Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) cold morning and white smoke lasting longer

[WDixon27]

my 96 3500 5 speed 215 with 160 injectors and stock plate in the middle, has given a puff of white smoke on the first shift of the morning and a little shudder since i got it a couple months ago, here on the 1st 40 degree morning it lasted the whole 20 mile drive to work, i could control it with the throttle, low revs and part throttle it'd do it hard throttle it wouldn't, for about the first 10 miles of interstate i could feel a slight shudder with light throttle like going from 60 to 65 or 65 to 70. sucking air past cold hoses? i pulled the fuel heater a month ago, tried to get a o-ring kit for the pre filter on the block but the local dodge store didn't seem to have a clue



edit

supposedly the timming has been set by a dodge dealer according to the place i got it from but i don't trust that as he goobered up everything else, i am planning on getting the tools to set it to around 16* myself

 

[SDrake]

My stock 94 was getting a little worse each year on the white smoke at startup but as long as it cleared up within the first half block or so of driving I just let er smoke but finally it got to fuming up the house if the wind was right. And it began to take several blocks to clear up such that I could not operate safely when I got to the main roads. Time to do something. I figured new injectors or something on the pump. But got to reading TDR.



My first engine mod was to advance timing to 16 deg, did it my self with improvised tools. Smoke is gone and at 30 degrees (lowest of the season so far) it basically drives right off ready to run.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

WDixon don't get the parts from Dodge, go to Cummins:



Prefilter gasket Kit Fleetguard 3845400-s

Upper heater gasket Fleetguard 3834185-S



They'll set you back about 10 bucks.

You'll want to remove the preheater puck and replace the gasket above it (second part number). Also while the heater is out use an ohm meter to make sure it's not blown, should be less than about 100 ohms I think (if it's infinite, it's toast!). Preheater part number is fleetguard 3907766-S, which comes with the upper heater gasket by the way.



So what's up with the 160 injectors in a 215hp truck?



Vaughn

 

[SLangegger]

Is it advanced timing or retarded timing that causes the white smoke?

 

[SDrake]

No, --- white smoke is not just timing related. But with everything else perfect it will smoke less with timing advanced from the typical factory setting. Air in the fuel lines, injectors that don't atomize as well as they once did, low compression, etc all can be causing white smoke at start up.



I have a theory that effective timing retards as pumps wear (the cams and delivery valves), injector pop off pressure increases fuel pressure decreases and on on and on.



I just advanced my timing 3. 5 degrees from where it was after I determined that the factory setting was still where it was supposed to be (when crankshaft is at TDC on #1 cylinder compression stroke, the pump is in the pinned position). My theory is that due to internal pump wear the pump has to be advanced from the factory position to actually popoff the injector at the same crank angle it did when it was new. Any way, advancing timing from stock yields less smoke in an otherwise healthy system. And in addition advancing a certain amount from factory setting always results in better performance even on a new truck (truck with the p7100 pump that is).

 

[WDixon27]

So what's up with the 160 injectors in a 215hp truck?



Vaughn

goober i got the truck from was playing swap and pray trying to diagnose a starting problem that i found was a of valve with no guts, one of the things he did was to swap injectors and after the fact i discovered they were from a 95 automatic truck

 

[WDixon27]

as i expected it's better this morning with a thermostat now that the motor is properly warming up

 

[Willys]

WDixon don't get the parts from Dodge, go to Cummins:



Prefilter gasket Kit Fleetguard 3845400-s

Upper heater gasket Fleetguard 3834185-S



They'll set you back about 10 bucks.



Vaughn

I tried getting those from my cummins dealer, and they were

1. Hard to deal with... but anyways...

2. could not reference the number for the top one, he said it was invalid(rolled his eyes when I said I got it from a BBS). I would still like to replace it(starting to crack), is there a place online that sells things like this?

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Willys I have found they tend to look up numbers that are in STOCK when you call, tell them to make sure they look in the Cummins parts database and order it in if they don't stock it. If that don't work tell 'em you'll order it from Cummins NW, they have it



http://www.cumminsnorthwest.com/Branches/Pendleton.asp ask for Dennis in Parts.



Vaughn

 

[Willys]

Thanks, they looked it up in the computer, don't know if it was the parts database or only stocked items. I've been trying to get a prefilter screen from them for some time... and this o-ring



I have to drive an 45-60 minutes each way to this cummins dealer, it would be much cheaper to pay shipping...