Under moderate to heavy acceleration I experience a great deal of smoke from my exhaust. Is this normal? I have 40,000 miles on my o5 CTD and have changed the oil at regular intervals of roughly 4-5 thousand miles. Could it be injectors?
Upon a recent warranty servicing at the Dodge dealer they recomended a complete fluid change for the truck at a cost of $1300! Part of the servicing included flushing the injector system. Despite the astronomical price does the injector flushing sound legit?

 

It is not unusual. My truck would smoke, even when stock. I think our stock air breathers are very restrictive and at least are partially to blame. You could add an aftermarket air intake and it might clear up the smoke some. Or you could just "swiss cheese" your stock box by drilling some holes in the bottom of it to improve air flow.

I doubt your problem would be injectors. Usually, when those go...you have a problem with filling the crankcase with diesel fuel and it sprewing oil out your overflow vent on the engine.


As for the fluid changes..........DO THEM YOURSELF. They are easy to do and you can do them all for less than a hundred dollars. I change mine out about every 15-20k.....that is Transmission fluid and filter, transfer case fluid, and front and rear differentials. Just buy ATF +4 transmission fluid for the tranny and transfer case. Tranny filter from the dealer for a 48RE. Your brand of any GL-5 synthetic gear oil in 75w90 or 75w140 for the diffs. Easy to do. If you have any specific questions on them...just ask here.

 

They all seem to smoke some. Hard to say what's too much. I'm surprised they don't smoke more given the power they produce.

In general though, smoke is caused by too much fuel, poor atomization or not enough air.

Have you checked your air filter minder?

Wetspirit

 

I definitley got the feeling it was burning too rich. When I am at heavy throttle with the motor at speed it tends to clear out. Under regular driving condition it puts out no notieable smoke. I was concernerd maybe my motor was having some serious premature wear plroblems. I do check my filter minder on the air box and change my oild regularly. Thanks for the feedback.

 

It's normal. I have a 2004.5 and it smokes a fair amount. It seems to smoke more after I have been running teh truck lightly loaded for a while & then I get on it. For example, if I were out on the highway w/ no trailer for a couple of hours then get to town and start aggresively rowing thru the gears! Someone says that when teh engine is lightly loaded that the kitty fills up with soot & then when you get on it, you blow the soot out. Makes sense to me.

 

Same here and I have a 2006. If I baby it for 3-4 days then when I put my foot in to it, it will put out a black cloud for a short time. I think this clears out the soot in the exhaust system.

 

The soot theory sounds viable as well. Maybe a combination of running rich and soot? I was towing my tractor and trailer today( about 6-7 thousand pounds and didn't notice any smoke putting my foot in it- but then it wasn't dusk with tail lights from behind where it is most noticeable.

 

I agree, except for one point. When most dealerships do a tranny flush they use a machine that hooks inline with the cooler....new fluid goes in, old comes out. If you only drop the pan you are changing about 1/4 of the total tranny fluid. Everything else i would do myself.

 

I don't know enough about flushing to disagree with your point. But I do know you still have to drop the pan to change out the trans filter.....and flushing by itself is not enough. Flushing can loosen up debris in the trans and possibly shorten it's life if you don't change out that filter too.

I believe that dropping the pan, changing the filter, then refilling gets out a lot bigger percentage of the fluid that 1/4 of it. Perhaps 2/3rds to 3/4ths or more?

My tranny service schedule of dropping the pan, changing filter and refilling every 15k-20k is what is recommended by James Northum, a top DTT builder and 30 year transmission man. Whatever he recommends as it relates to transmissions, I trust completely.

It doesn't have to get 100 percent of the fluid out to be beneficial to it.