White smoke when warms up

DZL JIM · Oct 13, 2014

This one has me a bit stumped.
When cold it fires up perfect, no smoke, runs great. After a few miles and you take off from a stop light it will nearly block out the road with white smoke. Only smokes when the turbo lags (6spd) and once spooled up there's very little and cruising there's none that I can see.
Seems like injector issue due to the strong fuel smell. However if you let it sit and idle it will smoke for a few minutes and clear up. Typical injector issues I have seen puke tons of white smoke.
Truck has been deleted, studded, etc, no tune. We put a good used motor in the truck that ran perfect before, I am confident it is not motor issue, however HPOP and injectors came out of this truck which was non-running when we got it.
Down pipe is wet with fuel.

Any thoughts?

Mdub707 · Oct 14, 2014

Sounds like an injector to me. Mine did this same thing. On top of that, it wouldn't white smoke at all if I put a tune on. When I went back to stock tuning it would white cloud the road when I hammered on it, but not at idle either. Mine was definitely an injector. It died not long after that and literally just stopped working all together. Drove it to Ford with 7 injectors running.

DZL JIM · Oct 14, 2014

That's what I am thinking, can't really pinpoint which one without it smoking at idle. Power balance shows perfect idle with adaptive learning turned off. Cut each cylinder and smoke is consistent.
I'll have to figure something out.

Thanks.

Bustedknuckles · Oct 14, 2014

Its common on duramaxes when you have a nozzle going bad so it keeps dribbling fuel at all times.

DZL JIM · Oct 16, 2014

We just cannot pinpoint an injector.
Pulled exhaust manifolds off and ran it and everything stayed perfectly dry. For the amount of smoke it will push I was sure there would be a soaked cylinder somewhere. Nothing but nasty fumes and exhaust smell.

Hate to throw $1500 injectors at it if I can't identify the actual issue and it's something else.

Any other tips?

POWER-STRUCK · Oct 16, 2014

Have you checked the downpipe for residue? I've seen a few with coked turbos and they have similar symptoms due to a very small amount of oil passing

ghohouston · Oct 16, 2014

POWER-STRUCK said:
Have you checked the downpipe for residue? I've seen a few with coked turbos and they have similar symptoms due to a very small amount of oil passing

If that was the case, the owner would have probably ran the truck out of oil. Jim, i'd bet money on an injector being the culprit. As long as there is NO coolant loss, and smoke smells of diesel.

mandkole · Oct 16, 2014

it would seem that with one bad injector, you'd hear it and its not likely that all 8 are equally bad. No ICP? HPOP keeps up at idle but not with demand and low engine rpm?

ghohouston · Oct 16, 2014

mandkole said:
it would seem that with one bad injector, you'd hear it and its not likely that all 8 are equally bad. No ICP? HPOP keeps up at idle but not with demand and low engine rpm?

Ive dealt with several 6.0's that would pass a power balance every time, no codes, yet, time and time again, everything looked good on a scanner/ids, but you go drive them, and they would roll coal. Bone stock trucks, rolling coal. At that point, we pull all 8, and get them tested.

DZL JIM · Oct 17, 2014

POWER-STRUCK said:
Have you checked the downpipe for residue? I've seen a few with coked turbos and they have similar symptoms due to a very small amount of oil passing

Yeah, down pipe is soaked. We unhooked the exhaust from the dp and now the outside of the exhaust is coated in diesel.

Since the dp was that wet I was expecting to find a manifold, upipe, cylinder port, SOMETHING to be soaked as well. It's so heavy it leaks from the dp connection at the turbo, runs down the block and leaves drips on the floor. Yet everything pre-turbo is dry.
It's definitely fuel and the turbo came off our shop van 6 months ago so I know it's not a bad turbo.

You guys think it's a strong leak while running/driving, but burns off the manifold and up-pipes quickly enough not to show by the time we get it apart?

I am toying with making a break-out box for the injectors and shut them off one at a time and see if smoke clears. But if it's in the nozzle and affected by cylinder pressure then that won't help either.

Might be worth having the injectors tested vs just replacing them all. It's my truck that will be for sale soon and I need to keep cost down to try and make a profit. The truck simply runs perfectly, except for the smoke!

ghohouston · Oct 17, 2014

I'd send them to be tested jim

DZL JIM · Oct 28, 2014

This truck is driving me nuts.
We manually unplugged each injector one at a time and drove it.
Still smoked every time.
Replaced all injectors with fresh AP.
Still smoked.
Reflashed ECM.
Still smoked.
I can manually drop the VGT duty cycle with the IDS down to around 49% and it runs and drives perfectly, no smoke whatsoever, 20 psi boost, it's a pleasure to drive. But if I let the VGT climb at all, it smokes like crazy.
Driving it around if you keep your foot in it the vgt dc stays low and no smoke. But if you keep your foot out of it and use just enough fuel to keep moving, the vgt stays high and will produce a constant cloud behind the truck.

I installed a SCT thinking tuning would change it.
Still smokes.

I am at a loss for what to try next.

Any and all thoughts appreciated.

ghohouston · Oct 28, 2014

Checked the ebp sensor and tube?

DZL JIM · Oct 28, 2014

EBP Sensor reads fine, and IDS turbo test passes fine.
Truck smoked with bad engine, did some thing before.
We are starting to think of some of the carry-over parts like computer, FICM, MAP, some sensors, etc.

ghohouston · Oct 28, 2014

Definitely a head scratcher. I have heard of bad ficms making trucks black smoke before, not sure about white, but if it can cause one, I'd bet it can cause the other...

DZL JIM · Oct 29, 2014

Changed FICM, MAP, and EBP sensors...No change.

I am at a total loss....:fustrate:

04cr450 · Oct 29, 2014

since you have gone this far, change the turbo and see what happens... if it was an injector leaking that much fuel, you would have seen unburnt fuel in the manifolds etc etc.... being that all the piping etc before the turbo was dry... then post turbo was wet, id look at the turbo