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What's the consensus on white smoke at startup?

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Normal?????

doldenburg said:
seems to me most here are not use to diesels. Its common for them to make white smoke on cold starts. I know i'll get arguments on this but its a fact so put it to rest.



You are correct, I am not used to smaller displacement late model diesels. I drove 18 wheelers for a while and was a diesel mechanic in the air force in the mid 70's (detroit diesel's w/a jerk pump injections system). Since I am no late model expert I am not offended by your comments. I do however disagree. I think you are being a bit too dismissive about the whole white smoke issue. As I stated when I started this thread my truck runs very rough the whole time it is smoking. Rough enough for the engine to shake the whole truck while idling. This only lasts for 30 sec to 1 minute and only at cold startup on days with an ambient temp below 50 degrees. The colder it is the worse it is and the longer it lasts. When the smoking stops the shaking stops and the truck start idling smooth a silk with no strange noises and no shaking. While it is smoking though if you had a cup of coffee in the cup holder you'd end up with some coffee on the floor. That's how bad it shakes. And this behavior sounds normal to you????? If this white smoke thing is "normal" then why don't Chevy's and Ford's do it? My uncle has a powerstroke and it doesn't puff clouds of white smoke on cold mornings. Also if it's normal why didn't my truck do this from day one? Why did it wait till it had 15k on it before the smoking started? It was exposed to temps below 20 degrees on vacation and never behaved this way. In fact on 20 degree mornings it would start right up, no smoke at all --- none. And definitely no shaking. So to dismiss everyone who complains of white smoke as not knowing anything about diesel's and as smoke being normal is, shall we say misguided. I am not trying to give offense here but if we all accept this behavior as normal then no one will ever push DC to find out what's really wrong. When you spend close to 40k on truck you don't expect it to behave this way. The whole reason for bringing it up in this forum was to seek the consensus of others who have had this problem. How many of them were able to get it fixed? What fixed it? If it turns out that most cases were fixed by replacing injectors for instance then that's valuable information for all of us to know. That's why I asked what others experiences were with this problem and why it is valuable to bring it up and question it. Personally I think there is a problem with the 04. 5 and up injectors. But before I take my truck in and surrender it to the black depths of the stealership for who knows how long (thank you star parts) I wanted to gather as much info as possible on others experiences with the problem. Knowledge is power, something we all need when going up against the dealership's. So once again I ask, what's the consensus on the white smoke issue? :cool:
 
I had no intention of getting anybody all p. oed at me over this. every one has a opinion and PJ realy did not like mine for the very nasty pm i'm getting from him. Any one know him? he has a very bad atitude!To him I still TUFF,GET OVER IT!to anyone else I offended,SORRY.
 
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Someone earlier was compairing Duramax and Ford Engines to the Cummins on start-up.

Remember guys Cummins is not using EGR or dEGR to meet emissions in the 04. 5 or 05 engines like the other manufacturers.

Cummins meets emissions through GREAT engineering (engine design hard parts etc. ); Cummins also has multiple injection events along with the catalytic converter on these models to also combat emissions.

Unfortuneatly, it seems like the 04. 5 and 05's white smoke (unburnt diesel) during start-up (my 99 does this too).

Is this a big issue? No.



I think you guys are a little too worried over a non-issue.
 
To all the people that think the 04. 5 & up white smoke problem is a non-issue, go get your own stinking thread & do not hijack this one.



THIS IS A CONSENSUS FOR THE INJECTOR PROBLEMS ON THE 04. 5 CTD.



The so called modern engineered Cummins HPCR is defective. PERIOD.



1) I can cover my ENTIRE HOUSE w/ smoke on start up!



2) I can produce massive amounts of blue & white smoke just by pressing the go pedal.



3) I have to use FIRST GEAR at times JUST TO GET MOVING until I can get the rev's up.



4) I can touch with my bare skin the manifold next to certain cylinders while others are HOT.



5) My dealer says all these problems are a result of me using a anti-gel additive!



6) I'm now getting 12mpg on the LEGENDARY Cummins.



7) I got the reflash. I still got SMOKE, STUMBLING & MISFIRING!



WE NEED TO HEAR FROM EVERYONE WHO IS EXPERIENCING THESE PROBLEMS AND ESPECIALLY FROM THOSE WHO HAVE THE GREAT LUCK TO GET THEM REPAIRED. THIS IS THE SOLE PURPOSE OF THIS WEBSITE. TO HELP OTHER TDR MEMBERS WITH KNOWLEDGABLE AND HELPFUL RESPONSES.



ALL OTHERS NEED NOT APPLY TO THIS THREAD.



THANK YOU!

Mike
 
IF YOU ARE HAVING THAT MUCH SMOKE THEN IT IS PROBABLY AN INJECTOR PROBLEM!

YEAH COLD MANIFOLD=BAD



JUST BECAUSE YOUR ENGINE IS HAVING PROBLEMS DOESNT MEAN EVERYONES IS!!



Trade it in and get a duramax or powerstroke if the cummins is so bad.



Chill out :rolleyes: :{ :{
 
My two cents:



That "White Smoke" is unburned fuel, fuel that has not been oxidized. On a cold engine it is very common to produce that from the exhaust during a cold startup. The big Cummins and Cats will lay down a smoke screen for several minutes at cold startup.



The rough running at cold startup should not take more than a few seconds to straighten itself out. If it takes longer,, there are probably injector issues.



I never run a cold engine off the line. I know the new ideas are to startem, and driveem but not for me,, I want that engine normalized!!



Also, remember a diesel takes in a full load of air on every cycle. That means it is getting a lot of cooling just from the air comming in. A gas engine runs under a vacum and therefore only gets a small percentage of a load for each cycle. Ever wonder why the Class 8's on the highway cover the radiators?



I do have a question though,, i see a number of posts that say to not let the engine idle. Gee,, we letem idle for hours. In the old days like over Christmas vacation we would never shut em down. . Just takeem up to 2k for a few minutes each day to blow the soot out. Cept for fuel cost,, how come we are not supposed to let them idle?



These posts as always are very informative. . Seeya around the corner.
 
Sorry... no DuraPad or Poopy Duty for me!



I am seriously thinking of going back to a 12V. My last 12V lasted well over 200K WITHOUT MISSING A BEAT... . Hmmmm



Just gotta find a sucker to buy my 04. 5



Did you happen to count how many members here w/ an 04. 5 are having injector problems? I did... . and its a serious black eye for the CTD. Shall we say a major engineering & design flaw to have those kind of numbers. I don't care if Heir Venor Snitzel made the injector or not. Cummins did in fact implement it in their engine & dump it on us.
 
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