Start up smoke

[84TD]

Let me see if I can put this into words... When my truck starts it smokes, alot! But only for the first 30 seconds. Here is how it goes.
I start the truck from dead cold, 34* today, it smokes and sounds like it is missing.
Everytime the truck missis, there is a break in the smoke.
About 30 seconds later the engine smooths out and the smoking is over.

The idle advance is kickig up properly and it is way to early for the cold timing advace to shut off.

I am not sure if I am making sense, maybe I just need to do a .wmv

Any ideas on what is the cause? My first thought is maybe a few of the cylinders arent firing on the initial start up and then they start catching?

 

[Exekiel69]

That should be the cylinders are not hot yet, maybe bc the glow plugs are not doing good job but it does get the engine started and that would explain the smoke. Is it white or black?

 

[LUCKY_LARUE60]

Smoke on startup is not an uncommon thing on a diesel with some miles on it. It is unburnt fuel and being it goes away after a few seconds I would not be concerned. Remember a deisel depens on heat to burn all the fuel and when cold it dose not burn all of it.
After thought,
you could also have an injector that is leaking down some when the engine is setting for some time.
Jim

 

[Agnem]

I've always thought that white-blue smoke was pretty cool myself. Smells good too! It can be a sign that your injectors are marginal. A good spray pattern helps that fuel burn more cleanly, but a whizzer will cause a lot of smoke in a cold cylinder. As the temps rize, the spray pattern becomes less of a factor.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Have you checked your glow plugs? If you have one or more not working, it will take longer for those particular cylinders to get to firing temperature.

 

[84TD]

It is white/blue, maybe I will pull my injectors and have them tested in the spring. I replaces all my GPs not that long ago but that doesnt say much, the injectors are not that old either but the truck was moslt sitting for a year befor I got it.

I've always thought that white-blue smoke was pretty cool myself. Smells good too!

It looks awesome coming out of stacks, but not so good out the side of my truck

 

[Exekiel69]

It looks awesome coming out of stacks, but not so good out the side of my truck

That is a fact . Now some power service wouldn't hurt in the process while You wait until spring.

 

[SKimballC]

30 seconds may be long, but sounds pretty normal with an old diesel. Mine runs like a bat outta hell, and it has new injectors, functioning Beru GP's, and starts first time every time no matter how cold, but it sputters and puffs for 5 or 10 seconds after a cold night. Take heed of the previously mentioned advice but don't worry too much about it.

 

[82F100SWB]

Call it normal... Up here, at current temps(daytime highs of -20...) my 6.9 is one of the few engines that actually stops making white/blue smoke at idle... Our fuel trucks(Cat C12 and C13's) never clean up, but, that's par for the course with temperatures like these...

 

[Agnem]

It is white/blue, maybe I will pull my injectors and have them tested in the spring. I replaces all my GPs not that long ago but that doesnt say much, the injectors are not that old either but the truck was moslt sitting for a year befor I got it.



It looks awesome coming out of stacks, but not so good out the side of my truck

Truth be known, that pic in my avatar shows the Moose Truck at cold idle with 3 bad injectors. Truck ran fine, but when I tested them after upgrading to DPS Stage 1's, I found 3 of them were bad.