Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Gutless and white smoking when cold

[dpuckett]

A friend of my girlfriend's boss has a 99-ish 24valve 5speed that recently has started blowing bluish/ white smoke, and being totally gutless when cold. Then, when it reaches a certain temp, it takes off like you flipped a Valet switch- power comoes on, (white) smoke disappears. Lift pump has been changed, and fuel volume and pressure are within book (ALLDATA) spec. 1qt in ~30sec- key ON, engine off. Pressure is 13. 5psi, same key ON, engine off. Not sure what it sucks down to under load- that wasnt tested.



I was thinking something electronic, and did a couple searches, but didnt find anything exactly like this. After reading some posts about white smoke, I am tempted to think an injector, but no one said anything about after theirs warms up. One other thing I thought of while not knowing how long the lift pump was bad, is the VP44 going south. Shop owner and I got into a little debate over what colors of smoke mean, and how important the lift pump is to VP44 life and health.



Truck has a box (TST, I think- dont hold me to that). Unplug the box, and nothing changes.



Thanks,

Daniel

 

[WDaniels]

Did the timing gear slip?

WD

 

[dpuckett]

Not sure. I thought the VP44s were keyed. I dont have just the utmost confidence in this guy's abilities.



DP

 

[KcoleKennyc]

It is the VP-44. Mine acted this way for about 2 years before it died. If I plugged it in, it cranked and ran great. If I didn't, it took about a mile or so before kicked in. Kenny

 

[wtfd6]

mine did the same thing Daniel. it was the vp-44. especially if it has a p0216 code in it.


Mark

 

[KKunz]

One of our 98. 5 fleet trucks has been doing this for about a year I plug it in to the scanner and pulled the P0216 on it replaced the vp44 and all is good now. I would try to see if you could pull any codes

 

[dpuckett]

Roger (shop owner) said something about a timing code error. Didnt say it was a 216 specifically, but that was my first thought.



Thanks,

DP

 

[NoSeeUm]

Yeah, the 0216 is a VP44 timing error.



As far as I have been able to figure out the timing cylinder of the VP rotates to effect engine injection timing. Attached to the timing cylinder is a rotational position sensor. A mismatch between expected and actual rotational position throws the code.



Basically the Fuel Computor in the VP44 (FCU) sends a timing rotation signal to the timing solenoid that asks for a specific amount of rotation of the timing cylinder. A code gets thrown if the FCU does not get the correct feedback signal from the rotational position sensor.



Jim

 

[cojhl2]

blowing bluish/ white smoke, and being totally gutless when cold. Then, when it reaches a certain temp, it takes off like you flipped a Valet switch- power comoes on, (white) smoke disappears

I thought that was characteristic of a CI engine!!



Maybe it just started doing it cause winter is here??

 

[dpuckett]

It started before winter got here. It finally arrived for a week (working in 30deg highs last week), then left for this week (short sleeves), then supposed to come back next weekend, just in time for x-mas.



Thanks, guys. I'll pass the info along.



DP