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White smoke...now no start

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AFE noise

Ts Mp-8

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This is for a friend of mine. '04 3500 DRW 6-speed 4x4. Bought it used with about 19K on it, now it's got around 85K. Been running an Edge EZ for about 50K.



For a little while, he's been noticing just a slight white haze from the tail pipe at idle. Kinda like a gasser at idle on a cold day, but no where near as thick. A couple of weeks back while towing his 36' flatbed loaded with hay, he said it started smoking white pretty heavily. Wasn't running any different, just pouring white smoke from the tailpipe. Pulled over and checked the major things underhood and didn't see anything, so he limped it along the shoulder till he got closer to home. When he got closer, he went back to driving normal and didn't have any other issues with it. Took it in to the dealer when he got home, but they didn't find anything on it. I'm thinking they just hooked it up to the computer to pull codes, but there weren't any. They didn't have the truck long enough to do any in-depth tests.



Fast forward to present... was pulling his trailer again and slowing down to turn into a driveway. Just as it reached idle when he hit the clutch, it died on him. Started it and it fired right back up, but died right away. Did this two more times, then wouldn't start at all. Turned the key off totally, waited a second, then tried again. It fired right off and ran fine. Later on as he was waiting for a traffic light (in the middle of town no less), it died again. He was able to restart it, but it would die if you touched the accelerator. Then it just wouldn't start at all. Says it's turning over just fine (actually said it sounded a little fast), but it won't fire up.



Anyone seen/heard of this before or might have a preliminary diagnosis? It's at the dealer right now, but he wants to have some backup for when he talks to the service tech. This is the same place it was taken before when they said everything was just fine. They said "Well, I guess we'll be able to figure out what's wrong this time since it's not running". Not confidence inspiring.



Any ideas anyone might have, let me know and I'll pass them along.
 
Sounds like it may be a lift pump problem. Install a fuel pressure gauge, that will let you know if you have any fuel pressure.
 
check for codes (I have seen lift pumps go out with no engine light but there is a code) Retrieve it doing the key on off and see what happens.
 
Turned out to be a dead lift pump. Which makes sense on the no start issue because it couldn't get any fuel. But would the lift pump cause the white smoke issues that he's been having?



I've been searching on here and most of the white smoke issues were just at startup (usually accompanied by running rough). But he hasn't had that, just a slight white haze at idle and the one episode of huge clouds while driving. My concern is that there is still another issue there that's not being addressed and he doesn't have that much further to go on warranty.



So DC is fitting his truck with the new in-tank pump right now (warranty replacement), so I guess we'll see how this goes. Has anyone found a solution to the low pressure issues with the in-tank pump? Does this new pump have enough flow to support a big line kit to make sure enough fuel is getting to the pump?
 
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