so on start up could the smoke be a white with it being over fueled with no load?

 

Yes - that is fuel vapor that was below combustion temperature, and did not ignite

The concept can be observed when using charcoal starter fluid to ignite charcoal in the grill -

too much fuel when the coals are barely started you get white vapor - not enough heat

too much fuel when the coals are fully glowing you get black smoke - not enough oxygen

 

thanks for that so is that something that should be worried about ?

 

Have you ever seen an old mack truck!!!! I dont think they STOP smoking!!! They runn for a million miles...

 

Well - I'm old school, so any sign of fuel exiting the exhaust with indication of not having had the last wisp of btu involuntarly wrung out of it tends to hit me where it hurts most - the ole wallet.

And, the weather is tending toward cooler temps, when white vapors behind our trucks are more prevalent at cold-start.

And, Cummins and other oem's recommend specific adjustments to prevent raw fuel condensation in the cylinders.

And, several pictorial threads have been posted on this site and others describing P7100 adjustments intended to prevent dumping excess fuel in at low rpm while still allowing the high power output achievable by turning up the pump.

And, considering that eyewitness descriptions of personal events - white smoke, for instance - can be highly subjective, even misleading..

Yeah - it's the long slow curve before the fast pitch, but, considering your geographical location, it might well behoove you to tune it down, particularly during the cold months, eh?

 

I think most power-adders (sticks and boxes) aren't going to increase the white smoke at idle...

 

I wouldn't think so, either - could be a dirty air filter, a little change-of-climate water in the fuel, etc.

Or nothing at all - Fall ambients.

Us mech IP guys got a little more to play with to get it right, tho

 

Smoke ON, I use to service a fleet of diesel busses for a company, they all smoked , and they all had over a million on the ticker. And the small vans with the Ford International engines all had about 400k on them, and still ran great, and puffed along.

 

Black smoke and high EGT's were unfortunately glorified by Red Segall, Red Sovine, and others singin' 'bout black smoke, 18 wheels, long roads, and a good woman waitin' back home.

Or, a bad woman waitin' somewhere down the road.....................

 

sounds like your CAT mechanic doesn't understand how diesels work... if you're white smoking, then you might be washing the cylinders down, but black smoke is burnt fuel... you're sooting up the oil, but it's not really hurting anything but your wallet IMHO

 

how much is the mpg affected by a smoking truck?

 

My mileage is still better than stock running Crazy Larry and driving like a mad man.