A friends wife is about 300 miles from home and lost the injection pump according to a dealership where she is at. It is still running but pumping white smoke out the pipe. They want to try to drive it home as far as it will go to fix it here. Will it hurt the engine itself if they drive it as far as it will go? Thanks.

 

If it's pumping out white smoke that means it is starving for fuel, so they are driving on very low power. I won't stick my neck out and say that it won't do any damage but I know alot of us have put many mles on bad pumps before and I have never heard any horror stories of it. If the pump is in that bad of shape though I don't think the truck would run, I think I would be looking for another problem to go with it. Ie, Bad lift pump, clogged fuel filter or bad fuel. You also may want to put something in the Help section for quick response.

 

My after thought on the white smoke, have they checked the turbo. Pull the hose off and wiggle the blades around to see if there is excess play and that it actully turns. Hard to do on the road but they need to check for pressure leaks in the inner-cooler lines. Not that I wouldn't trust a dealer or anything, but if that VP is in that bad of shape it is unlikely that the truck would even start.

 

Lost the Injection Pump OR the Lift Pump??

 

She called me earlier before it got bad and said she had lost alot of power but she said teh cruise worked ok so I first thought the gas pedal went out. Then she said no power at all and would barely get up to speed. Then I figured the lift pump was dying to glogged filter. She took to a dealer and they told her "it needed a pump and was going to cost $2600". From that I gather they are talking about inj pump. She is trying to baby it home now.

 

Leave the pump alone. Check the turbo, as has been said, or the timing. Sounds like timing to me, with all the white smoke. When the turbo dies, it just has no power at all.

A clogged filter will do the same, but no smoke. At least not like that. I'm still thinking timing.

..Preston..

 

Sorry, not sure if I informed this is on a 2000 dodge. Isn't the timing on the 24v controlled?

 

Yes, computer controlled.
Timing going means the whole injection pump must be replaced, you can't just replace the computer part


phox

 

If the dealer said IP, it is probably the IP. Thats the one thing they do know how to diagnose. They're not going to put $1600-$1800 in parts on and have him/her end up with the same symptoms.

Can't hurt anything now, worst that can happen is a hefty tow bill.