For a while now, every time the exhaust brake engages, black smoke will come out of the exhaust. Does anyone know why this would be happening? It didnt do it when i first got the truck in Jan of 2007, but it was completely stock except for the exhaust brake.

Could the power adders (Xzillaraider and XZT+) be causing this? it will still happen even if both of them are turned off. i dont remember this happening when i only had the superchips.

is this a sign of something wearing out up front?

Could this be the result of driving it too hard, full throttle acceleration, etc?

HELP

 

Black smoke is unburned fuel, I'm guessing the power adds and not the E-brake.

 

sorry about the lack of explanation, but it is hard to explain. I realize what black smoke is and that is why i am concernd. also if you read my previous post, you would see that it does this now without the adders turned on (or hooked up for that matter)....

so here is a longer post on it:


the exhaust break works perfectly normal. it only comes on under zero throttle and goes off under the slightest throttle.

here is how it happens...
-driving down the road and decided "self now would be a good time to turn on the exhaust brake for no particular reason"
-self turns it on
-exhaust brake engages a few seconds after no throttle is being pushed
-black smoke comes out of exhaust for a couple seconds
-black smoke is gone
-exhaust brake still working until i turn it off or hit the throttle.

clear as mud?

i guess my main reason for asking is some times the dang engine purrs like a kitten and is nice and quiet (relatively... i mean how quiet can a 2nd gen be?) and other times it sounds like the thing is about to fall to pieces and is running on its last leg (ok maybe not like its on its last leg, but does sound different none the less). i dont know how to explain this sound either... also, some times the truck will "buck" at a specific RPM range (dont know what that is). Maybe this is the surging that Quadzilla has some issues with. This "bucking" doesnt happen all the time. if the smoke during exhaust brake engagement is an indication that there is a problem, i would like to figure it out...

what are the symptoms of injectors going bad, can even go bad? these are stock injectors BTW... could the smoke be due to injectors that arent atomizing properly?

before the recommendations happen, it isnt the VP44 as i have no loss of power in all this, i dont have dead pedal, no codes, good fuel pressure (constant 13-15 PSI cruising, 12 WOT, and 16 idle), etc