Uh Oh, lots of blue smoke

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Well almost the moment my truck rolled over to 10,000 miles last night I was driving in town after dark and looked in my rearview mirror waiting at a light and was surprised to see a lot of blue smoke rolling out the tailpipe. As I accelerated it belched a nice cloud then seemed to clear up until the next light. We're talking warmed up engine and 90+ degrees out.



This morning it's the same deal. Started smoking about 5 seconds after starting up and pretty much smoked all the way to work. It smokes more at idle and accelerating than cruising. When I arrived at work I walked around back and there's a constant stream of grayish smoke coming out. And it burns your eyes. The odd thing is it's smooth as can be and sounds perfectly normal, great power. Mileage is down though.



I'm not a happy camper 'cause I have to drive to Portland tonight. Wish me luck I guess



Vaughn



Ooops. . . posted in wrong forum, please move to Engine forum. . .

 

[willyslover]

Vaughn. . bad injector or one not seating ??

 

[BarryG]

Or maybe bad timing from the vp44. When my vp44 went out and I took it into the dealer I described the symptoms they virtually disregarded all of the symptoms and conditions except the blue/grey smoke they said blue/grey smoke usually means something is up with the pump timing and that my pump was toast (99. 5% of the time the truck seemed to run fine the rest it just seemed a little off or way off as in no power at all). After jumping through a few hoops they did end up putting a new pump in and it solved my problem. Not that this is your problem but I would certainly suspect some sort of fuel issue as mentioned above some type of injector issue or timing or maybe even bad fuel

 

[bighammer]

Barry, it's 03. No VP44 in the new ones.



Not sure what it would be. Good luck with it. Sorry to hear of problems like that.

 

[MCummings]

Originally posted by bighammer

Barry, it's 03. No VP44 in the new ones.

Au contraire, the '03s have an injection pump named CP3, based HEAVILY on the VP44.



Vaughn,, maybe a bad lift pump?



Just a shot in the dark...



Merrick Cummings Jr

 

[DLeno]

no injection pump per se, but a gear-driven constant pressure common rail fuel pump, electronically controlled to deliver an accurate and specific fuel rail pressure.

 

[Butch Brandt]

blue smoke

I'd be checking the oil level. Maybe a leak in the turbo.

 

[CATCRACKER]

VM,



are you running a fuel p box?

 

[bighammer]

Is really blue or more white?



(Give me break guys, I'm a 12 valver )

 

[jjdiesel]

what butch said

I'm thinking turbo... . blue smoke, maybe a bad seal in turbo. That would probably be best case scenario.

 

[Evan A. Beck]

Hmmm... Raw fuel smell in the exhaust... Typically raw fuel smell/smoke is caused by either a leaking injector, or bad timing. These two could be related. A bad injector may have a poorly seating pintle valve, causing excess fuel to be injected. The engine can still run smooth though. Timing is all electronically controlled, and relies on CMP and CKP sensors. If one of these is bad, it can cause a timing problem. However, if it were an electronic anomaly, there would be a DTC set and/or SES light.



If it is a turbo oil leak, thats an easy fix. Even if you need a new injector or two, thats no big deal. Hope its not anything like stem seals or rings.



Sounds like its time for a warranty visit.

 

[Ladders]

Any codes set? Cycle ing sw 3x's to display.



SOTSU!!

\\BF//

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Well it's probably an injector, Evan. I had to get to Portland and back over the weekend for my brother's wedding and I babied for the 600 mile trip, cringing the whole time.



I removed the compressor hose off the turbo and it's bone dry, but I'm 100% certain it's not oil. It's very strong diesel smell. I checked the oil level 3 times and it stayed exactly the same, didn't increase or decrease. Interestingly with all the smoke I'm making the oil has been staying clean.



I did a couple other checks. I replaced the air filter, I cycled the lift pump with the water drain valve cocked and couldn't see any air bubbles in the fuel being pumped out. I also disconneced one injector wire at a time and started it (disabling 2 cylinders at a time) to see if there was any change in smoke level but there was none (but if one is leaking all the time this test won't show anything).



I have it scheduled for a dealer trip tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me and wish me luck, I'm not a happy camper right now, but I'm optimistic this is just a little bump in the road for an otherwise flawless truck so far



Vaughn

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Latest update: they think the ECM is bad and they have one on order for tomorrow. Hopefully that will fix it!



Vaughn

 

[LightmanE300]

NIce. For your hassle, tell them they better leave the new ECM set at 0 miles

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Yeah, but actually I'm hoping all the data like engine hours, idle time, fuel consumed, etc. gets transferred over.



Vaughn

 

[Shooter]

Glad it's nothing in the cast iron. easy bolt on fix

 

[MMeier]

Vaughn, good luck on your ordeal! P. S. , see it's been a little on the warm side up your way, huh?

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Oh I wanted to say it's back and fixed. It was a bad ECM Who knows why it went TU. Hopefully it's a rare occurance! It may have been defective from day 1 then decided to croak. But it ran good and had good power but mileage was down a bit.



Vaughn

 

[R.E. Miller]

Originally posted by Evan A. Beck

Hmmm... Raw fuel smell in the exhaust... Typically raw fuel smell/smoke is caused by either a leaking injector, or bad timing. These two could be related. A bad injector may have a poorly seating pintle valve, causing excess fuel to be injected. The engine can still run smooth though. Timing is all electronically controlled, and relies on CMP and CKP sensors. If one of these is bad, it can cause a timing problem. However, if it were an electronic anomaly, there would be a DTC set and/or SES light.



If it is a turbo oil leak, thats an easy fix. Even if you need a new injector or two, thats no big deal. Hope its not anything like stem seals or rings.



Sounds like its time for a warranty visit.

Look at little smarty pants go he he he he hello from the other side LOL Sorry, flame me whenever, had to say it! Besides, I got to work around "your" engine last week anyway..... K-19 725HP he he he love the sound, got to get one



Russell