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White smoke

JohnShead

JohnShead

Member
Messages
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40
Location
Kingsport, TN
I just recently replaced the hoses and a couple of barbs on my Walbro lift pump, I couldn't keep the hoses from leaking on the barbs that came with the pump. The old beast is still running great but now it billows white smoke. There are no codes. I have shut off each cylinder with my TechII and get the same RPM drop for each of them. Clear tubing on the IP return shows no bubbles in the line but when I connect it to the overall return there are lots of bubbles. I've been reading the forum for clues and leaning toward a spitting injector. These injectors are only 20K mile old remans from KD. Am I on the right track or could it be something else?
 
What's your fuel psi reading? Good clean filter?

Also are you sure it's not burning oil from the turbo?

Bubbles in the over all return are normal normal from what I remember.

source unknown
 
18 PSI fuel pressure. Both filters went on with the long block 20K miles ago, I suppose I could change them. I don't know if I'm burning oil from the turbo. I do think my boost pressure is lower than when I originally installed this turbo. I didn't log typical pressures when it was new so I can't say for sure. If my oil seals are failing in the turbo would that contribute to a loss of boost?
 
The fuel psi seems a bit on the high side. I have heard it could cause the timing to advance. I wonder if that would cause smoke.

source unknown
 
I used a crappy gauge with a 180PSI scale so it's probably not accurate. When I first installed the Walbro I think it was running at around 10PSI. The gauge I used then sprang a leak so I tossed it. This is one I had lying around.
 
Does the white smoke smell like diesel or coolant?

Shut of power to lift pump and let ip pull through it. A long time running like that wears out the ip quicker, but 30 minutes of it won't hurt anything, its = to about 2 hours of regular use. That will tell you if that is the cause. I don't think it would be.
 
Smoke is not coolant, there is oil all over the back of my truck. It never clears up and actually gets worse after warming up. I will try lift pump test and smell the smoke tomorrow before I put my old turbo back on. Thanks for the ideas.
 
The turbo that went bad was an ATeam Turbo. I was definitely losing boost it would only get up to about 5 PSI with WOT and drop to less than 1 PSI at cruise 65 MPH. That happened gradually and I hardly noticed it but then it started shooting oil into the exhaust, I couldn't miss that. It doesn't seem to have been going through the engine, the compressor side looks normal, so I wasn't burning the oil just spraying it all over the countryside. It made an oily mess all over the under side of my truck, when I saw it dripping off the exhaust and running down from the manifold connection I was pretty sure that was it. Thanks tanman for the turbo suggestion, I wasn't even thinking about that, I just thought it was something with the fuel delivery since I had just messed around with my lift pump. Just a coincidence. I put my 180K mile old stock turbo back on and immediately noticed the performance difference boost gives you.
 
I didn't hear any noise from it and it did spin since I did get boost, although not enough, so I assume the bearing is OK. Maybe just the seal but would that explain the loss of boost? I didn't inspect it too thoroughly, I just bagged it up and put it in my old parts box. I'm not sure if I want to get it repaired or not, I'm getting 14 PSI boost at WOT and 3 to 5 PSI cruising the highway with my old one and it seems to spin up quicker too. My EGT is quite a bit lower too, I hit the yellow arc 900° the other day climbing a hill with just the truck (failing ATT though). Yesterday with the stock turbo while towing my wife's Saturn uphill EGT never went above 600° well inside the green arc.
 
New motor because the cracks in the old one finally reached the water jacket. I knew it was going to go soon as it started steaming out the exhaust. I put some block sealer in to try and prolong the inevitable and that worked for a couple of weeks. It blowed up real good while my daughter was driving it following me. We were climbing a hill, lots of those around here, and she didn't notice the temp going off the scale. I kept checking the mirror to be sure she was there and I saw the blow up happen, huge cloud of steam/smoke.
 
Please tell us you replaced the oil cooler with the blown engine! If not park it till you replace it: it's critical that it is replaced to keep debris out of a new engine. Also change the oil ASAP if you didn't with the failed turbo swap. The failed turbo bearings would continue to dump interesting things in the oil.

Coolant in the oil is the fastest way to ruin bearings there is. It's quicker to kill an engine than the Government issue Clunker Bomb used in the cash for clunkers program!

I bought a Suburban with a blown engine that had melted a piston then beat 4 holes in the cylinder with the loose rod. The resulting oil and coolant mix ruined all the bearings including wiping out the turbo and cat converter. They stopped the engine ASAP after it let loose, but, it was too late - turbo ate coolant while at full speed/boost and wiped it bearings quick. (Ate it also literal as the CDR puked this mix.) I even had to have the radiator boiled out from the engine oil that made it there. So if you are still running a cat, it's ruined from the coolant it ate and will quickly plug.

I would contact Leroy and have Dennis rebuild the ATT turbo. Absolutely the bearings are wiped out from the coolant. Hopefully the wheels didn't grind on the housing.
 
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