Is it cavitation?

[fatrhino]

I have a 93 7.3 IDI with 159K miles on it. Oil in the coolant when I bought it, said to be oil cooler o-rings. So I replaced them, and get it started, but it smokes a lot (white smoke). I am worried that it may be cavitation. It smokes at idle, and the smoke increases with the RPMs. It is really hard to start too. There is still oil in the coolant system from the oil cooler, so I can't tell if any is still getting in. There doesn't appear to be any coolant/water in the oil though. I cracked each injector one at a time to see if maybe an injector was causing the smoke, but it never totally went away. Does it sound like cavitation or is there not enough evidence to make a decision?

[chuckster57]

Here is an article about cavitation. In simple terms it is the wearing away of the cylinder walls from the coolant side, not the piston side. At some point, enough is worn away to allow coolant to "flow" into the combustion chamber:
Cavitation,_SCAs_and_the_Proper_Maintenance_of Diesel_Engine_Cooling_Systems

How does the "smoke" smell? and what color is it? You need to rule out head gasket failure before you assume the worst.

[fatrhino]

It is white smoke, but there is only water and soap in the cooling system right now, so theres no coolant in there to smell if its burning or not.

[fatrhino]

Could a stuck thermostat be the cause of the smoke? I forgot to mention that the temp guage never gets up to normal when it is running.

[Snotzalot]

No on the thermostat.

Hard start how? Slow crank, slow fire what?