I took the truck in to the dealer today for a smoke problem at idle. It not a horrible amount of smoke, just about like a gasser burning oil. I was thinking i had a leaky injector, so awhile back I bought an extra set off eBay with 19k on them. They called later and said it was ready, when I went to pick it up they said it was a timming issue and the smoke was gone. They had the DRBIII on there and checked the injectors as well and said they all are perfect. I get home and noticed it still smokes. It still idles well, runs pretty good, no funny sounds. It does seem to have a wicked flat spot in the 2100 to 2800 RPM range. So it's not fixed, the smoke is annoying, and I am tierd of the Ford and Chevy guys making fun of me. When I got there I told them "no flashes", so as far as to what was don I don't know, the diesel tech was already gone. Anyone have any clues on what could be wrong? Any input would be much appreciated...

On another note, they did a full inspection and informed me that I will need a rear pinion seal, all four ball joints, every steering linkage, and rear brakes. All to the tune of 3400 clams. Luckily I had already replaced the front U joints, otherwise they would have been included. Front hubs are still good surprisingly.

 

There is a flash for white smoke at "start up" but not sure if it pertains to your year ....needless to say it sounds like maybe they mis-diagnosed something... you could have an injector leaking or something else amiss with the HP fuel system.

 

On Edit: I didn't see the list of mods you are running, does it still smoke if you take the boxes off?

 

All boxes are now removed. Just airflow enhancements and lift pump mods remain. It's like cold engine white smoke, say during the winter months, but it does it all the time no matter what. It's has a super strong diesel smell at the exhaust, obviously I know, but it more of a raw smell if that makes sense. Supposively the injectors are fine, he said all of them are in spec and none are leaking.

He also said white smoke usually means timming, like in the old 12 valves if it was retarded too much they would puff the white smoke. So after noticing that it still smoked after bringing it home from the dealer, I tried advancing the timming via the "tone ring mod". I did this mod in the past and had engine clatter that I grew tired of so I returned it to stock. This got me thinking, maybe when setting it back I retarded the timming. So tonight I advanced the ring "clockwise" as far as it would go. To no avail i still have the smoke.

 

Something is definitely wrong, hopefully one of the in house guru's will chime in here and offer some advice.

 

Maybe Injection Pump

 

Any other takes?


It seems that the broad flat spot in the upper RPM range has narrowed after advancing the tone ring. However the smoke is still there, no change at all. I'll be at a buddies shop in WVa tomorrow installing the ball joints and tie rod ends, hopefully when I take it to get aligned they can run a quick diagnosis.