Right bank white smoke

[Mont91]

Heres the story. '84 250 4X4 free for hauling. Towed it home. Dual exhaust. Pipe for right bank a little white smoke at idle. Increases as RPM increases. At about 1200 to 1500 rpm(no tach) engine starts to miss or load. The higher the rpm the worse the white smoke and missing. High rpms not easy to achive because of bad missing of multipul cylinders producing huge amounts of white smoke with a fair amount of black smoke mixed in from right bank.Idle and low rpm runs fine other than smoke. Right bank seems to run fine.

What has been worked on.
IP traded
New injectors on right bank
Injector lines cracked to locate miss, no luck.
Need compression tester.
Left bank seems to produce stronger exhaust pulses than right bank.
Do not have a history on the white smoke yet.
The point of bringing this truck home is to convert it into a good tranny for my '91.
What to check for next?

 

[h2odrx]

bad injectors??

 

[Mont91]

That wsa my thought so I put Nearly new injectors from a differnt motor, thats when the black smoke showed up so it helped but not much

 

[emmer]

With white smoke you can almost bet it's from water getting into the combuston chamber. Maybe a blown head gasket.

 

[Exekiel69]

You also said that when You replaced the injectors for almost new ones then it turned from white to black smoke. Maybe there is not only a blown head gascket but very bad compression as well? Any history on the miles?

 

[olivera149]

i dont know, just throwing another possibility out, is the IP off by 180* has it been timed, says you swapped IP

 

[Diesel JD]

If the IP timing is off enough or the gear is out a tooth it can cause this kind of condition. Don't panic on the motor till you have compression readings and check the colling system for leaks.

 

[Mont91]

The IP was replaced with another used one by PO once removed(apparently from an auto).

The clock shows 70k, assuming this is 170k or 270k.

The white smoke gets dramatically worse as speed increases.

The black smoke is added to the white smoke not replacing it.

Reminder, the white smoke is from the right bank only, dual exhaust. I assume this would mean common items such as IP, timing and such are removed from consideration.

Cracked injector lines, no one cylinder seems worse than any other.

Motor acts like it is way short of air, one cause of white smoke being lack of air, led me to check exhaust.

Even cut exhaust off in front of glass pack to eliminat plugged muffler.

Lack of compression also causes white smoke, I have seen diesels lose their comp on one side due to cylinder polishing for lack of a better term.

Doen''t have a compression tester

PO(once removed) is who did work on IP and bypassed fuel selector valve. Second party info says the smoke went away briefly when valve bypassed, unable to verify.

Does not seem to be loosing water while off, no uindication of imediate pressure build up due to hole in cylinder wall. Other ways of checking for cavitation?

Idles real nice. Leads me to believe not cavitation or single cylinder causing problem but could be. Need a compression tester. Nearest shop is 50 miles away and this is not a complete vehicle. If you have a nice E4OD for a '91 its yours.

 

[Diesel JD]

Okay...the white smoke, it could be from low compression on that side or bad injectors or a bad head gaskte. Does it use any coolant(on or off)? Does the smoke smell like water oil or fuel? You could try switching the injectors around and see if teh smoking follows teh injectors or stays with the bad side. I agree with you that it needs a compression check, but the black smoke adn white smoke seems to say a fuel problem, and the onl out of one bank seems to say something that affects just that side maybe even just one hole. I would really want to satisfy myself that it wasn't either 1) a low cylinder(compression wise) or 2) 1 or more bad injectors. There have been known to be bad injectors new out of teh box. Don't rule it out until you have tested them or swapped them around.

 

[Mont91]

I pulled the injectors out of my '91 that runs fine(less Tranny) and put in the offending bank. This is when the black smoke showed up. White smoke still there.

Foregotten item, all the injectors had black build up under the copper washer. They also were not much more than hand tight. Could it be that the precups are so full of crud that the fuel spray is not igniting completly? I'll use any theory to get around a wore out motor.

Water level is not dropping while not running, off for several days.

If it was cavitation would the white smoke go away if I ran it with out coolant?

 

[pafixitman]

Dang Monte, your problems sound very much like mine, White 9ish) smoke, almost a miss, poor idle, new injectors...I'm getting ready to pull the heads.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

If it was cavitation would the white smoke go away if I ran it with out coolant?

Yes, if you completely drained the coolant it would not smoke white. You should be able to safely run the motor for up to 2 minutes without damage. Draining the coolant was just what I was thinking of when I just looked at this thread.

White smoke could also be caused by a cylinder not firing, say from a very poor spray pattern or retarded timing. Also, it is possible to hook up the injector lines backwards on two cylinders (I don't remeber which 2) which would cause incorrect timing.

Since it is only smoking from one bank, it is obviously not a very simple problem such as retarded overall timing or air intrusion.

 

[Mont91]

I'll check the lines and dain the fluid

 

[Mont91]

Drained coolant, no change. Lines seem the right. Looks like low compression. Got to find a compression tester.

 

[Mont91]

Talked to the PO today. The current IP is from an '89, he said he took the top cover off and drilled out some kind of filter , this made it run fine for awhile then it started smoking again.
He said just before he quit driving it while climbing a long steep hill on the highway it suddenly ran good to the top of the hill then went back to smoking and 20mph.
I now have the '89, pour water in radiator and out the tailpipe it goes. Freshly rebuilt C6 though, I am still looking for a good E40D, anybody need a good C6? Check market place for complete description.
So now I wonder if the right bank is just slightly weaker than the left bank and the problem is a Fuel/timing concern?