Altitude induced smoke

[Markinter]

While in Yellowstone and areas in Colorado I noticed lots of blue smoke at start up in the morning. Once I got going the smoke went away. I think the other campers wanted to kill me for polluting the area! Also on long down hills at 8,000 ft and above the motor would loadup some(black smoke). Could be temp related not altitude?

I was thinking a leaky injector.

Any thoughts?


Mark

 

[EMD Diesel Power]

Blue smoke is never good news, it indicates oil consumption. Usually worn piston rings or valve guides. Especially at startup. White smoke is ok(cold air-unburned fuel), but not blue. Other possible causes could be high oil level on the dipstick, turbo seal leaking on the exhaust side, etc.

Leaking injectors will make smoke at all altitudes and power levels and generally the engine runs rough and has low power--but sometimes not always. I have seen smooth runners with lots of smoke from bad nozzle(s).

Turbochargers usually take away the altitude (thin air) problem. Temperature wise--- generally the colder you go, the better she'll run (denser air charge).

Do you have mods on the truck? engine or exhaust brake? Does the engine run rough? or have rough idle? Any throttle input while going downhill or just coasting?


sorry for all the ?s Just my troubleshooting mind at work. Anyways, hope that helps a little and points you in the right direction.

 

[Markinter]

I dont have any mods on the engine and no exhaust brake( 238k miles). The engine runs smooth at idle. No throttle input while coasting and i was coming down from 11k at Rocky Mountain NP(loadup w/ black smoke). I dont think the oil level was high. The light smoke happened while camping after the truck had sat for the night. and it smelled like unburned fuel. It will smoke after it sits for a week without running. Maybe the smoke is more white than blue. Using the truck on a day to day basis it has no light smoke at all.

thanks , Mark

 

[nevrenufhp]

Both the trucks in my sig. do the blue tinge of smoke if they idle too long. As soon as I drive, it goes away in a couple seconds.

 

[Ramprat]

Mark,

I live right around 6094 ft & the PSD smokes when cold like ya are talking about.

I've been wheeling in the San Juans at 13,000+ feet and when we came down Immojene pass she was a smoking like a drunken sailor

I think I need new injector O rings as she's slowly smoking more, but from my personal expercience a certan amount of smoke in normal.

 

[EMD Diesel Power]

Mark,

I wouldnt worry about the smoke then. Oil being burned has a distinct odor, hard to mix it up with rich fuel. And you say it was light. hehe I was thinking it was a nice cloud--- with the people wanting to kill ya Light white can be mistaken for blue and so on.

As for coming down the passes, I figured it out. Just took me awhile. Turbo speeds are slow enough while coasting, and with the high altitudes there isnt quite enough air to completely burn what little fuel is in there (the turbo is below the lower curve of the efficency map) so there's your black smoke.

NA engines would be dying for power at similar heights. Also didnt know you were over 10k ft. thought you were around 8500 ft or so on the pass. Turbos will have trouble at slow speeds above 8k or so.

I say just run er.. You should be just fine.

Too bad the truck turbos weren't set up like those on a EMD locomotive. Turbos on those are gear driven at low speeds and then come off the gear train (via overrunning clutch) at 55-65% load or so. No lag on those babies. Clutch fails.... you're screwed... black smoke to rival a tire fire at low speed.

 

[Markinter]

EMD....It was a pretty good cloud at the campground, I tried to sneak away until I could get the rpms up and the smoke went away when I hit 3rd gear. I did get some real hard looks from people I felt like I had just run over Bambi

Maybe when I'm idling through the campground (low turbo speed) then shut down, unburned fuel is present until i fire up in the morning. I will have to try keeping the rpms up in a lower gear until shut down to see if this makes a difference when I head that way this spring. After the 1st morning I was afraid to start it up .

thanks for the resonses, Mark