Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) White/blue smoke and no power when cold

[Big E]

My buddy has a '94 5-speed with a tst 230/605 kit installed. During our recent hunting trip to Colorado his truck would smoke heavily and have no power when it was cold outside. It would clear up when the engine warmed up. He also was experiencing higher than normal egt's when traveling on the highway.



This wasn't our first trip to this area. His truck has always had white/blue smoke when it was cold, but this time it seemed to be worse than usual. My truck has never had these problems.



I was thinking that maybe his timing was running on the retarded side, and has slipped a little more recently.



Anyone have any idea's on what it could be?



I had read before that there was a good diesel shop in Stockton, CA before. Anyone know the name of that shop?



Thanks for any replies...

 

[drice]

sounds like a timing advanvement in is order.

an easy test is to rev the engine up to full throttle you should be able to do this with out it poping and backfireing(or smoking)

 

[Dennis Garrett]

It's probably timing, but you should make sure BOTH heater grid relays are working. If one quits, the voltage meter will still fluctuate, but with only one grid working, you will get blue/white smoke & stumbling on a cold start. Follow the leads back from the grid heater to find the relays on the driver's side fender well. Turn on the switch to cycle the heaters, and check both leads with a voltage tester, to see if both cycle. The two relays are mounted on a common bracket, & have to be replaced as a unit.

 

[Blakers]

White smoke on the 12 valve engines is pretty much normal when cold, especially with bigger injectors. The cylinder temperature is just too cold to completely combust the fuel. Once the cylinder temperature and boost increase a little, the white smoke will stop.



Higher altitudes - thus lower barometric pressure - further contributes to the white smoke.



I would not worry about it as long as it clears up under load.

 

[akline]

One thing I would check is the fuel overflow valve in the return line banjo fitting on the front passenger side corner of the fuel pump. This valve controls how much pressure is maintained inside the injection pump of what is delivered from the lift pump. If this valve is bypassing too much fuel it causes the injection pump to have to 'suck' the fuel out of the tank and it is not designed to do that-hence the reason for a lift pump. The smaller nut on the end will allow you to take the guts out of the valve-a small spring, a cradle for the ball(between the spring and ball), and a small ball. There also was a small washer that I found while working on this, I am not quite sure if it came from there or not. Right now it is not in there, if it was, I think it was under the spring where the spring sits on the bolt that holds it in the valve. These parts are easily lost(trust me, I know) I had to pull the guts out to get enough room to get it out between the injection pump and the intake manifold, then I could take out the banjo bolt, which contains the seat that the ball seals against. Mine had a broken spring, the problems caused were discussed in detail under 12 valve engine/trans: bucking problem. I simply stretched the spring to compensate for the broken part, I may get a new valve eventually(about $50). Use a 1/4" NPT tee fitting with an air guage on it, and use some teflon tape and very gently thread the assembled valve about a half turn into one side of the tee(the threads DO NOT match), and use a rubber tip blow gun to slowly apply air pressure to check what pressure the valve will hold and whether it leaks (you will probably get a bit of leakage where the valve threads into the tee-I want to figure out the thread size and tap out a tee for this purpose) I am told the pressure inside the pump is to be around 20 psi, I am not exactly sure what this translates to in air pressure while testing the valve, but mine is holding about 35 psi of air, and you could simply blow through it when I first took it off. I was around 25 psi, but that didn't completely fix my problem, so I stretched the spring a bit more. Hopefully my whole schpiel is helpful, I have spent TWO YEARS trying to find this problem on my truck, and am very happy to tell someone else what I found!

 

[MLee]

measurment of SPRING

akline;

this sounds good that you have found a solution to your problem. keep in mind that the spring should be streched out to 550" thousandts, this relates to just a shade over 1/2 " if you have a tri-calaper or a scale,(tiny incaraments of measurements) this what i used on mine. i have read on here that 30* is max that one wants to go on this valve.

just my penny's worth.



Marv.

 

[JJW_ND]

White smoke OK...No power Not!

I have lots of white smoke now with lower compression and more fuel.



But it runs cleaner and better when very cold with the increased timing.



If you stubles or acts like it is flooding out (gasser term) when the engine is first started and still cold or when it is really cold out (-10 on down) increased timing will cure this.



Differences in fuel also really effect white smoke. I can almost cut my white smoke in half with Amalagated additive. But I have lots and lots of white smoke now.



jjw

ND