White Smoke, Need Input

[Tristan]

Well we headed off with the camper and motorcycle trailer this weekend. It is about a 100 mile drive over a couple of passes to where we were headed. I was running her pretty hard, about 9 on the boost guage keeping the pyro under 1100 running up the lower hills toward Snoqualmie pass when I noticed she was passing a cloud of whitish smoke out the tail pipe! The water temp guage had gotten up to about 230 and fan clutch was definately locked up. So I pulled over let her idle until temps were back down to normal then checked my fluids and everything under the hood was all normal. So we tried it again watching everything carefully. At the top of the pass she did it again! After that no more smoke or anything for the next 40-50 miles, although the terrain was flatter. The return trip there was no smoke and all seemed normal.
I have my thoughts on what it may be, but wanted some input from the experts. What do you guys think???
She is low mileage (~120k), injectors and lines done about a year and a half ago, and generally runs pretty good.
Thanks,
Tristan

 

[Full Monte]

Some ideas:

White smoke usually means steam IIRC. Could be a head gasket allowing coolant into the cylinders. Check your oil for water contamination. Check your coolant for oil contamination. You say it's coming out the tail pipe. If it's not coming out the tailpipe, but from under the truck, you may be dripping coolant on an exhaust member, creating steam. Also, check oil leaks hitting exhaust members.

 

[The Warden]

White smoke can also mean that the timing's too far retarded (bad pump timing, or maybe the pump's on its way out). But, if the smoke smells sweet, it's coolant.

 

[f-two-fiddy]

Higher altitudes mean you need to run a little less timing, also. I'd say it's a combo of altitude/timing.

 

[fx4wannabe]

I would say the same. Excess fuel can produce white smoke.

 

[Tristan]

Thanks for the input guys.

No water in the oil or oil in the water as far as I can tell. The altitude isn't high enough to make a difference, and have done the drive many times before with no smoke. She doesn't have leaks that are great enough to create that amount of smoke, but I am not positive it was coming ouot the tailpipe. So that leaves me with either a head gasket that is only leaking cooant into a cylinder, but not into the oil or a fuel pump that is going?

I was thinking it was the head gasket scenario as the truck does seem to slowly loose coolant. So as it got real hot ~230 maybe the coolant pressure was pushing more fluid into the cylinder??? Does that sound likely?
Or maybe it wasn't coming out the exhaust and it was steaming over or dumping coolant out somewhere????

Tristan

 

[fx4wannabe]

Man thats a hard one to tell. If you don't see any signs of coolant leakage then its probably the head gasket theory. I would just keep an eye on it.

 

[f-two-fiddy]

umm, U didnt say you were leaking coolant ;p

If you were slowly loosing coolant, I'd keep an eye on it and make sure that loss doesn't increase.

 

[sle2115]

Saw a friends truck do that. I was with a buddy in a 6.9 NA and his truck made a cloud of A/F smoke so much it almost masked the pontoon on the trailer behind us! This issue was not something that happened often, although he could pretty much work it hard enough to get it to do it when pulling much of a trailer. Head gaskets/studs as well as an RDT fixed it!

When he changed the head gaskets, he also went to an RDT and said his old CDR valve was full of oil, so I felt it gave fruition to the theory of the back cylinders running hot. His truck would only do it on a hill. Try as he may, he could not get it to do it on flat or without a trailer behind it. So I assumed it was a combination of working harder and oil running in the rear two cylinders, but you know what happens when you assume!

 

[Diesel JD]

Hey if those head gaskets are original they may be on the way out. Personally I would get a pressure tester on the cooling system and see if you have any leaks. When a head gasket leaks enough to cause that amount of smoke, it will go through a lot of coolant, for example, mine would empty the overflow bottle after a trip to the coast(round trip about 130 miles) and if I let it go a little longer it would drain the rad down past teh first row! Head gasket or cavitation uses a lot of coolant. If its a slow loss, its either in the early stages of head gasket failure or you have cooant leaks somewhere else. Check the heater hoses, water pump, thermostat housing, oil cooler, etc. But as I said the cooling system pressure check is the better way of telling, other than that its conjecture,
J.D.

 

[Tristan]

Hmm... Headgaskets are original. I will look everything over more carefully.

I really was hoping it wasn't time for head gaskets, but on the plus side if that is the case I will be able to get a stud set on there and not have to limit myself on how much boost I run, right?

 

[Agnem]

Send an oil sample off to Blackstone.

 

[Diesel JD]

If you get studs you can probably go right on up to 15-18lbs of boost fromw hat I hear. The blackstone sample may not pick up on an external headgasket leak. Or any leak for that matter, unless the coolant and oil are mixing. No coolant was found in my sample right before the head gaskets were changed. You really need to pressure check the cooling system. You can geta loaner tool, and a good one at that, at autozone, you pay a deposit, and if youd on't lose or break it you get all your money back. Pump up the pressure to 13psi and see if it leaks down quickly, if it holds pressure pretty decent, it isn't something like gaskets or cavitation. Another test for this, and I will say, recommended only if the cooling system tester has a pressure relief valve, is to hook up the tester to the rad adn start the engine with it attached. If you have a cracked head, head gasket or whatever, then the gauge will quickly spike up... have fun and be careful.