solenoids to the grid heaters was not making contact. It would click but evidently the contacts inside were burned. I went to the auto parts store and got 2 snow plow solenoids and installed them in the same place as the oem ones. They were $15 each. They are styled a little different than the oem but they work like a charm for a fraction of the cost. Now she fires up like she used to. I have owned my truck since 2000 and the first time I ever pluged in the heater was 2 days ago when I had this problem. I have started my truck in 25 below weather and she always starts. 2 cycles with the grids and go.

 

My truck fires up instantly, it just runs rough for a minute and smokes white for 5 minutes. I think my timing may have slipped when I upgraded and drove it harder than when it was stock, could this also cause my cold starting problems?

 

Unless you go for low compression pistons or something like that, it won't affect cold starting. Since you said it fires right up it is safe to say that the problem is not air in the lines or leaking fuel heater. Down to 14F last year my truck cranked reliably w/o the grid heaters, however, I always give it a little pedal when cranking that cold and hold it there for about 10 seconds after it starts.

IMHO, I feel it is certain that you need your timing advanced a little.

Waylan

 

mine would start right up too, at 10 deg. or more but the day it would not start it was -4 deg. I still think you have one grid heater not working. I think your timing is fine, might not be at the timing you want but your start problem is not timing. You would be surprised what a difference having only one working makes. It should only take 1/2 hr to check the solenoids to see if it is that. At 10 deg. or higher it would start right up but be rough for a mi.or two and blow white smoke for 4-5 min. till it warmed up. I just didnt bother checking it out till the day it wouldnt start.

 

What is the easiest way to check the heater grids? Over the last 5 months my truck has to have a little pedal to start. I used to be able to just wait for the "wait to start" and it would fire right up. I have new injection pump and lift pump and new high performance starter. A little pedal and the truck fires up like a INDY car with the new Power Master starter.... LOL... But maybe I have a grid going out as well....??

 

Take the wires off the grid heaters and make sure they dont ground to something. turn on the ignition and get out real fast and test each lead to see if there is voltage to each wire by either using a v.o.m. meter or just get a 12v light bulb in a socket with 2 wires coming off of it. ground one wire and touch the grid heater wire with the other. You have to do it quikly before the timer shuts off the grids. If you cant get voltage at one of the wires you have to go back to the solenoids that are located on the fender well under the drivers side battery. Take your light bulb and check the cable that goes from the battery positive terminal to where it bolts to the solenoids one at a time . You ground one wire from the bulb and touch the terminal on the solenoid with the other. You dont need the ignition on for this part. If you cant get the light to go on then you have a bad fusable link in that cable. If you get your light to work on both solenoids then you need to go to the next step. hopefully you still have the wires disconected from the heater grids and again be very carefull that they dont touch ground. You will probably need a second person to help you by turning on the ignition when you tell them to. Now while you hold the wire from the bulb on the other terminal of the solenoids(the heavy gage ones that go into the wiring harness and then to the grids) have some one turn on the ignition and quickly test both of the solenoids. If your bulb doesnt light on one of the solenoids that solenoid is bad. You will have to replace both of them because they are both on the same bracket that holds them to the firewall. I hope this made sense to you.

 

It is very unlikely that a grid itself is bad but it is possible. Most of the time it is a fusable link or a solenoid. If you get the light bulb to turn on on both wires up by the grids then the solenoids are working and you might want to remove the intake horn and visually inspect the grides. If the bimetal elements do not look like they are burned open similar to what a fuse element looks like when they blow. Then the grids are fine.

 

advanced timing usally means harder starting . i would go for a air in the fuel, or the fuel heater isnt working. when i advanced my timing to 19 it was hard to start up, smoked bad untill warm, but the leaking fuel heater made it even worse. also check the easy stuff like the drain valve on your seperator to make sure it is closed all the way. possibly an injector popping off to soon, or too late when cold . as far as the grid heater go the easiest way is to watch your volt guage in the truck i bielve it should go down to 8 volts with both heaters working,(dont hold me to that though). a bump in timing defenatly makes it start harder, and also west coast if you still have your 20 over marine gasket in that lowers the compression ratio making it even harder to start.

 

If your running 19 timing then it probably is hard to start . For performance 16.5-17 should be max. 13.5-14 is stock for the 180hp engine. I have not seen anyone run 19. There is no reason to. If his timing sliped then it would not advance anyway it would retard. Not all these trucks have the same alternator output so the drop from the grids working will be different depending on the output of the alt. If you know what the drop is when they are working correctly then yes you could use that as bench mark and know when a grid stops working.