white smoke from exhaust, need info

[diegojimc]

2005 6.0l 350 to date has 5700 mile. started small puffs of white smoke at 100 mile no big deal, at 5000 miles got seriously bad, pouring out white smoke, at 5300 miles brought to dealer for oil change - per ford tried fords pm17a additive & drove truck on freeway it now has 5700 miles.
What causes constiant white smoking [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smokin.gif[/img]

[forrest11479]

a Bad injector can cause a conistant white smoke

[moabtj]

Head Gaskets!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wecolme to the club,mine made it to 28,000 miles

[ralphinnj]

[ QUOTE ]
a Bad injector can cause a conistant white smoke

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't you need water to make white smoke? I thought (as in my case), that a bad injector basically allows (often) too much fuel to flow...that is, it no longer controls the flow and just dumps....result is too much fuel, which is black smoke, not white. However, maybe there is another mechanism that admits water via the injectors? I don't know, please explain.

Ralph

[teamroper60]

Ralph,

Black smoke is incomplete combustion of the fuel... IOW, the fuel was burned, but not thoroughly.

White smoke can be unburnt fuel...... IOW, the fuel was not burnt at all.... Usually, this happens because the cylinders are not warm enough for combustion to take place, such as a cold start and especially with bad glow plug(s). I know that the white smoke you get at start up with unburnt fuel will be smell like raw diesel and will burn your eyes...... But on an engine that has been running long enough for it to heat up to normal operating temp, there has to be another reason. Excessive white smoke could be an indication of bad or loose injectors, low compression from worn rings or bent connecting rods.....

I am thinking (but could be completely off base here) that the white smoke associated with coolant/water in the cylinders is in reality, thick steam........

[ralphinnj]

Thats what I mean...white smoke is steam. I have not heard of incomplete combustion making white smoke, but I could be wrong. In theory, it could be IF the fuel is vaporized and NONE of it is burnt. Then you would get diesel vapors, which could appear white. But I have not experienced that. Does that really happen?

When my injectors went, it was dark greay and black. Not white at all.

Ralph

[teamroper60]

[ QUOTE ]
Thats what I mean...white smoke is steam. I have not heard of incomplete combustion making white smoke, but I could be wrong. In theory, it could be IF the fuel is vaporized and NONE of it is burnt. Then you would get diesel vapors, which could appear white. But I have not experienced that. Does that really happen?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ralph,

Not incomplete combustion, but no combustion..... I'm not clear on how a fully warmed engine could not at least partly burn the fuel, but in a cold engine, it's pretty easy to figure out, since the combustion chamber has to be at a certain temp for the compression to ignite the fuel..

Yes, it does happen.... I was in JimTJr's garage with him when his glowplugs weren't working and his truck let out a HUGE puff of white smoke... It filled the garage and smelled distinctly of raw diesel... It made my eyes and lungs burn so bad I had to step outside for a while....

[ralphinnj]

Ok, I guss I learned something......makes the puzzle even more complicated!

[diegojimc]

F-350 Black on Black 4x4 FX4 factory 18" wheels, dual batteries and altenators, towhaul, outrigger switchs & power brake kits TV for the back seat kids.Remote start with all the extras GPS XM radio, 6cd player & sunroof. with bullet grill, 2sets - 480 watts of spot and wide angle roof mounted lighting Yakama rack over cab mounted on a trac rack system with custom side rails tool box, 2 modified cargo diviers, a 12volt power box, alum-bullit adjustable hitch & Hog exhaust 4inch straingh through. I should have gotten 20' wheels, only thing it needs is a 2 inch lift for clearance, and to get fixed.
In the garage waiting is an inverter, Edge- juice with attitude and afe stage two. Maybe someday I might get to enjoy the Edge and afe products. Since I depend on this truck to take my family of 5 and one wolf into the middle of NO where for 10 days with out resuppling dependibility is formost and of the upmost importance.
My wife named it my Bubba-Mobile. it's sweet- its nice it SMOKES
Again thanks all I will keep you posted.

[jblair]

I just turned 70,000 miles last week, 2 hours after driving it like i stole it which i tipicly do everyonce n a wile. white smoke started pooring out the exhaust horribly. so today i took it 2 the local shop were i get my oil changed, its not a ford dealer but one of the workers there is an ex. ford service diesel tech. wile everyone else also seemed to no what they were doing so i'v trusted them. we instintly found that there was little coolant, long story short after about an hour of searching for the problem the tech came to the conclusion that the coolant was some how getting let into the turbo on the exhaust side and turning to white smoke from the heat of the exhaust. has anyone heard of this happening?

[teamroper60]

I doubt coolant is getting into the turbo.... More likely you have blown a headgasket...

Just out of curiousity, was the engine warm when you started hammering on it?? If not, I can almost guarantee you that you've popped a gasket....

[jblair]

i dont think ited be a blown headgasket because we hooked up a pressure gauge to the coolant cap, after 30 min the pressure stayed the same and with a blown head gasket from what i understand should have lost pressure. then we left the pressure gauge on and reved the motor, and instead of building pressure like it should it would dip into the negitives. plus w/ a blown head gasket shouldnt there be a slight knocking coming from the motor from a loss of pressure in one of the cylindars? and the smoke is inconsistant, it only blows smoke about half the time.

and no i never hammer it when the motors cold

thanks,
justin

[ralphinnj]

[ QUOTE ]
i dont think ited be a blown headgasket because we hooked up a pressure gauge to the coolant cap, after 30 min the pressure stayed the same and with a blown head gasket from what i understand should have lost pressure. then we left the pressure gauge on and reved the motor, and instead of building pressure like it should it would dip into the negitives. plus w/ a blown head gasket shouldnt there be a slight knocking coming from the motor from a loss of pressure in one of the cylindars? and the smoke is inconsistant, it only blows smoke about half the time.

and no i never hammer it when the motors cold

thanks,
justin

[/ QUOTE ]

That may not be true. The coolant system pressure, when the truck is fully warmed up, is driven primarily by vapor pressure. You should see, if you start monitoring it from initial start up, a slow rise to some steady value. If you have a blown head gasket, it may have no effect on coolant system pressure until you really put a load on it. Without a load, even blown head gaskets may seem fine (not enough cylinder pressure being generated to cause a material leak).

It is also interesting to note that head gasket failure can pressurize OR evacuate the cooling system depending on the nature of the gasket failure and location. When a piston is pulling vacuum (like when it is getting a new charge of air), it may be able to "suck" some coolant in through a breach in the gasket. Again, if the breach is proximally in the right place, etc. On the other hand, when the cylinder reaches peak pressure (CPmax), it may be the case that the cylinder pressure is sufficient to push into the coolant system (causing puking eventually).

So, there is a continuum of outcomes from sucking coolant into the cylinders and combusting it (white exhaust smoke) to pressurizing the coolant system and puking out the overfill cap. Measuring coolant reservoir pressure while not under load is essentially useless in my opinion.

Ralph

[charles5088]

mine did the same thing. they replaced the egr cooler and everything is just fine now.