Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) white smoke

[Wyomingcowboy]

I sincerely thank all of you for all of the help BTW.

 

[blacksheepdiesel]

WyBoy,

From what you describe I would think the injectors should be bled by now. Pull the head. You will find an incomplete piston(s).

Godspeed,
Trent

 

[Wyomingcowboy]

Thanks Trent. That's what I was thinking..... and hoping to avoid :{

 

[blacksheepdiesel]

WyBoy,

I have a spare 2001 HO sitting in my garage...

Godspeed,
Trent

 

[Wyomingcowboy]

is it for sale?

 

[blacksheepdiesel]

Could be. It spun a main bearing so it needs work. Has not been torn down yet.

Godspeed,
Trent

 

[Wyomingcowboy]

Well I think I have a compression tester borrowed. I'll keep ya posted. I also noticed as I pulled out the injectors again (a much faster job the 2nd time through) that the #3 nozzle is sparkling clean! That's the same cylinder I had troubles with before that had the spilt injector tip. I'm geussin I had some damage in there... probably from truckin down the hwy like an idiot!

 

[Wyomingcowboy]

Here we go again..... somebody just told me (again) that it is not uncommon for a bad injector to punch a hole in a piston. Especially if my injector was cracked right over the tip and was essentially spraying extreme high pressure fuel in a single stream right at the piston head.

That would make alot of sense and would definitly explain my troubles.

Anyone else hear of this?



Also, if it simply is a single piston repair at the #3, shouldn't I be able to fix it fairly easily without pulling the motor?

 

[blacksheepdiesel]

Yep, can easily burn a hole in piston.

Depends on whether you find scarring on cylinders walls and how bad it is.

Godspeed,
Trent

 

[AllianceDiesel]

i would suspect you washed down a cylinder before you burned a hole in the piston

 

[Wyomingcowboy]

Not sure what "washed down a cylinder" means.

Also not clear on what "spun a bearing" means.

 

[AllianceDiesel]

let me find a picture and I will post the site

 

[AllianceDiesel]

The first two pics are from when a common rail motor gets idled too much it causes carbon to build up in the cylinder that eventually gets into the injector and stick the injector open causing the fuel to actually wash all the oil off the cylinder walls. This then causes the piston and rings to wear into the wall, you will notice the piston is melted on the top (compare it to a good one in picture 4) the 3rd picture is off my buddies 06 that I was telling you about earlier in the post, I do belive this is the start of a cylinder getting washed down, it had the same symptoms as yours.



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[Wyomingcowboy]

Thats pretty gross.

I know idling for long periods is bad but why do we not see this problem more? I know LOTS of people that idle their engines for extended periods of time. Just wondering why this isn't a much more common issue.



It's the lack of heat that causes the problems to begin with, right? How about idling with an engine brake on and egt's around 350-400?

 

[AllianceDiesel]

its hard on a common rail because the engine is so efficient at cooling that it cools the cylinder walls down really fast, when you idle you aren't building up enough heat in the cylinder and that causes the fuel not to completly burn (diesel needs lots of heat to burn). On the pre-common rail trucks you can idle them all day and night long and it won't hurt a thing. But I don't know why you would want to do that with diesel being so high right now.



Also they build these engines to be able to stand the short trips of city driving, this is a chart that chrysler put out for the common rail trucks, they had some questions about people asking if they are not suppose to idle their trucks what are they suppose to do when cooling the turbo



TURBOCHARGER “COOL DOWN” CHART Driving Condition Load Turbocharger Temperature Idle Time (in minutes) Before Shut Down

Stop & Go Empty Cool Less than 1

Stop & Go Medium Warm 1

Highway Speeds Medium Warm 2

City Traffic Max. GCWR Warm 3

Highway Speeds Max. GCWR Warm 4

Uphill Grade Max. GCWR Hot 5

 

[Wyomingcowboy]

Well I don't have a common rail so I guess I'll just have to blame it on the broken injector tip.